Profilemodul Journal of Lars Baggenstos at the ZHdK
The Last two days I worked parallel on three pain
Cut chewing and grazing,
curious and alert,
and then spooked.
Sometimes I wasn’t sure about the lighting, to fix this problem a clay model worked quite well.
In between sketched some little versions on parchement paper.
Brushes
Until now I only bought expensive brushes for watercolour and ink. For aqrylic and oil I always got the cheapest or still used the old brushes from my grandfather (they were at least 20 years old and understandingly pretty worn out). When I showed my first paintings to my teachers at the art school……they insisted that I get some new and descent brushes. I got some pighair brushes and some artificial bristels called brislon….and I became a big fan of the brislon ones. They have a nice flex and stiffness, they had a way bigger impact on my painting than I imagined brushes could have.
Paint
I started the paintings all in acrylic, I usually paint with it. But after a while I got very annoyed with the change it under goes when it dries out. Always when I got home the colours where so dull that it changed the whole character of the painting.
So I got my self some oil paint, cobra watermixable oilpaint. It sounds like a paradox but it works very good and for the other people in the room it is very nice not to have the terpentine smell all over the place. I still sketch with acrylic the composition and the light situation roughly on the cardboard and then I use oil paint for the rest. When I want to correct something in the painting, I use more and more charcoal to sketch quickly the new parts onto the background.
Brislon bristles Brushes
Parallel to “alert group” I also work on this “grazing group”
and I just startet on a third “fleeing group”.
It’s not quite there yet but it’s getting closer…….
The following sketches I made to correct the positions of the existing ones
in the painting.
I was really unsatisfied with how this painting was developing, it just seemed way to crowded and the light on the bison was not right. First I completely changed the background, wide and open prairie. Next step was to change the light on the Bison……..after i’ve done that I was still not happy!
Well I guess, I have to make bigger changes.
after
before.
These clay buffalos I made to see how light and shadows works on them when I can’t have a live bison to look at.
At the moment I have two oil paintings I’m working on, I want to work
out the contarst of a calm grazing herd and a alarmed one.
I also changed the technique from acrylic to oil painting, I’m very
curious how that influences my work and the results.
Here I are photos to show what goes on behind the curtain.
The calf is about fifty kilos I wonder how heavy the big guy is.
After my paint froze the bison came really close to the fence…….
But when snow started to fall again they went back into the trees.
And even when the sun came out again they huddled close together in the trees just out of sight.
Only the hot breath of them was visible.
The next day I stayed put at my desk and painted and re-painted different bison scenes.
On friday the 7th december I packed all my painting utensils to go and paint a bison herd I heard of, which was located in the Jura mountains.
After a journey with bus, train, cablecar and final stretch with a car I arrived at the “Ferme des Bison”. The snow was knee deep and the farmer told me that more snow was coming….anyway I fetched my backpag and camping chair and headed towards the bison pasture.
Because of the wind the lighting situation changed quite quickly every few minutes.
During a windy and foggy section of the day the herd came to the feeding area and a young cow came pretty close to the fence.
I was fascinated by all the colours she had in the fur even with the flat light. There where shades of light ocker over black to white and blue.
The fur around the nostrils was coated thickly with snow and ice. The rest of the herd stayed in the fog and where just big scruffy locking shadows.
As soon as the wind picked up the sun came out and the herd moved into the cover of the trees. Then I realised that my paint was starting to freeze up
so I sketched as quickly as possible the landscape in sunlight it was particularly difficult to get the colour of the snow with the sunlight on right.
I was not even finished with painting when my acrylic was just clumps of ice, so wandered past surprised looking crosscountry skiers back to the car.
