One of my favourite painters is Andrew Wyeth but instead of focusing on his body of work I wanted to talk about his paint of choice egg tempera which I have recently been experimenting with. Egg tempera is a very old form of paint that went out of fashion when oil paints were invented, they have a muted earthy colour to them unlike the artificial sheen of certain acrylics and they dry extremely fast unlike oils. I thought this would work well with my painting style and I was somewhat correct, the quick drying paints made it easy to create multiple thin layers however unlike acrylics even the dry paint is very vulnerable to water and I found myself destroying previous layers with over coats that were thinned with water so I had to adapt my painting style accordingly.
Tempera paints also clash with acrylics when used together since even non glossy acrylics have a shiny plastic effect when compared to egg tempera. This means I cant use acrylic undercoating's or backgrounds which is a problem since Tempera is very expensive and I don't want to use lots of it. my solution to this problem was using an oil base coat and background since they have a similar consistency, I then paint on to the oil when it is relatively dry.
I have had to adapt my painting style to accommodate the difficulties of egg tempera but the finished results and the subtle differences from the two other commonly used paints make it a very compelling medium to continue to master.

Although a lot of my artist research is based on long dead painters there are many contemporary artists that I really admire. One such artist is John Kleckner. I rote an essay on Kleckner's untitled painting of Hercules but I wanted to take this opportunity to address the large body of work that he has created in a similar style. Kleckner uses two different methods of working and two contrasting mark making materials in a single painting to emphasise a disparity or a clashing of ideas. This can be seen in the painting to the right in which the highly detailed but monotoned man is surrounded by explosive and free flowing inks. To me this contrast represents the disconnection between humans and there natural roots. Im the painting the man is naked and seems to be attempting to reconnect with the natural world but is unable to do so.  This theme is seen in much of Kleckner's work and while I don't want to use the exact same idea I want to echo the question of humans and our place in the world that is not constructed by us, since this is a topic that is often on my mind as a nature lover that is often glued to his computer.

After my last post I started to think more about the public perception of the mythical creatures known as Cyclops. being interested in ancient history and mythology I realised that the common view of these creatures as dim witted monsters is almost entirely based on Homer's Polyphemus. in true Greek mythology the Cyclops was seen in a very different light that has roots in bronze age history. It is believed that during the late bronze age and the Mycenaean empire the highly skilled black smiths would be distinguished from common men by painting a small circular shape on to there forehead. After the fall of the Mycenaeans and the start of the Greek dark age working bronze became a forgotten art after the prevalence of iron. stories traveled of these ancient marked men that could work metal like no modern man and so the myth was born. In the work of Hesiod the Cyclops are the ones that create the armer and weaponry of the Olympians during there war with the Titans. This view of Cyclops being intelligent creators and artisans has been lost somewhat in popular culture and I think it would be very interesting to explore in my work, rather than completely recreating the idea of the Cyclops like Redom maybe it would be useful to reintroduce people to there original depiction as seen through my eyes.

In Odilon Redon's painting "Cyclops" a man (most likely Homer's Odysseus) is hiding to escape the wondering cyclops (probably representing Polyphemus). While the technical aspects of the painting such as the murky colour pallet mixed with vibrant splashes of red, yellow and green interest me what really grabs my attention is the way that Polyphemus has been painted. Homer portrays the Cyclops as being a harsh, barbaric creatures that feast on the flesh of men, they were obviously meant to scare his audience. This barbaric humanoid figure has been depicted in many paintings and drawings over the years in much the same way which makes Redon's reinterpretation of the character very interesting. Instead of a humanoid figure Redon has painted a sickly yellow figure with a circular noseless head that stares at the viewer. Instead of an appearance of anger or malice the cyclops seams serene and calm which makes the blood covered smiling mouth much more disturbing. This reinterpretation of a well known creature creates a shocking painting that can freely display the views and styles of the painter much more freely than a painting that is restricted by traditional ideas. Using a well known story such as this and  using it to express my own unique interpretation would be a very interesting concept to try in my work.