I have always wanted to write a poem about oil painting. It's one of my favorite things to do. It is a colorful metaphor that I sometimes see in poems but never with knowledge of the art. So I decided to use oil painting terms that some of you might not be familiar with. I'll explain.

Before you even start to paint... you usually prime the canvas... this is a procedure where Gesso is mixed with a gloss and brushed over the fabric... some artist also sand the the surface after it dries making it even smoother.

In oil painting there is one rule that you always learn'¦ 'Fat over lean.' Some colors are considered lean like Prussian blue'¦ a 'watery' color that because of a high turpentine consistency dries faster. Other colors are considered fat like Cadmium reds or yellows, which have a high oil consistency and take much longer to dry. If you try to paint lean pigment over fat, without allowing ample time to dry, the top 'lean' layer will dry first shrinking and causing cracking. Usually, you don't want that... so you always try and paint fat over lean. so that every succeeding layer is little more fat.. containing a bit more oil.

Oils, like linseed, are used to enrich or fatten colors while turpentine is used to thin them. A mixture of linseed oil and color is sometime used to paint 'impasto''¦ a technique where lavish brush strokes are painted thick almost in relief. These take a long time to dry'¦ sometimes weeks. Even afterwards, the strokes retain a wet look to them.

Chroma is the purity of color without solvents or bonding agents.

Ok'¦ that was my long addendum'¦ I hope you enjoy the poem.


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vitreous easel
supports a
fabric surface
glazed in gloss
gesso finish
rendered smooth
by the rough
of your absence

brushes of
Prussian blue
trace with
turpentine
wash over
vacant weave
rinsing a round
iris pair

vacuous stare
cultivates vivid
chroma deluge
encapsulates
your eyes
in luscious
Sap green
highlights

Cadmium red
crushed in
linseed oil
strokes fat
over lean
impasto lips
still wet
with countless
kisses lost

plush pigment
laps silk
supple locks
braids an
interlace
of your hair
in Hansa yellow
-orange and
strawberry
strands

-streaming-

until thinner
dilutes
the very edge
of recollection
unravels
vibrant hues
in dim haze
desertion

then these
translucent strokes
might cast
forgotten glimpses
reconstructed on
chimerical canvas
as reclusive
colors frame
memoirs of you
in abstract

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