Grisaille is a painting technique executed entirely in shades of grey or another neutral monochromatic color.

It has been a minute since I did a grisaille painting. Just for fun, I use the method now and then to do these, using them as an under-painting. After it dries, I use glazes of transparent colors, combined with a few opaque colors over the grisaille under painting. 

It is supposed to have glazing with only transparent colors, but you know me, always the experimenter. It is usually an oil painting technique, not as popular now as it was during the Renaissance, but a lot of fun. I have used oils for it, and I find that acrylics work very well too with glazing medium. The top is the finished painting in acrylics.

This country painter has a lot of fun in the studio. …

I spent a bit of time on Solski Trail while at Fair Oaks.It runs along the edge of Fish Prairie, that borders part of the farm. The trail was cut by my friend Sebastian Solski when he was a college boy, working at the farm years ago.

It is one of my favorite parts of the farm. Few visitors know of it. I love it so much, because it is true primal Florida. It looks a great deal like it would have to Audubon when he explored Florida. The prairie is undisturbed by humans.  In the winter there are numerous colors, from rich evergreen to pastel lavenders, grays, and the bronzes of tall sedges. Year round it is full of mysteries and hidyholes that animals have carved through the thickets and grasses. There is a magic subtle quality there. The place where one feels the secrets of unused, unabused land. 

This country painter loves Fair Oaks more than words can express….