New painting using matte oil paint technique

astir, Marie Kazalia, January 2015, oil paint, fluorescent acrylic on Coventry Rag fine art paper, 23 x 30 inches

In my latest painting, titled astir, I employed a chromatic black matte oil paint on a ground of a painted pattern of fluorescent green and fluorescent red acrylic paint. (Fluorescent paint is difficult to photograph and appears different in the photo than it does to the eye).

A couple of years ago, I watched the MoMA video (below) on how to make oil paint matte.  The technique remained in my thoughts. Then I watched the video again very recently and tried the technique.

(Usually, when I’m bothered by the shiny gloss of oil paint on my paintings I simply spray them with a matte varnish when they are dry enough.)

But this time I  made matte oil paint in my studio–first, I added oil paint (a mix of ultramarine + raw umber = chromatic black) to a jar along with a lot of turpentine, put the lid on and shook it up.  Then I allowed the jar to rest overnight so the paint would settle. The next day I poured off the turpentine floating on top and then worked with the oil paint sentiment that remained.

This matte oil paint method is a signature technique of Abstract Expressionist painter Ad Reinhardt, as demonstrated in the five-minute MoMA video AB EX NY: The Painting Techniques of Ad Reinhardt: Abstract Painting, posted below for you to watch if you are interested in this technique for removing the gloss from oil paint.