Plan and discover

Tackling a lunchtime still life, in-demand American tutor and artist FELICIA FORTE reveals how she manages to incorporate moments of discovery into an organised plan for a painting

- FELICIA FORTE

The lessons learned in painting are the same as those learned in living. With the knowledge and tools that you currently possess, you make a plan and move forward toward a goal. You must also be perceptive and flexible enough to alter or adjust your plan when you discover new information.

For this demonstration, I painted a pot of chicken noodle soup – I call the painting Sick Day. I wanted to show you how I balance strategic plans, based on my training and current level of skill, with intuition-based alterations of those plans, based on discoveries made while painting.

A note on materials: I use white spirit (or odorless mineral spirits, as we call it in the US) and linseed oil mixed together as a medium, but I started with just white spirit for the thin passes in the first three stages of this demonstration.

Felicia’s materials

•Paints

Ivory Black, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue, Cobalt Blue, Phthalo Turquoise, Brilliant Pink, Transparent Oxide Red, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Orange, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow, Bright Yellow Lake and Titanium White, various artists oil colours

•Brushes

Princeton Ashley 5200F flat hog bristle brushes, sizes 1-6; Rosemary & Co. Series 7320 pure sable one-stroke flat brushes, sizes 1/8 and 1/4”; Rosemary & Co. Series 81 pure sable domed filbert brushes, sizes 2 and 4

•Cradle birch wood panel, 30x30cm

•POSH Wood Grey Table Top Palette

•White spirit

•Linseed oil