Studies of my right hand - two of them look reversed because they were drawn from a mirror.
Handmade pigments from the Maine landscape sourced from earth, stone, and bone.
This old farmhouse was repossessed by the bank years ago, and as it has sat there, nature also laid its claim and is slowly repossessing the structure.
“Repossessed” - egg tempera - 30 x 48 in - Nathan Allard
I turned a watercolor painting of mine into a gif
“Cattails” -watercolor - 22 x 15 in - Nathan Allard
Pencil study and egg tempera painting of my friend Charity. She is sitting on the porch of a log cabin that was built by a distant family member in 1901.
Charity - egg tempera - Nathan Allard - 32 x 24 in
Whaleback Light painted on the full moon at low tide on the southern most point of Maine.
“Whaleback Light” - watercolor - 10 x 20 - Nathan Allard
From the original pencil sketch done on the full moon of July, to a watercolor, to the finished egg tempera painting. Egg tempera is a medium that was used in the renaissance mostly for religious paintings and iconography. Notable moderns artist that used this medium include, Robert Vickery, Peter Hurd, and Andrew Wyeth. “Mead Moon” - egg tempera - 23 ¼ x 32 in - Nathan Allard
That’s amazing! Where did you learn to make your own pigments? Or did you just teach yourself??🎨
I read books about the Renaissance when it was common practice for the artists to make their own pigments and paint, and then experimented on my own from there.
From a concept drawing, to a watercolor study, to the finished egg tempera painting. This finished painting was done with all handmade brushes and pigments - minus the synthetic ultramarine blue. “Makeshift” - egg tempera - 20 x 26 in - Nathan Allard
From first sketch, to a watercolor, to a finished egg tempera painting. In egg tempera dry pigments are mixed with egg yolk to make a thin paint akin to watercolor, and then layers are slowly built up to form the image. Two close friends got married under this tree and I did this painting to commemorate their wedding. The black and dark browns are painted with a pigment I made out a piece of the tree by turning it into charcoal, and then grinding it to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle. “Wedding Tree” - egg tempera - 36 x 48 inches - Nathan Allard
Handmade paintbrushes made from feather quills, bear, groundhog, and red squirrel fur, deer sinew and beeswax. Nature is full of natural materials that have been used by our ancestors for generations. In the quest for modernity, we have lost our heritage as humans.