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Recently, I have been studying the Italian, (modern), master, Antonio Mancini. He was a brilliant artist plagued by bouts of some dissociative disorder rumored to be onset because of his terrible habit of chewing on the brush-end of his paintbrush loaded with Cinnabar, a toxic mixture. Insanity aside, his moments of lucidity are quite brilliant, and one of these moments of raw genius, (Cinnabar-related or not), is found in his invention of the Graticola, or gridiron. It has remained a mystery for a century what on earth, and how on earth, he used the Graticola, but at least in his mind, [...]

This painting utilized the Renaissance Palette: Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Cerrulean Blue, and White. Though limited, the range of possibilities is greater than one might think. The Renaissance palette is often considered too dark, too earthy by many artists, but though it might lack brilliant colored hues, (such as the cadmiums), it is no less able to warmly represent the entire range of values, which is the foundation on which any strong painting is established. Here in this painting begins for me a more studied approach to my work. The idea of thumbnail sketches had eluded me for most of [...]