Painting on Location

Lahaina Church, 10:00 Mass
Holy Innocent's

#354, 15x22 acrylic on poly cloth covered birch panel
acrylic palette

My 6x4x3/4" palette has a moist towel cloth glued in the sealing lid, spraying this and the paint once per day was enough to keep this paint moist for the full week of painting. I can hold the palette in my left hand, flick my wrist and it closes.

The acrylic paint is on a removable piece of thin plexie glass. I have two of these palettes, the second one is for sky's and water.

I pick up the color from inside and mix it on top. That's my jar white in the dispenser that I squeeze out on the palette's top.




These are the brushes used in this painting.

A squashed round sable #8 water color brush that was worn out is my favorite all around brush, my home made filbert.

The other 2 styles were the very long hair, pointed tip and round ferrule and the round ferrule 5/8" long sable with a flat end, a professional lettering brush.

This is what the church and my setup looks like. Painting in the shade is very important to me, hence the black umbrella. That's my van in the background.  I usually paint from inside it with the steering wheel as my easel.


First acrylic gesso was brushed on with a USA sponge brush to prepare the cloth covered panel support. See making panels.

The drawing was done in pencil and lightly washed off, looser work can be draw in with chalk and brushed off.

I accented the edges of the pattern lines by painting in a layer of white, now no matter how thin and transparent my next color is, it's on a good base of reflective white paint.

This outlining step was done back in the studio after hours. The drawing itself took 4 hours.


The sky is 3 separate mixtures of Cyan, Purple and White.

Cyan and Purple will make a transparent Ultramarine Blue.

The dark part in the sky is for behind an open area in the 
trees where branches will show against the sky.

This is two hours into the second day.





This is the end of the third day, my
absolute painting between 10:00 and 11:30.
Those are the colors I want to capture.


The next day I had this much finished.




Another day another dollar.




Day six and I really feel like I am moving along, I wish I had got to the 100% coverage sooner.



I did a lot of color adjusting with glazes on this sixth day.
See the inside of the church and lightning of the sign


After the 100% coverage I could draw with a chalk on the paint. A brush with 1/2" long hair in a round ferrule and with a flat end was used for the lettering.  Numbers 2 and 3.


Day 7 and I'm almost done, after an hour of tennis across the street I finished up.

Here it is, seven days after starting, Holy Innocents's Church in Lahaina.

10:00 Mass


NEXT PAINTING, Lindbergh's Church
PREVIOUS PAINTING step-by-step, Lahaina Cane House


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