"The Hands" by Alex Castro

Note: You are about to read an article written by Our Good Friend Alex Castro. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us as we’re sure he’ll appreciate any comments on his endeavors. You’ll find pictures relating to the article at 360.yahoo.com/pauladam


These hands were inspired by a photo I saw in National Geographic article on the Afghanistan culture. The jewelry and ornaments worned by Afghanistan women fascinated me. This oil painting was created some 30 years ago when I was a young artist studying the great masters and trying to fine myself in the arts as well as trying to evolve my own unique style of painting!

I was drawn to the Grisaille approach to painting, used extensively by the great masters because I was comfortable establishing my black & white and gray tone values on paper with conte and charcoal. This technique allowed me to transfer these skills to canvas and enabled me to work out all my light and shadow work before glazing on the color in a transparent glaze like medium. When working in gray tones, it was uncanny to see how lifeless hands, came to life once the color was applied. It was almost like giving them a transfusion causing them to spring to life!

Often times it's by making artistic mistakes that we grow creatively. This was the case with this painting. I did not realize that in many ways the process of painting is similar to constructing a house, building with the heavier materials at the lower levels. Violating this principle simply collapses the house. In a painting it just cracks! I also did not take into consideration the contraction and expansion factor of my medium. As a result, the work was stopped and lessons learned some 30 years ago..!!

This Grisaille technique is not for everyone. It is quite complicated. For example the ground on the canvas has to be made none absorbent with rabbit skin glue and litharge that has to be handled with care!

The oil used has to be washed in advance to purify and separate it. This process could take weeks. The making of the esoteric black oil, must be done with care. Some of the mediums used have bees wax mixed in and other ingredients, which is another separate process that gives the brush, stroke an impasto effect. Most of the mediums in this technique have to be made from scratch. All of this before you can paint one brush stroke..!! I have tried some of the shelf brand mediums but in my opinion have not yielded the same results.

In my opinion it's worth the trouble for several reasons. First, it places you on the ground level of this system of painting with total hands on involvement. This experience and knowledge goes beyond superficial painting on canvas. Secondly, the softness and optical depth of transparences is unparalleled in canvas work and has withstood the test of time! And very importantly, the results are simply magnificent, and as the masters discovered last for ever!

Note: The Hands oil on canvas , by Alex Castro work in progress , painted over 30 years ago and looks as fresh as is it were painted yesterday! I plan to teach these concepts and techniques employed by the great master in one of my up coming workshops in the near future!