Barbara Banthien's Creative Process

I paint almost every day, and I paint very slowly. Because of the detailed and time-consuming nature of the way I work, I complete only about four paintings per year. This slow process gives me time to get deeply involved with each piece I paint, and I like that.

For most of my painting career, I have painted in Gouache. This is opaque watercolor -- more suited to tight brushwork and to creating dense areas of solid color than the washes of traditional watercolor.

Recently, I have begun working with acrylics, and like the looseness that this medium offers, especially when laying down large areas of color. In the details, I can work with it in exactly the same manner as the Gouache. The finished piece needs no glass in its framing, an added advantage.

To begin a painting, I start with a medium sized brush. For me this is a brush about 1/8" wide. I begin by almost scribbling in the color, working over the entire painting to block in the composition. I then switch to smaller brushes, cross-hatching in denser shades and smoothing out the gradations of hue until I achieve the saturation and tone that I am looking for.

Most of my painting is done with small strokes, slowly building up the intensity of the color. I keep the paint very thin, so that the color is created from many, many translucent layers of paint. This makes the surface almost smooth. I use tiny brushes, to finish refining the most detailed areas.

I like to work on the eyes and face of what ever animal or bird I am painting first, because this is the soul of the piece. If I can get a feeling of presence and aliveness in the face, then I know that the painting will have life as well. When I sense that this quality is starting to develop, then I can go on to work on the rest of the painting.