I created this Painting using a technique know as Pittura di strati . As I start, the board is covered and then textured with thick gesso. Multiple layers of acrylic paint are applied, and on top of the acrylic, silk screened line work. Layers of translucent oil paint are slowly built up one layer at a time. Oil Paint has and the ability to create fine glazes, transparent but slow to dry. As each layer builds up, they create effects of light and texture not possible with other painting techniques. This glazing technique is very similar to that of the artists of the Italian Renaissance, giving the paint a luminous quality that is not possible any other way.

Being an intaglio printmaker and an oil painter for many years, I have been working on combining the two mediums for nearly 8 years. The Pittura di strati medium of silkscreen, oil and acrylic, is the only way to achieve the effect that I was looking for. I wanted to explore the age old tradition of silk-screen with the cutting edge techniques that are currently available, along with the drawing and imagery from my etchings. By layering translucent glazes of color in oil, I was able to get a look that I was searching for.

Andy Warhol used a similar but more crude technique in the 1960’s to create mixed media work that was also a multiple using Silkscreen. Today the end results can be much more refined than at that time. As I combine the painting mediums and the dozens of translucent layers of Oil paint the technique refines the work to a unique style of painting never done previously. Because of all the variables in the layering, glazing and varnishing, each painting in the series is unique and can vary in color, texture, etc. Similar to the bronze method of producing art, the end result is the original intention of the artist, and all the steps through the process, are the only way to get to the end finished piece.

I will only paint a few of each image and no more than 15 will be done.

Bob Coronato