It's a pretty concentrated bit of knowledge, but I don't think this is Rembrandt's actual technique. There are books that came out after Keating's death that go into Rembrandt's materials and technique that don't quite support what he's doing here.
You're very welcome. I'm so happy to be able to provide interesting and informative content for everybody to learn from. These videos have really informed me and my art a lot since discovering them.
100% bad ass, the man is so damn brave, watching him paint this piece I was biting my nails. its such a shame we don't have these type of programs on TV anymore, or the painters with such virtuoso.
To the person who said he sounds drunk, by the way - Keating had considerable breathing difficulties, not helped by a lifetime's exposure to white spirit and turpentine, and other powerful solvents used in restoring old pictures; he was a sick man by this stage in his life.
He was also a heavy smoker - unfiltered roll-ups. He mentions this in his autobiography, which is actually very well written, and often hilariously funny.
His breathing affliction was a direct result of his war service on the Baltic convoys during the second world war before he became a proffesional artist an restorer.
There are sometimes moments when he does something with marvellous results. In this one it's when he starts at 11.29 to do the background light.....and it lifts the figures off the canvas. He's very knowledgeable, and very talented.
'Wretchedly bad'? In what sense, it's technical demonstration or artistic merit? I think that Keating himself would have been the first to admit that he wasn't Rembrandt, and he does so if you listen. These paintings are done rather rapidly for demonstration of techniques prevalent at the time of the chosen painter, not to aggrandise any personal artistic claims.
I'm curious if he used dry red bole pigment and added that to the gesso as the beginning? Only just discovered this man, incredible how knowledgeable he was and surprised how many professionals aren't even aware of these techniques.
He admitted ( wrongly imho as we have certain qualities that varies on style and paint someone elses works, for many artists is difficult ) to himself he wasnt a partikulary good painter. No matter what he thought and what people do think of his works, they HAVE been sold and the sheer amount still existing is a proof that even skilled people dont always know without thorough examination. Some of the works are better, some are worse but this is totally different to john myatt who forged other types of paintings and he havent really gone in to depths such as this . John is probably a more skilled painter visually but Tom was a master of multi techniques wich can trick even if poorly painted ( wich i dont always think he did such as the ships and naval sceneries he have done). It is a shame he passed on so fast, this serie is brilliant and very unusual.
Great series and technically brilliantly. In a secretive profession where artists paint in private in their studios and keep their techniques hidden Tom Keating was a master painter. Art restorer with a deep knowledge of the masters and their techniques. Worth watching over and over and techniques are passed on each time.. Does anyone know where any original Tom Keating paintings are to be found.
I was looking at that, too. From what I was able to gather, when he says he is using tempera, he was just mulling a pure ground pigment (I suspect lead white in the above demo) with distilled water. Things like ground sand have been found in Rembrandts painting under analysis which he likely used as filler to stretch things
Think of a glaze varnish as a hardened window you can see through protecting what's below from what's above, the trick is to have the glaze varnish 'glass like' but still 'sticky' enough to adhere to the next layer above, and so on and so on. So timing in drying is extremely important and highly critical. There's another art within art and the art painted, step into it to your own delight or to your peril, as once trapped you will never be the same thereafter. Try spending a half hour or more painting changes to your own delight and believing these changes are being made, when you suddenly realize, you're so far back in your joyfulness of touch, that you haven't touched the canvas at all, in fact all you've been painting all this time, is thin air. It's an exhilarating transforming experience worth every second.
please , can you answer to me ,, when he stop paint with tempera and start use oil painting .. IS this green glazing oil o tempera , thank you , and please answer to me if you can , have nice day ...randyrocker
didnt tom use the term sexton blake when refered to his othere career he was an old rogue . but a splendid one could you get more videos i think we all would love to see more thankyou
it was a demo! listen carefully what he said he is just showing the method of Rembrandt and due to lack of time he is also said for the sake of demonstration he will sacrifice some detail just watch the step and method and material he use. it was 20 less minute demo so detail is not important doing this method took a less 9 month to finish a Rembrandt quality painting because of several layer!
I'm interested, as is another commenter below, in the tempera he uses - as pointed out, tempera needs to be bound with egg; he doesn't seem to do that; nor is tempera normally associated with impasto.... There's something I'm missing and not understanding here. So far as the quality of the painting is concerned, you can't judge it on the stage it has reached - there would be many more stages, glazes, scumbles in oil before the picture was presentable. But I am puzzled by his technique, and if anyone could shed light on it, would be grateful.
I am interested as well, one commenter below posted a pic of a painting he presumably made using Keating method. It is probably some kind of emulsion with oil which he mentioned that is diluted with water, I have read this on a comment from another video of Tom painting. There is a painter called Pietro Annigoni (if you type this in youtube you will see) that uses premixed "tempera" as an oil/egg/solvent emulsion and gets similar results - quick drying workable paint, only thing i dont understand is how Tom gets that beautiful creamy brushstrokes and texture, surface reminds a bit of Rembrandt actually, which is very nice.
Hi, tempera isn't normally used for impasto, however due to the fast drying times heavy layers will produce impasto. It may also be worth considering that there may be a binding agent in the ground pigment he mixes, as seen in his Turner video, this is obviously not so common, but we did have these things at art school.
Martin Lee hi, i understand, i have worked with tempera before, casein tempera, or casein paint i dont know how it is properly called because some people have different names for similar things, but it wasnt THE old school classic tempera it was more what would be called "poster paint" but a very good quality, the manufacturer was good, so that is why i was always wondering what is he using. the picture quality of the video can also be misleading a bit, because it is not perfectly clear so some tones and colors look more melded than they probably really are i guess. i have tried doing what someone below posted that Tom did : squeezing oil colors from tubes on to blotting paper and let it over night to dry a bit and for the paper to absorb oil, and then make egg tempera. i have tried this today with black and white, and then i mixed my egg, linseed oil/ tiny bit terpentine/milk emulsion and the results were similar to this indeed. it leaves a similiar brushmark, and it dries quicker, and can be diluted with water but something is still missing, i have just begun so i am not proficient enough, i will investigate more.
Interesting, I was taught years ago about leaving paints particularly oil to dry before using , however we used to mix our modern tempera with a ground body medium (made by our teacher) for impasto works but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. I completely agree that to guess what Tom is using here is possibly a futile exercise, especially when, as you made mention, the picture quality is not clear. I do remember reading an article in which Keating told of the particular paints he used at the time, if I can find it again I will share.
I think he uses paint made with half wihite egg tempera and half white oil paint mixed as Max Doerner thinks venetian painters used. This paint is called "Putrido". You can search in google for recipe.
not all artists do, but varnish serves many purposes, it seals the painting making the next layer removeable while wet without disturbing the underpainting, it makes the colors richer as though they are still wet so that the color does not appear flat and sunken in, if painted into immediately it serves to remoisten the surface so the brush glides across the surface more easily, if it is allowed to dry a bit its stickiness (tackiness) helps glazes to not run and slows the sinking of the pigment into the last layer, and it provides a bed into which the paint will eventually sink and adhere making the painting more durable, there are some other benefits including effects. But a lot of artists avoid varnish because of the odor and the brittleness varnish can add to the painting and the darkening it can cause. There is a lot of controversy whether varnish was or was not actually used by the old masters and what it may have been made of.
Daniel Millard I know artists like Rockwell often put varnish on the underpainting and even the first layer, but even he admitted that "Doing this is technically terrible" and that it would ruin the life of his paintings. If you're doing something for illustration and you don't expect the work to last beyond it's printing, and you have a deadline, then it's excusable, but yeah, it will kill the life of your painting.
that looks really good, what did you use? tom says half tempera - half oil paint, could you please elaborate how you did the painting? i am beginning to try some tempera methods but i am not yet successful, so it would be really helpful if u would share your info on your painting. thanks
Don Donic , I did not use tempera because it was too expensive. The benefit of using tempera is its fast drying time. I used venetian red mixed with zinc white for the ground layer. Waited until it was dry. Did the drawing with charcoal. Painted with only bone black and titanium/zinc (flake) white until it looked like a sepia photograph (this stage can be done with tempera). Waited until dry. Then the impastos, glazes and finally the highlights with titanium white mixed with a small amount of yellow ochre (to simulate lead white). I used the same pigments as Rembrandt did except for the whites and I had to replace lead tin yellow with naples yellow. I believe the egg was left out intentionally to confuse people. Egg has been found in Rembrandts paintings.
Mikael Aminoff thank you for your reply. i am trying recently a whole egg/linseed oil/milk emulsion with a little drop of terpentine combined with oil paints from the tube. it seems to dry very quickly and is suitable for fast drying painting, but i yet have to explore it. the reason for trying this is to minimize hazardous terpentine because i work in a small area, it has a window, but still, so i was curious. Tom probably uses distilled water and classicly made emulsion tempera with pigments, that is why it has such quick drying properties
Don Donic Here is the secret: "Tom Keating claimed have to resolved the problem by squeezing his oil colors from their tubes on to blotting paper to absorb the linseed oil, leaving them to dry overnight. He then mixed some zinc white and EGG tempera before use". Rembrandt used this technique because he had so many clients and Keating because he was a forger. They both wanted their paintings to dry fast.
he mixes "tempera" on another video and doesn't put in any binder!! he only uses distilled water. this is incorrect and only used in fresco where the wet plaster is the binder. you would need to grind in some egg or something of the sorts
13:50 I'm not really understanding his adding varnish. Like Damar? Wouldn't that dry all weird and wrong to paint more on top of varnish? Even to have a small thin layer of varnish in between drying layers? I'm genuinely asking so anyone answer if they know more. Edit: Also I'll say I've never taken a painting class so everything I've been doing for the last few years I've just been reading on my own. I could be HORRIBLY wrong, like 'we learned that the first day of class' wrong. So be gentle.
tom keating did a lame forgery or two in the sixties or seventies and got caught. the forgeries he did were badly drawn and its a shame on the so called exprts he fooled. Basically what I am trying to say is dont listen to him hes shit.
+steven halliday I don't think he is. I think he has a lot of wisdom. Also he made sure to make his forgeries appear to be forgeries including writing "FAKE" in big letters behind some paintings just to see if people would catch it.
