How to open a stuck oil pain tube

If I have not used some oil colours for some time, chances are that one of the tubes will be hard to open: the cap is stuck.

What not to do: you grab the tube, try to twist the cap hard, again and again, and twist the body of the tube instead. You repeat this a few times and the tube bursts. I know it happens... I have done it.

There are better ways to get to your precious locked away paint.

1. The smarter way with your hands

Use a rag or a paper towel to get a better grip and hold the tube by its upper part, just below the cap. This handling reduces the risk of twisting the body of the tube.

If it does not work that way, you still have two other methods to try.


2. With a plier

Same method as before, but this time you grip the cap with a plier.

This method works well on larger tubes because of their bigger cap.

3. The hot bath method

My father tought me this method and it works every time.

1. Put the kettle on and then pour the hot water in a jar (not any that you plan to use for food – paint contains harmful chemicals)
2. Dip the blocked tube upside down in the hot water and let it soak for a few minutes.
3. Remove the tube from the hot water and unscrew the cap. Use a rag to get a better grip. The cap should come off easily. If not, let the tube soak for longer.
4. Clean the inside of the cap and the screw on the tube with a rag and a palette knife. This way it will close properly.

I am not sure if it works because it softens the dry paint or because the hot water has an effect on the metal. All I know is that it works.

Danny the Border Colly

Danny the Border Colly - Oil on canvas panel (6" x 8") by Benoit Philippe

As announced last week, this is Danny the Border Colly. You can see his friend Barney in my previous post.

David Hockney’s interview in The Saturday Times

As David Hockney’s exhibition is on show at the Royal Academy in London (England), Rachel Campbell-Johnston went to spend a day with the artist and interviewed him for the Saturday Times (January 7, 2012 – page 4).

I pencilled a few quotes that are worth sharing.

On inspiration

“Inspiration: she does not visit the lazy.”

On drawing

Drawing is fundamental. Teaching drawing is teaching how to see.”

On depiction and photographs

“I am interested in the problem of depiction. Not every artist is... partly because we’ve got the photograph now. People think that the photograph is everything. But I think if we’re stuck with the photograph it’s going to be very boring. I’m painting landscapes in Yorkshire because you can’t photograph them. The camera can’t get the beauty. It just can’t get the space, the thrilling space that I am in – no, it can’t replace painting at all. If you thought that your camera pictures were good enough, I’m saying, ‘well, it wasn’t good enough, we can make better ones’.”

On cameras

“The camera sees geometrically, but we see psychologically. It sees everything equally, but we don’t; there’s a hierarchy in the things that you see depending on who you are. If you were an alcoholic, you would see the booze first. If you were me, you might notice the ashtray.”

Related article

David Hockney – A bigger picture 

   Technorati Tags    :  David Hockney    art quotes    depiction    photograph    camera    Royal Academy   

                                                         

Barney the Springer

Barney the Springer - Oil on canvas panel (6" x 8") by Benoit Philippe

This is a painting of Barney, a Springer belonging to friends. This is part of a commission. I also painted his pal Danny (a Border Colly).

Life with Picasso by Françoise Gilot – Book review

This article was first published in my newsletter "Notes From My French Easel" – January 2012. Follow the link to receive this free monthly newsletter.

I have read several books by and on Picasso, but “Life with Picasso” by Françoise Gilot shades a very different view on the artist’s life.

Françoise Gilot, as painter, brings an artist’s view on Picasso’s life, like the photograph Brassaï did when he published a book on his encounters with Picasso. She can give an accurate description of Picasso’s technique for paintings, lithographs or sculptures.

Sunday Times' article reproducing the interview from the Sydney Morning Herald

The striking difference with Brassaï’s knowledge of Picasso is that Françoise Gilot was one of the women in Picasso’s life. She lived with him from 1943 (when she was 21) to 1953 and they had two children together: Claude and Paloma Picasso. She also left him. As she put it in an interview she gave in 2011 to the Sydney Morning Herald: “I am the only woman who didn’t sacrfice herself to the sacred monster.”

On the artistic side, Picasso acted as a mentor to Françoise. He would set her some exercises and direct her research in new directions. She admired his great focus and commitment:

“One of the qualities I had admired most about him was his intense power of self-concentration to unite and direct his creative energies. He attached no importance to the facade of living. Any roof would have suited him, so long as he could work under it. He spent no time on "entertainment": we almost never went to the theater or the movies.”

This intimate portrait of Picasso shows a deep apreciation of his work but also describes how manipulative and cruel Picasso could be.

Pablo had a prima donna attitude to life. He liked to have people around him and be the centre of attention. A notable exception was his relationship with Matisse. Both men showed mutual admiration and respect. Françoise Gilot explains it clearly in a few words:

“Pablo had almost a reverence for Matisse because Matisse's manner reflected an inner balance, a calm that brought peace even to a man like Pablo. Also, I think that Matisse had eliminated from his thinking any sense of rivalry, and this made their friendship possible.”

The book contains some interesting quotes from Picasso. Here are two examples:

“God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just keeps on trying other things.”

“If a sculpture is well done—if the forms are perfect and the volumes full—and you pour water from a pitcher held over the head, after it's run down, the whole sculpture ought to be wet."

Related resources and articles
Buy the book

• If you are in the US (Amazon affiliate link): Life With Picasso
• If you are in the United Kingdom (Amazon affiliate link): Life with Picasso

Other blog articles on Picasso

• Signature as an insurance certificate
• Picasso’s unusual linocut technique
• Picasso’s ephemeral works 
• How Picasso showed his works in the studio