December Lights

This artwork was created in 2024.

The framed dimensions are 7 x 13 in.

Why I paint in Egg Tempera

Egg tempera is the most beautiful and sensitive painting medium that I have ever used. The paint is a simple mixture of fine artist pigments, egg yolk and distilled water. It can be used in extremely thin layers giving it wonderful glazing capabilities. The white gessoed panel, underneath the paint film, reflects light back through the painting giving it a beautiful glowing effect.

Egg tempera is one of the oldest painting media known to mankind, dating back to antiquity. Tempera painting was surpassed in popularity by the newly invented oil paint in the fourteenth century, which was more convenient for artists to work with. However, during the twentieth century, egg tempera painting saw a revival, particularly with realist painters who enjoyed its natural earthy quality and its ability to render fine detail.

The medium is best painted on rigid panels that are first primed with numerous layers of traditional gesso. The dried gesso resembles plaster but is harder and can be smoothed to a degree similar to that of polished marble! It is this smooth surface that allows the artist to paint extremely thin layers of paint and delicate fine lines. The paint film dries in minutes but continues to cure and harden for years after the artist finishes the artwork. The surface of an egg tempera painting displays a slight natural sheen and the many layers of paint and the thousands (perhaps millions) of tiny brush strokes combine to give an egg tempera painting its distinctive finish.

Given minimal care, egg tempera is more permanent than other painting media. There are examples of tempera paintings many hundreds of years old in museums and art galleries. An occasional gentle dusting or polishing with a dry soft cloth is usually all the maintenance that is required.
- David McKay, RCA

Lingering Memories

There are certain things that have had an ongoing visual and emotional impact on me since my youth. Things that I can paint and show you, but find much harder to explain their appeal, or why I keep coming back to paint them time and time again.

The first snow flurries of the late fall season for example. How unexpected and pure they look against a heavy grey sky or dark building. Or the weightiness of well settled rocks piled randomly to separate a farmer’s field from his neighbours. One side of this makeshift wall might stay in shadow permanently, where the rocks remain cool and damp from the earth.

Like a tune in my head that plays over and over and will not go away, I keep coming back to these memories and bits of visual snapshots that linger there. I am fascinated by the patterns of melting snow in a spring field where last year’s grass has turned a yellowish brown. I love the rough bark on an apple tree, or a big old pine tree, with its own patterns of light and shadows, and feel the warmth from the sun on it.

The paintings in this show are of such lingering memories. They are small and intimate. And they are among my favourites.

-David McKay, 2024