The Painter in Oil

The Painter in Oil, by Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst, is a complete treatise on the principles and technique of painting pictures in oil colors. The preface says that books of instruction in the practice of painting have rarely been successful, chiefly because they dealt more with recipes than with principles.

Chapter III, Easels, says that the important thing in an easel is that it should be steady and firm, and that it should hold the canvas without trembling. The text advises against buying the various three-legged folding easels which cost about seventy-five cents or a dollar, saying that they tumble down too often and too easily. The text tells the painter to keep both a yellowish or orange red and a bluish or purplish red on the palette, since there is no perfect blue, perfect red, or perfect yellow. The text also says that a picture may need scraping more or less all over, and that the blade of a razor may be used, held firmly in such a position that there is no danger of its cutting the canvas.