Jeffrey T. Larson
Jeffrey T. Larson is an American realist painter renowned for his classical approach to portraiture, still life, and figurative painting. Deeply influenced by the techniques of the Old Masters, Larson is celebrated for his exceptional draftsmanship, rich understanding of light, and ability to render texture and atmosphere with remarkable precision. His work reflects a strong commitment to traditional atelier training and timeless principles of representational art.
Larson’s paintings are especially admired for their luminous realism and quiet elegance. Whether depicting flowers, fabrics, musical instruments, or human subjects, he brings extraordinary sensitivity to color, composition, and surface detail. His still lifes often evoke the refined beauty of 17th-century Dutch painting, while his portraits and figurative works convey warmth, presence, and psychological depth.
A graduate and former instructor of the American Academy of Art, Jeffrey T. Larson has played an important role in the revival of classical realism in contemporary American art. He is also widely respected as a teacher and mentor, influencing many emerging artists through workshops, demonstrations, and instructional programs.
Throughout his career, Larson has exhibited extensively and earned recognition for preserving and advancing traditional realist painting techniques. His work continues to inspire collectors and artists alike through its craftsmanship, timeless beauty, and dedication to classical artistic values.
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Titanium White No. 1 is the most brilliant white in my range, suitable for crisp, cool, opaque, light shades. If you want a powerful mixer that lightens , then this is it. Although not subtle, this white is the most suitable for a bright, fresh palette. It forms a strong and durable film when cured. PW6 is an inorganic pigment.
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Inorganic – No. 113 is an obviously beautiful mid-blue. The discovery in the 1820s of a Sodium Sulphosilicate compound, which had appeared as a mysterious blue deposit on soda-ash furnaces, was a liberating moment for financially challenged artists everywhere. Up to then the only available version of this compound was the often-unobtainable Lapis Lazuli ore, mined in Afghanistan. Ultramarine has a high tint power, and our chosen shade produces strong green shade blue hues and makes wonderful violets with Magenta and the red Lake colours. It is also useful in greens and greys. The only chemical weakness is a recorded sensitivity to atmospherically borne acids, which can bleach it out. Ultramarine Blue is one of the more difficult paints to make, as it forms an intractable runny syrup when first ground into oil, which must then be stabilized with a small amount of wax.
Gamsol is the safest solvent that allows oil painters to utilise all traditional painting techniques without compromise.
Primary Uses for Gamsol:
Thinning oil colours. A little goes a long way; stiff oil colours relax immediately when a little Gamsol is added. Be careful not to thin oil colours too much with solvent alone, this can compromise the ability of the paint to form a paint film.
Modifying painting mediums. Gamblin's Galkyd line of painting mediums is formulated with Gamsol, so they readily accept Gamsol as a thinning agent. Note: Gamsol should not be added to painting mediums made with natural resins (dammar, copal, mastic). They require strong solvents such as turpentine.
Studio clean up: brushes, palettes, palette knives, etc.
How does Gamsol achieve this level of performance and safety? Most solvents available to artists come from the industrial paint industry where solvent power and cheapness is prized. Gamsol is special: it is made for products and processes that come into more intimate contact with the body such as cosmetics, hand cleaners, and cleaning food service equipment.
Gamsol is a petroleum distillate but all the aromatic solvents have been refined out of it, less than .005% remains. Aromatic solvents are the most harmful types of petroleum solvents.
These facts are detailed in the MSDS for Gamsol, this document shows that it has an Exposure Limit Value higher than most solvents available to artists.
All of these factors have lead to Gamsol being used widely in oil painting classrooms; in those classes there are no solvent odours, only the wonderful smell of oil colours.
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Inorganic – My Cadmium Red is a powerful, orange shade red with the usual cadmium characteristics of high tint power and opacity. This red presents warm, almost fiery hues when mixed with a more transparent white.
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Organic – After many years Michael Harding was able to find a variety of this pigment that had a reasonable drying speed. It may interest some of you that Michael has PV 23 samples which he made in the late 1990s that still have not dried!! Deep Purple has tremendous use in all aspects of painting but should be used with caution by new artists as it has a tint power only matched by the Phthalocyanines. However, please do not be daunted by this description as when combined with whites it produces remarkable shades. Also, its slight addition to transparent yellows, such as Indian Yellow, can result in some extraordinary results that one can only describe as dark yellow which as a concept can be a little strange.
Organic, Natural Earth – An impure, amorphous Carbon in Calcium Phosphate, Ivory Black is no longer made from burnt ivory scraps but from charred animal bones. It is denser in shade and cooler than Lamp Black, with stronger tint power. Ivory Black, the blackest of the blacks, is the most frequently used black in the range.
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Inorganic – Sometimes known as Barium Yellow, as it is Barium Chromate. It was introduced into painting after the Lead Chromates, circa 1820. Unlike Lead Chromates, though, Barium has proven permanent and non-reactive. Most colourmen consider this yellow obsolete, and Michael Harding is probably the only one still making it. By itself, it’s an acidic looking yellow with weirdly green overtones. Its low tint and covering power mix with Magenta and the cooler reds to produce modulated greys artists sometimes seek for certain passages of flesh painting. This is the only yellow chrome paint that doesn’t discolour.
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Inorganic – The deepest of the Cadmium range, this red has distinct bluish undertones that produce lovely purplish hues.
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Organic, Natural Earth – So named because it was originally derived from the soot of oil lamps, this is pure Carbon and probably the first pigment our ancestors ever used to decorate their caves. Lamp Black is a soft, slightly warm shade whose surface gives it a greyish aspect. It’s probably not the best choice for unmixed underpainting because of its tendency to move while drying, but this can be remedied with the addition of good-drying Earths. Lamp Black tends to dry with a matte finish, which can be compensated for with the addition of a little stand oil.
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Organic, Natural Earth – Raw Umber is one of the fundamental Earths used as an imprimatura pigment to draw out compositions as a ground, as many Rubens sketches prove. Depending on the degree of transparency, it exhibits greenish undertones.
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Inorganic – Cadmium Sulphide is a ‘tangy’, bright, high-tint power yellow. It’s an inorganic pigment that lightens and increases the opacity of warm mixes without overthrowing them. The Cadmium range of pigments was introduced into production between 1840 and 1890, as costs permitted, and it has proved the most artistically reliable of all the metal compounds discovered in the 19th-century.
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Organic – An absolutely beautiful warm red with a very unique nature when mixed with or glazed over whites it produces a truly shocking shade of pink.
Added after much demand, this very permanent popular pigment capable of making completely exciting pinks with a vivid undertone Michael is providing artists with Quinacridone Rose. This is a modern organic colour perfect for vivid still life painting of flowers, fruit or in portrait paintings. This unique colour makes very exotic pinks that may appeal to the Plein Air painter for skies, fields, flowers and sunlight to name a few. Michael has always been a great fan of quinacridone colours for the use in his own paintings and find them to add a difference that cannot be achieved through other pigments, it gives me that burst of colour he enjoys!
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Inorganic – This is a fantastic colour with an incredibly small pigment particle size that gives it great, clean transparency, ideal for glazing. Transparent Oxide Brown is one of my favourite colours for all-around use in my paintings.
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Organic – Invented in 1935, Chlorinated Copper is one of the first synthetic organic pigments to be accepted as reliably permanent. It is sometimes seen as a modern replacement for Prussian Blue, but its unmixed colour is slightly more cyan, and in hues, it exhibits a unique range of throbbing, intense, greenish blues that are quite distinct from Prussian Blue. Having one of the highest tint powers in my range, this paint will blow any mix apart; if you wish to avoid doing so, add it incrementally and with caution! Its metallic content makes it a great drier, and like Prussian Blue, it shows a tendency to bronze upon curing. Again, use it with caution if you are a beginner.
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Inorganic – This oil paint is a warmer version of Cadmium Yellow Golden, giving a transitional colour more powerful, vivid colour than those obtained by mixing Cadmium Reds and Yellows. Cadmium Yellow Deep is often used to warm the mid-tones and lights of some flesh painting.
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Organic – Alizarin Crimson is the oldest synthetic, organic lake introduced in 1868, and the only lake of the coal-tar lake range to have survived in use until the present. Before the end of the 19th-century, other Lakes were found too impermanent, and some Amerian authorities frown on Alizarin because its lightfastness (II-III on the ASTM scale) doesn’t match that of more recent organic red pigments. But its clarity and subtly beautiful bluish undertones are unique; since its introduction, portraitists have prized its range of cool, rather smoky hues, which are well suited for Caucasian tones. If you have concerns about using Alizarin Crimson, try mixing transparent oxide red with magenta for “look-alike” oil paint, or use Alizarin Claret.