My favourite tool is an airbrush. I have two of them. One is used only with white paint, the other for chromatic blacks. The greys that I get are from layering one over the other until I have what I want. It takes ten to twenty layers of paint for the paint to build up to a meatiness that allows subtlety of tone and details to emerge. My airbrushes have taught me patience. It did not naturally come to me, but I have learned that those first layers will always look just terrible and I have accepted that. What I love about painting with airbrushes is that there are always moments where I don’t know where the paint is actually going, so the risk of failure is great. I love that challenge. It keeps me alert and focussed. The other thing I love about it is that I stand over here and the painting comes out over there with no physical contact between me and the canvas. It is like magic to me.
![](https://elephant.art/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/airbrush-3.jpg)
Betty Tompkins runs at Kunstraum Innsbruck until November 11.
kunstraum-innsbruck.at