Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Good Morning Gloucester

 I started this en plein air on one of my last days in Goucester
and just recently got around to working on it. 


Good Morning Gloucester!
10 x 8 oil
(study for a larger piece?)  

The working harbor continues to 
intrigue and inspire me. 
I'm experimenting with zooming in on the large 
colorful shapes of the architecture 
and fishing boats.

Luckily, I have hundreds of images 
to work from this winter!






Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Glorious Color

Nature certainly put on quite a show this year!
I couldn't let all that glorious color leave
without trying to capture it with paint.


"Last Blast"
24 x 24 oil 

I took the demo I did in class last week,
turned it upside down, drew in some big shapes with charcoal
and laid in some darks. 


Then just 
 "let the painting tell me what it needed". 
Not always so easy! 


Happy Thanksgiving! 
I hope everyone has a 
healthy and safe holiday weekend. 












Saturday, November 19, 2016

I Teach What I Want to Learn

For our last class of this semester, 
we tried something completely new.

I'm calling it the "Three Line Abstract Approach"  
borrowing from the principles of cubism.  

I've discovered that many modern painters began each painting
 by drawing three straight lines, edge to edge, 
creating a simplified foundation before applying paint. 

I set up a very large and busy still life
for us to "hone in on".



We did a few practice designs on paper first.


We chose the design we liked best, 
and transferred that to our large canvas'.


I didn't give them much direction 
and it was certainly a challenge for most of us! 
However, as always, they were troopers and 
we all learned from each other  


My phone died halfway through the class 
so I wasn't able to get many images. 
Here is a detail of the one I worked on......

And student sent me this after the fact....

If anything, it's an eye opening exercise. 
The possiblities are endless. 


It was such fun to work with this wonderful group of artists.
They were willing to try anything
and it was thrilling to see so many discoveries 
happen each week! 
I'm going to miss teaching for a few months, 
but it's time for me to get in the studio and get to work. 
Stay tuned and Happy Holidays!  




Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Upcoming Workshops

I'm excited to announce some winter/early spring
1 and 2 day workshops I've got scheduled! 
More to come. 


Note:
Some may not be listed on the websites just yet. 


March 21, 22 
(Tues and Wed)


April 1, 2 
(Sat and Sun) 

 May 20
(Saturday)  

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Surface Texture

Surface texture and interesting edges add excitement to a painting 
and engage the viewer longer. 
However, those two tools are so personal and intuitive,
it's difficult to teach. 
It really just takes a lot of experimenting,
so that's what we did in class this week. 

We applied thin paint in the shadow areas,
thick paint in the light areas,
then broke out the palette knives!  

Some of the class work:





NOTE: 
Textured paintings are difficult to photograph,
so forgive the glare. 

There was a lot of discovery happening! 



Thursday, November 10, 2016

Zooming In

I finally got to work on some ideas
 that have been simmering since Gloucester. 

I tried to focus on big shapes of color 
by "zooming in".

(Work in Progress)
Roht Marine  
24 x 24 

 For some reason, this became very representational,
which was not my intention.
So I did this gouache study to remind myself to think more simply. 


Then I figured I couldn't ruin an "already bad" painting, 
so I took a palette knife to it
and experimented with paint application.....


Yikes. 
Who am I? 
I think I may be done with this one for now.
It's about to get scraped off. 





Monday, November 7, 2016

Paint Handling /Surface Quality

We will be talking about surface quality (or paint handling) 
this week in class. 

In preparation, I worked on this today
 to use as an example. 

Daylight Savings 
9 x 12 oil 


I took the demo I did 
"in the style of Henry Isaac"
and applied thick paint with a palette knife 
to most of the big shapes. 

Then I added shapes of similar values 
to break them up. 


Using plenty of paint with brushes and palette knife 
is always fun. 
You never know what will happen! 


NOTE: 
Cello and I are both SO happy to be back together,  
hunkering down in the studio.  


Thursday, November 3, 2016

Painting With Paper Exercise

"Painting with paper" is one of the best ways
 to see big shapes of color,
and how they relate to each other.

There are many incredible artists doing paper paintings
and one of my favorites is Chris Liberti.

We used magazines, construction paper, tissue paper, 
scissors and glue sticks and
went to town! 


Some of the awesome results! 










It was a great way to explore and play!


NOTE:
I did this during class (with paper).


Referencing this painting, I had done previously. 


From his photo.