Monday Morning Art School: drawing realistic clouds
Clouds have volume and are subject to the rules of perspective. Clouds over Whiteface Mountain, oil on canvasboard, available. Clouds are not flat. The same perspective rules that apply to objects on the ground also apply to objects in the air. We are sometimes misled about that because clouds that appear to be almost overhead are, …
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Growth and change
How does one find one’s purpose as an artist? Should we build that into how we think about our work? Ravening Wolves, 24X30, oil on canvas, is as close as I get to didacticism these days. “How have you grown as a painter in the last ten years?” a student asked me. My drawing and brushwork …
Whoops, I should have listened to Ed
The human brain has an unfortunate tendency to skip over the parts of a plan it doesn’t like. Desert long view, 9X12, oil on canvasboard, $696 unframed. I never expected to be flying back from my workshop in Sedona with four wet canvases, so I only brought a two-canvas PanelPak. Whoops, bad planning—but it was …
Monday Morning Art School: Creativity loves constraints
Two things I learned teaching my workshop last week. Kamillah Ramos at the Grand Canyon. I start each class and workshop by handing my students protocols for painting in oils and watercolor. “If you follow these steps,” I tell them, “you will understand how to paint.” These instructions are not unique; they’re how most successful …
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Where is the line between art and craft?
The line between art and craft is a modern one, and it’s resulted in banal, boorish and ultimately meaningless work being foisted on us as art. Carved cravat, c. 1690, Grinling Gibbons, courtesy Victoria & Albert Museum “Was Grinling Gibbons an artist or a craftsman?” a student asked. It’s a fascinating question, and one that …