Monday Morning Art School: the number one problem with your painting
If youâre âflailing and failingâ too much, your painting problem boils down to this easily correctable error.
Monday Morning Art School: ruthless pruning
Simplification and organization are critical to the success or failure of painting, and they stress the beauty inherent in most objects.
Monday Morning Art School: donât worry about AI just yet
The greatest ability we have in painting isnât our technical skill (as important as that is) but our human intellect, both rational and emotional. The 20th century movement towards content-free art is over, because it can be done better and faster by machines. It doesnât matter if youâre painting abstraction or landscape; start thinking about what the higher meaning of your work is. If itâs not there, you can be replaced by a computer.
Monday Morning Art School: start with value
Lobster pound, 14X18, oil on canvas, $1594 framed includes shipping and handling within the continental US. Thereâs an old saw that goes, âvalue does all the work and color gets all the credit.â I tend to not repeat it because value is just one aspect of color. Itâs like saying âmy arm hit that ball …
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Monday Morning Art School: the four steps of landscape painting
Being technically accurate frees up your subconscious mind to analyze and interpret what you see. Main Street, Owls Head, 16X20, oil on gessoboard, $1623 unframed. Observation I once took an artist on a long loop to see all my favorite painting sites here in midcoast Maine. “But there’s nothing to paint,” she wailed. She was suffering …
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Monday Morning Art School: what is critique?
It’s not an emotional response or mere fault finding. Skylarking 2, 18X24, available. This week I begin a new online class dedicated to critique. Since it’s a totally new idea, the shape of this class is evolving. However, the plan is that students will bring work they’ve done on their own for analysis within the group. The hope is …
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Monday Morning Art School: paint with precision
Weâre all proponents of loose-is-more, but there are times when you have to be able to hit it right. Cremorne Pastoral, 1895, Arthur Streeton, courtesy Art Gallery of New South Wales. There are few details, but the ones that are, are very accurately painted. Detail and precision are not in style right now. âThe artist …
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Whoops, I should have listened to Ed
The human brain has an unfortunate tendency to skip over the parts of a plan it doesnât 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 planningâbut 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. âIf you follow these steps,â I tell them, âyou will understand how to paint.â These instructions are not unique; theyâre how most successful …
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The famous vortexes of Sedona
âIt’s not about measurable facts, it’s about what you know in your gut is real.â The only thing I’ve managed to paint this week has been this 9X12 demo. Painters and photographers know thereâs a dead period in the middle of the day. The long raking shadows of early morning or the beautiful golden light of afternoon …