Watch Me Paint: World-Class Art, World-Class Instruction
American Landscape with Indian Camp, by Ralph Blakelock, showing the damage that can result from tinkering with technique. Yesterday I mentioned the deterioration in Albert Pinkham Ryder’s paintings. He was not, by any means, the only painter whose work has suffered over time. Prior to the 19th century, painters had a limited range of materials …
Megunticook River at Camden, ME, 9X12, oil on canvas, by little ol’ me. Yesterday I intended to write about how I do field sketches, but distracted myself with raving about a most-excellent new student. Today, then, I get down to business. This is my method of producing a relatively-quick, finished field study with a minimum …
From The Blue Beetle Faces the Destroyer of Heroes, Blue Beetle, Vol. 1, No. 5, November 1968, Charlton Comics Group, Derby Connecticut. It’s Memorial Day. I’m not up to anything particularly deep about the meaning or execution of art. Instead, I’m giving you Steve Ditko being deep about the meaning of art and heroism: selected panels from …
Continue reading “Amazing what you find if you clean your room.”
Practical for plein air painting as long as there aren’t deer ticks. CT asks: I paint with water-soluble oils. I don’t know if this goes for regular oil paints, too, but I’m struck by the various textures and viscosities of different colors—from a cadmium yellow so thick it’s hard to get it out of the …
Continue reading “In the end, it all comes down to footwear.”
Those of you in the mid-Hudson region ought to run, not walk, to see Bruce Bundock’s show at the Rosendale Café, which opens this Sunday. He’s simply the best plein air draftsman around, but that distinction would be meaningless without his palpable empathy for the lives of regular folks. He’s painted iconic buildings, but he …
Early spring morning, Piseco Lake, oil on canvasboard, 12X16 Yesterday, I wrote about a Stillman & Birn Alpha Series sketchbook that Jamie Grossman gave me, and my first attempt to pre-sketch my paintings in it in watercolor. This morning as I walked my appointed rounds, I carried the sketchbook and watercolors instead of my camera. The …
The porch at the Irondequoit Inn at dusk… a beautiful, relaxing place to listen to the loons on Piseco Lake. A few years ago, my husband and son signed up for a father-son canoe trip in Speculator, NY. Because I’m always restless to paint, I rode up with them. And because I live near IrondequoitBay …
Continue reading “Adirondack Wild, a plein air painting workshop”
Study for “Northern River” by Tom Thomson Like every other kid who grew up in Buffalo, I spent my formative years at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. This was by no means a bad thing, seeing as the collection is housed in a fantastic building designed by EB Green and Augustus Saint-Gaudens and includes important works …
The Adoration of the Magi in the Snow (1567) Pieter Bruegel the ElderOil on wood panel, dimensions not availableOskar Reinhart Collection, Switzerland This Nativity by Pieter Bruegel the Elder is the second picture I am considering with my pastor friend John Nicholson at The Shepherd’s Staff. John’s from Alabama, where today they expect a high …
This week’s figure class featured Gail Kellogg Hope modeling a Civil War era gown of her own devising, minus the ruffled hoop. (Readers interested in historic clothing can see Gail’s work here.) Because Gail’s hair was down and she was recumbent, I thought she looked charmingly like a 19th century laudanum addict. I wanted to …