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January 9, 2023January 11, 2023

Monday Morning Art School: don’t worry about AI just yet

The greatest ability we have in painting isn’t 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 doesn’t matter if you’re painting abstraction or landscape; start thinking about what the higher meaning of your work is. If it’s not there, you can be replaced by a computer.

July 25, 2022January 10, 2023

Monday Morning Art School: start with value

Lobster pound, 14X18, oil on canvas, $1594 framed includes shipping and handling within the continental US. There’s an old saw that goes, “value does all the work and color gets all the credit.” I tend to not repeat it because value is just one aspect of color. It’s like saying ‘my arm hit that ball …

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June 27, 2022January 10, 2023

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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June 13, 2022November 9, 2022

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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May 16, 2022May 19, 2022

Monday Morning Art School: paint with precision

We’re 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. “The artist …

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March 30, 2022

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 …

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March 28, 2022

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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March 23, 2022

The famous vortexes of Sedona

“It’s not about measurable facts, it’s about what you know in your gut is real.” The only thing I’ve managed to paint this week has been this 9X12 demo. Painters and photographers know there’s a dead period in the middle of the day. The long raking shadows of early morning or the beautiful golden light of afternoon …

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February 16, 2022

I had just one job…

COVID kicks like a mule, which is why I failed at my goal, and why I’m just getting this information out about my next session of classes. Oops. I set out two weeks ago on an impromptu excursion with my son to West Yellowstone, Montana. We would look at geysers in the snow, and celebrate …

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February 7, 2022

Monday Morning Art School: why copy a masterpiece?

Think of it as getting a painting lesson from the masters. Great Springs of the Firehole River, by Thomas Moran, 1871, is one of the paintings my students will be copying this week. Courtesy National Park Service. If you visit art museums regularly, you may have seen students set up to copy masterpieces. Or, you’ve …

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