Watch Me Paint: World-Class Art, World-Class Instruction
Color harmony is not just a question of placing or finding objects that look good together; it means using those colors within your painting to build a great composition. Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge, by Carol L. Douglas Nearly all beginning painters focus primarily on matching local color. That’s an important skill, but it is just …
The time you spend painting is not deducted from your lifespan. One of my Monday night students told me her father lived to 107. He said, “the time you spend sailing is not deducted from your lifespan.” He also believed that oatmeal every morning and a wee dram before supper would extend your life. I’ve …
I was momentarily surprised, because I’m subsumed into the cult of the picture plane and my correspondent isn’t (yet). The Alaska Range, 12X16, oil on canvasboard, $1159 unframed In 1960, art critic Clement Greenberg coined a phrase, “the integrity of the picture plane.” What he meant by picture plane is the slice of space in which …
The beautiful warmth of Wednesday was just a dream. It’s still April in Maine, and we all know April is the cruellest month. Not done. On Wednesday, I met Peter Yesis and Ken DeWaard at Spruce Head. In the warm spring air, it felt like we were playing hooky. The neighborhood dogs trotted over to …
Continue reading “Five half-finished paintings in search of a conclusion”
I’m willing to look like a fool for art. Are you? Channel marker, 9×12, oil on canvasboard, $696 unframed. I did a set of long demos in my classes this week. I worked from two different snapshots, one for each class. I’d never looked at them before. In fact, I chose them because they didn’t …
Truthfully, how much does your painting ever advance from curling up on the couch and watching painting videos? Early spring in the boatyard, oil on canvasboard, Carol L. Douglas Every successful artist I know has a process. That means we work up a painting in pretty much the same way every time. These processes are …
Continue reading “Monday Morning Art School: how to succeed in painting”
This point, where charcoal meets paper, is where a painting’s future lies. Spring on Beech Hill, 8×10, available. Dark skies may not give you great shadows, but they deepen color saturation. Yesterday was the first truly lovely day of the year, with soft still air, limpid light, and a hint of color in the bare …
How could I have even taken a photo this bad, let alone make a painting out of it? Early November: North Greenland, 1932, Rockwell Kent, courtesy the Hermitage. The focal points of a painting are not necessarily the subject. In Rockwell Kent’s Early November: North Greenland, above, our eyes go first to the iceberg in the …
Continue reading “Monday Morning Art School: designing value masses”
Notan differs from value study because it is based not just on what we observe. It is the orderly restriction of shapes into patterns. It is reality subservient to beauty. Sextant, c. 1917, Marsden Hartley, oil on panel, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art When I saw this collection of eight paintings based on the color …
The first rule of composition is, “don’t be boring.” Step one of Maggie Daigles Alien Mango Tree Progression, as she called this exercise. She drew 90° from this, and flipped it because she liked this view better. Composition is an enormous subject, rather like the Chinese language, and it is hard to shoehorn into a …