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Tag: style

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Moving from realism to abstraction

High Surf, 12X16, oil on prepared birch painting surface, $1159 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

On Monday and Tuesday, I wrapped up a session of painting classes. I sighed and said, “First I taught you to paint and draw realistically, and now I’m going to teach you to paint and draw non-realistically.”

To the non-artist, this makes no sense. Why go through the laborious business of learning to draw and paint accurately, to then cut out so much of what you just learned? The first step is the journeyman’s and the second step is the master’s.

Sunset over Cadillac Mountain, oil on archival canvasboard, $869 includes shipping and handling.

There is no such thing as absolute realism in painting. Every style, even the most detailed, is a simplification and abstraction of reality. Even hyperrealism is a kind of abstracted and stylized view of the world. Where you eventually land on the continuum between hyperrealism and pure abstraction is ultimately up to you.

But to have complete control over visual representation in art, you must first understand and masterfully replicate reality. Realism is the starting point from which we launch ourselves into an infinite number of artistic styles.

Sometimes people misunderstand abstraction

Ironically, right after class was finished, I had a brief discussion with Bruce McMillan about a painting he did of two pears tossed in the snow. “Many viewers dismiss abstract artists as lacking the skills of ‘accomplished’ artists,” he mused. “They think we can’t paint reality. I sometimes pause to paint something realistic to remind myself and viewers that painters simply paint.”

In truth, it takes great skill to pare something down to its essentials. I was reminded of this while looking at some devastatingly simple monotypes by Marc Hanson.

Surf’s Up is 12X16, on a prepared birch surface. $1159 includes shipping and handling in the Continental US.

But first, realism

The midcentury abstract-expressionist masters were well-trained draftsmen. Their style intentionally moved away from traditional figurative work. They focused on expressing emotion and the act of painting itself with large, gestural brushstrokes and spontaneous technique.

Learning to draw realistically, even if you plan to be an abstract artist, is valuable because it provides a foundation in form, perspective, anatomy, and the nuances of light and shadow. This grounding allows you to manipulate and distort these elements when creating abstract compositions. Knowing the rules lets you break them. 

Realism gives you a visual vocabulary, along with compositional awareness. But once you’re there, then what?

What’s your style?

“I want to develop my style” is one of the most common things people say to me, and ironically one of the least important. We all have a nascent style from the first time we pick up a pencil. Our mature style is what’s left when all our errors are stripped away, but in some ways that’s a controlled manipulation. We distort and simplify things in our worldview. To do so intentionally takes practice.

The worst thing you can do is chase someone else’s style. There are things you can learn from other artists, things you can control, errors you can overcome, but ultimately, your voice is yours alone.

Forsythia at Three Chimneys, oil on archival canvasboard, $869 framed includes shipping and handling in continental United States. You think today’s Valentine’s Day, and you’re right, but it’s also the midpoint of February, which means March is right around the corner, and I may live to see the spring.

Here’s where we jump off the diving board:

As I told someone today, I never thought being an artist was about inventory control. I think these numbers are right.

Zoom Class: Beyond realism to expressive painting—four seats left

Tuesdays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST

February 18, 25
March 4, 18, 25
April 1

This class focuses on design and composition for expressive painting. Students will be encouraged to develop their own personal creative vision while working on refining their artistic skills through traditional studies.

This class is targeted toward more advanced painters who’ve already mastered the basics of paint application. It’s open to students in watercolor, gouache, oils, and pastel. Learn More

Zoom class: design and drawing—three seats left

Mondays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST

February 17, 24,
March 3,
March 17, 24, 31

This class improves on the skills learned in Fundamentals of Drawing. We’ll use a pencil but all of these concepts are transferrable to painting; experienced painters are encouraged to try them in paint as well.

This class is targeted to the learner who has mastered measurement, shading, and perspective and wants to further develop skills in design and rendering. Learn More

Reserve your spot now for a workshop in 2025:

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What is style?

Beautiful Dream (Rockport Harbor), oil on canvasboard, 12X16 $1,449.00 framed, includes shipping in continental US

Style is tricky. It can have different meanings depending on context, but we all know it when we see it. Just as we recognize Modern Farmhouse in decorating and Vintage in fashion, there are styles in painting.

The major families of painterly style are:

  • Realism, representing the subject as accurately as possible.
  • Impressionism, focusing on fleeting impressions of light and color.
  • Expressionism, emphasizing the emotional and psychological.
  • Abstraction, or non-representational painting.

Within them, however, are myriad other categories, classified by the choices the artists have made in each of the elements of design.

Larky Morning at Rockport Harbor, 11X14, on birch board, unframed, $869 includes shipping in continental US.

Don’t overthink your own style

I’m all for understanding our own points of view; that’s the deepest discipline in painting (and life). Yes, style ties our work together in one body, and it ties us to a specific time and place. It’s the art historian’s best tool for classifying artwork.

But style should develop naturally. Forcing it stymies development.

I can never be a Scottish colourist, any more than I can be Wayne Thiebaud. Imitating the style of Dead Masters is a sure path to irrelevance. Once you’ve learned to paint, you should spend at least as much time with your peers as with the past. Painting is, above all, a dialogue, and you live here and now.

Ketch and Schooner, 8X10, oil on archival canvasboard, $652 framed includes shipping in continental US.

It takes some deep scratching

Good painters choose truth over stylishness, even to the point of seeming awkward to their contemporaries. They investigate thorny questions, not just about the world, but about painting itself. When they’re answered, these artists move on. Often, by the time they get through the cycle of making and mounting a body of work, they’re no longer that interested in it. There’s another struggle engaging them.

Each time we pick up the brush, there’s variation in how we approach painting problems. That’s why it’s important that you have facility with big brushes, small brushes, palette knives, detail, broad strokes, and tiny strokes. Even if they’re not part of your regular repertoire, they increase your versatility and scope.

Don’t box yourself in

‘Embrace your style’ is a trap that painters may not be able to escape.

There’s a difference between style and being stylish. I enjoy fluid, assured brushwork. That’s not styling; it’s self-confident skill.

Sometimes, what people call style is just technical deficiency. For example, some painters separate their color fields with narrow lines-white paper in watercolor, dark outlines in oils. That could be a design choice, or it could be that they never learned to marry edges.

Skylarking II, 18X24, oil on linen, in a handmade cherry frame, $2318 includes shipping in continental US.

Direct and unconscious

I do not love painters who use the same scribing or pattern-making on the surface of every painting. If you study the best mark-makers, like Vincent van Gogh, you’ll see that their surfaces are highly varied.

Style for its own sake is just a ruse to cover up badly-conceived paintings. “People often mistake verbose for skill,” a reader mused recently. “The best writing it direct and almost unconscious. I think the same thing is true of painting.”

Mature artists don’t generally think about style. At that point, style is the gap between what they perceive and what comes off their brush. That’s deeply revelatory, and it can be disturbing when we see it in our own work.

Some of us try to cover that up with stylings, not realizing that those moments of revelation are what viewers hunger for. They-not the nominal subject of the piece-are the real connection between the artist and his audience.

Reserve your spot now for a workshop in 2025:

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The limitations of style

Ravenous Wolves, oil on canvas, 24X30, $3,478.00 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

I’ll be painting next weekend in Camden on Canvas. I’m a little rusty because my time right now is being taken up by things that have nothing to do with painting. While I can’t go out and do a full plein air painting, I’m taking an hour a day to practice. These little ditties have no higher-level thinking and the subject is unimportant. For example, yesterday I painted a basket of beach toys.

I don’t worry about finishing these sketches. To paint like that occasionally is a relief, for style can be a trap and a delusion.

The Late Bus, 8X6, oil on canvasboard, $435 framed, available.

A reader told me yesterday, “My goal this summer is to get closer to a point of view and/or style.” I’m all for understanding point of view; it’s the deepest discipline in painting (and life). But style is something that should develop naturally. Forcing it stymies development.

Style is the mark-making, composition, color palette and other attributes in a finished work. Style ties an artist’s work together in one body, and it ties that artist to a specific time and place. It’s the art historian’s best tool for classifying artwork.

I can never be a Scottish colourist, any more than I can be Wayne Thiebaud. We’re each tied to our own specific moment. Imitating the style of Dead Masters is a sure path to irrelevance (while copying them is a great learning technique).

Great painters choose beauty over stylishness, even to the point of seeming awkward to their contemporaries. The difference is depth and staying power. It takes some scratching to get down to fundamental truth.

Beautiful Dream (Rockport Harbor), oil on canvasboard, 12X16 $1,449.00 framed.

A good artist investigates thorny questions, not just about the world, but about painting itself. When they are answered, he moves on, just like Omar Khayyam’s moving finger. Often, by the time we get through the cycle of making and mounting a body of work, we’re no longer that interested in it. We’ve moved on to another struggle.

Each time we pick up the brush, there’s variation in how we approach painting problems. I might use a palette knife for a sky, even though palette knife painting is not part of my regular repertoire. I’ll occasionally revert to painting the way I first learned, with lots of detail and modeling. I refuse to box myself in by saying that a technique is inappropriate because it isn’t my style. ‘Embracing your style’ is a trap that painters may not be able to escape.

There’s a difference between style and being stylish. I enjoy Olena Babak’s ability to describe reflections in a single, fluid brush line. That’s not styling; it’s self-confident skill that results in stylish brush work.

Sometimes, what people call style is just technical deficiency. For example, some painters separate their color fields with narrow lines—white paper in watercolor, dark outlines in oils. I’d like to know that they embraced this voluntarily, not because they never learned how to marry edges.

Wreck of the SS Ethie, oil on canvas, 18X24, available

I do not admire painters who use the same scribing or pattern-making on the surface of every painting. It’s style for its own sake, and it often is just a ruse to cover up badly-conceived paintings.

Mature artists don’t generally think about style. At that point, style is the gap between what they perceive and what comes off their brush. That’s deeply revelatory, and it can be disturbing when we see it in our own work.

Some of us try to cover that up with stylings, not realizing that those moments of revelation are what viewers hunger for. They—not the nominal subject of the piece—are the real connection between the artist and his audience.