I’ve written a couple of times about a book that has fascinated me for some time, Margaret Livingstone‘s “Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing”. Written by a Harvard neurobiologist, it is a surprisingly approachable explanation of how we’re wired to see and the application of that understanding to art. I’m not a fan of … Read more
The other day, one of my favorite artist-bloggers Michael Chesley Johnson wrote about his “Viewing Mantle”, on his blog, “A Plein Air Painter’s Blog”. He writes, “In my opinion, an artist really needs to live with his paintings in a place of calm in order to render a fair judgement.” This hit home with me. … Read more
Last day of the workshop. Boy, I’m exhausted. Here are my two studies today. When my notebook arrives (it’s with my art materials, coming home FexEx Ground), I’ll write a summary of what I learned. Scottsdale Palms – Oil on Linen – 10×8 – $150 AVAILABLE Apples & Grapefruit – Oil on Linen – 8×10 … Read more
We painted still life setups outside today. Beautiful day, a little too warm in fact. I got bored painting still life, so painted two other artists. One painting of a yellow chair was just okay, so I wiped it. This is my first still life of the morning, a quick small “warm-up” study. Green Vase … Read more
We started the day reviewing a slide show that Gay had prepared, including works by her teacher Serge Bongard. I completed two in-class studios and one quick painting after class. I couldn’t get a good photograph of the first study, so haven’t posted that one. Here are the other two. Plums and flowers: Red Still … Read more
Gay painted the demo below, then we spent the day painting small studies (about 30 minutes each). Gay started with the basic drawing: Started with darks, and as usualy takes each object to relative completion. More objects: more… more… The finished study: This one is mine, I painted a section of the same still life … Read more
I’m not going to write a lot of thoughts tonight about this day and workshop as I would like to absorb more lessons and “boil it down” effectively. For now, I hope these picutres are helpful. Gay began be demonstrating her palette: Here’s her demo at the drawing stage. She began with a light violet … Read more
“I am going on with my researches…I am continually making observations from nature, and I feel I am making some slight progress.” Paul Cezanne at age 67, a month before his death “Whoever ceases to be a student has never been a student.” George Iles I’ve noticed a few consistent traits of artists: they live … Read more
Painted this Sunday at Alta Lake. Just chilled. Didn’t focus on composition, only getting accurate Sierra greens. As per other posts, I’ve struggled with this color (especially pine trees), so am taking the time to do some simple studies. I learned in this study that my greens have been too cool and chromatic. There’s a … Read more
Did this quick study yesterday while the guys went for a hike. Still working on those greens! This is a lousy photo, I’ll update with a new one when I get a moment. Emerald Bay Study – Oil on Linen – 12×9