Hand Work
12 x 16 oil on panel
Friday, January 18, 2013
Playing With Light
After a couple of month of painting big, I have returned to small canvases and panels. This one is inspired by two things; light and crocheted lace, my two favorite elements in a painting. Creating a light and "air" feeling on this one included Naples Yellow which helped to create this effect. I truly get lost in bliss when I paint the delicate threads of my grandmother's crocheted pieces.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge
There has been a lot of buzz about the portrait painted by Paul Emsley of the Duchess of Cambridge. Some of the buzz has been negative by those out there that think their opinions mean something. As one who was interviewed who is a portrait painter said, and I loosely quote here, "There are only two people who have to be happy with the commission, the painter and the client." Here is an interview with the artist who did a marvelous job and I applaud him. Enjoy.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Great Storage Idea
Just received this idea for some of my organization issues. Love the idea and wanted to share it with all you folks. Take a look.
I see a project for my dear, sweet, talented carpenter husband!
Friday, January 4, 2013
New Year's Resolutions-HELP!
It's that time of year to take stock in the year that has passed and make new goals for 2013. Okay, I get it. Most of us make them and within the month have totally given up. My first resolution is to stick with the resolutions or goals which makes more sense to me. One biggie for me is to get more organized as an artist and this is where I would love helpful suggestions from my artist friends. How do you organize your work spaces so they don't take over your house and your life? I think I have been watching too much HGTV this week.
Let me give you some ground work so you can be as helpful as possible. We live in a 3,000+ sq.foot house and almost every room (except the bathrooms) have something of the art business in them, including every closet. Forget the garage. I use it as my studio and share it with the students that I teach and for workshops. Walls in the studio are lined with still life props, flat screen TV for teaching and all my supplies. We have three bedrooms and a bonus room. One is the photo shoot room that David uses for making all my images and his. The bonus room is his and I don't dare touch anything in there. Not necessarily a man cave but would you believe three computer monitors a wires that look like you have walked into MIT. Halls are used for storage and a sun room that is now used for storage of frames and a table for framing, etc.
Until I can build my dream studio somewhere on our acre lot, I have to get this "business of art" under control. Any big or little suggestions from you would be greatly appreciated. I do know I will be throwing things out. Oh another issue are the paintings that are framed and waiting to be grabbed up by my galleries. I can hang just so many on the walls. Can't wait to hear from you.
Happy New Year and Happy Painting.
Let me give you some ground work so you can be as helpful as possible. We live in a 3,000+ sq.foot house and almost every room (except the bathrooms) have something of the art business in them, including every closet. Forget the garage. I use it as my studio and share it with the students that I teach and for workshops. Walls in the studio are lined with still life props, flat screen TV for teaching and all my supplies. We have three bedrooms and a bonus room. One is the photo shoot room that David uses for making all my images and his. The bonus room is his and I don't dare touch anything in there. Not necessarily a man cave but would you believe three computer monitors a wires that look like you have walked into MIT. Halls are used for storage and a sun room that is now used for storage of frames and a table for framing, etc.
Until I can build my dream studio somewhere on our acre lot, I have to get this "business of art" under control. Any big or little suggestions from you would be greatly appreciated. I do know I will be throwing things out. Oh another issue are the paintings that are framed and waiting to be grabbed up by my galleries. I can hang just so many on the walls. Can't wait to hear from you.
Happy New Year and Happy Painting.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Busy and Big
I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Silence here means I've been in the studio. Lots going on in addition to painting so let's get caught up. Next month's issue of The American Art Collecotr magazine features still life painters and samples of their work. I am honored to be part of that feature and can't wait to get my hands on a copy.
In addition, a couple of my galleries are really working hard and asking for more of my "Threads of My Life" paintings. Consequently, back to the lace and painting big. The first painting has a tapestry rug under the delicate lace tablecloth. Kind of a ying and yang, soft/rugged feel. Also wanted to give it an environment that reflects a light filled room. Images were made with my phone camera but are pretty clear.
Moving on, I had a call for another Carolina Blue painting but I don't do exact repeats. I used a different hand thrown pot (same artist) and of course, the cloth arranged in a more challenge drape.
Another big canvas (30x40). This will be sent to Lagerquist Gallery in Atlanta.
In addition, a couple of my galleries are really working hard and asking for more of my "Threads of My Life" paintings. Consequently, back to the lace and painting big. The first painting has a tapestry rug under the delicate lace tablecloth. Kind of a ying and yang, soft/rugged feel. Also wanted to give it an environment that reflects a light filled room. Images were made with my phone camera but are pretty clear.
Moving on, I had a call for another Carolina Blue painting but I don't do exact repeats. I used a different hand thrown pot (same artist) and of course, the cloth arranged in a more challenge drape.
Another big canvas (30x40). This will be sent to Lagerquist Gallery in Atlanta.
Our newsletter winner this is is Linda Oesterreich and recipient of a print of one of my paintings. If I don't post before the year's end, wishing all a happy holiday and a prosperous new year.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Value Suppression/Compression
As we all know as artist, we are always learning. Sometimes a little tidbit and sometimes a huge Aha! Yesterday was somewhere in between. A few years back I came across the idea of compressing values into value groups so as to strengthen one's composition. I remember the example given was about viewing a Sargent painting from a distance and how one could see three, no more than four value groups. Only upon closer inspection can one see the subtle value changes within the value groups. Then this pass year at the national Oil Painters of America exhibition, Quang Ho shared his idea of the different intentions in painting with "Local Tone" being one of them. Essentially, local tone is value compressing. I think you get the idea.
Having said that, I read this week on Stapleton Kearn's blog post about his students not using the full value range in their paintings. Now I was confused. Which was best and which of the two ways of seeing should I teach my students. I'm attaching the original blog post first and only the first point he makes. For the entire post check out his blog on my Blog List. Mr. Kearns writes:
There seem to be common problems that many students have, and recently I have been aware of how most of the students have the same things to learn. I get a broad range of students in terms of ability and experience, from beginners to semi-professional, so some of them don't have these shortcomings. Most of them do. Remember, I am not talking about you, or anyone you know, I am talking about those "other" people who are far away. The common problems are these: (let me chamber a few bullets here)
A reader on the comments page recently asked me:
Please help my confusion on values. I have read and been taught to not use the full spectrum of values because it weakens the painting. Their instruction has been to narrow your values to three no more than four value groups by compressing the values together. By doing this you make a stronger pattern of shapes that holds together, especially from a distance. Please clarify. Looking forward to your response.
This is a big question and I may need more than a single post to answer it.
1) There is the appearance of nature in light as it sits before you. I think I can readily discern and express about ten different values outside. Before the cast, as an atelier student I was taught with ten values. In practice I use maybe one or two less than that if I am trying to the the look of nature. When I teach, I generally try to point out the difference between nature and the students work. Most of the students I meet in workshops are struggling to get the image successfully and halfway accurately onto the canvas. That is the first skill that a student needs, transcription. This is not necessarily art, it is a skill and anyone can acquire it with some hard work.
Until a student has this ability it seems important to me, to help them "see" nature more clearly. I talk a lot about design, arrangement, color etc. but if I neglect to steer students closer to the look of nature I run the risk of teaching them "how I do things" rather than broader skills they can use themselves. So when I teach I would only suggest to the most advanced students that they paint their values any differently than they see them.
That artists who work in reduced numbers of values agree there are more values than they use seems clear, as they speak of compressing or limiting their values.
2) It is possible, perhaps desirable, to reduce the values in a design to get more unity of effect, a broader look and a clearer assembly of shapes. Usually the effect is one of a stronger, simpler arrangement. But, this is a lens through which painter looks at nature, and not the appearance of nature itself. Compressing values, means to change them to something else, hopefully more desirable artistically.
This is a design method, and as such, a convention, a personal choice. That's OK, it is art after all, and the art lies in the choices we make about how the painting will look more than in cold transcription. Below is a sphere with the parts of the light labeled on it.
The sphere above has five separate lights. A tree in light or a head or figure will generally need five separate values to explain itself. Where these five different values come from on the value scale, whatever size (but ten for the sake of this explanation) can be chosen and they could be derived from the middle of the scale or one end or even spread across its length from Stygian darkness to unalloyed white. I find it difficult to work effectively with fewer than five values. I sometimes will design pictures using three premixed values, but when I make that into a picture I feel the need to add a few more values here and there. Even this five value system precludes the representation of halftones. Each halftone (modeling in the lights) would add a separate value to the list. I don't present all of this to discourage the practice of suppressing or compressing values. This topic arose out of my listing problems that plague workshop students. I would suggest that the artist should first be able to render in a full and not a truncated panoply of values before reducing their number.
4) I didn't hear the idea of compressing values until perhaps fifteen years ago, no doubt because of the enormous and beneficial influence of Richard Schmid. I learned something similar in the Gammell Studios though. It was called the "BIG LOOK". The idea was this....Not to cut up your big shapes with lots of varying values or details within them. One was to keep their shapes big, or uncluttered. Shapes of similar value would be conjoined and darks or lights deliberately linked. All of these plus suppression of detail gave a broader simpler look. Gammell often derided what he called "looking into the shadows" that is allowing yourself to refocus your vision and examine separately from the lights the value changes and detail within the shadows. That is the shadows would be mistakenly painted as they appeared when examined individually and not as seen in relationship to the entire scene including the lights. This was seen as the enemy of the big look.
From the comments that followed this post, it appears that his explanation was very valuable and I hope that it will help you. As a teacher, I have to remember not to teach what I do personally but to teach them to transcribe first in full values. Later they can choose their own artistic interpretation.
Thanks Stapleton. Don't forget to check out his blog.
Having said that, I read this week on Stapleton Kearn's blog post about his students not using the full value range in their paintings. Now I was confused. Which was best and which of the two ways of seeing should I teach my students. I'm attaching the original blog post first and only the first point he makes. For the entire post check out his blog on my Blog List. Mr. Kearns writes:
There seem to be common problems that many students have, and recently I have been aware of how most of the students have the same things to learn. I get a broad range of students in terms of ability and experience, from beginners to semi-professional, so some of them don't have these shortcomings. Most of them do. Remember, I am not talking about you, or anyone you know, I am talking about those "other" people who are far away. The common problems are these: (let me chamber a few bullets here)
- Failure to express the full range of values in the scene before them. Most of the students seem to paint in a few middle tones. I always seem to be telling them, "when you look out there, you see a dark and paint it a dark value. When I look out there, I see a dark and ask myself, which dark is it? I have several to choose from." The students use a single generic dark and a single generic middle tone, etc. They command too few values to explain that at which they are looking. I have been telling them this ;:" Did you learn to read from the Dick and Jane books? " (for you younger readers, Dick and Jane were drab children who said things like "look Jane! see Spot run! Run,run run. See Dick run!!" Spot was a dog. Dick was once a common male name. Jane was a girl's name then, much like Krystle or Brittney might be today). he teacher went up to the blackboard and wrote a list of about ten words on the board before she even handed out the book. You had to know about ten words to read even this simple story. The authors of this sorry tome couldn't tell even its banal story without at least ten words. They couldn't write the book with only say... five words, they needed at least ten. If you imagine your value scale to be words you will need about 10 or at least six or seven anyway, to tell the story that is in front of you in the landscape. You students don't have enough words (i.e. values) to tell the story of the landscape in front of you. I suspect that the best cure for this problem would be cast drawing under the eye of a master, but that is atelier training and most people just can't leave their real life behind and do that. I am trying to come up with a systematic approach to curing this problem, I do have an idea. I will get back to you on that.
A reader on the comments page recently asked me:
Please help my confusion on values. I have read and been taught to not use the full spectrum of values because it weakens the painting. Their instruction has been to narrow your values to three no more than four value groups by compressing the values together. By doing this you make a stronger pattern of shapes that holds together, especially from a distance. Please clarify. Looking forward to your response.
This is a big question and I may need more than a single post to answer it.
1) There is the appearance of nature in light as it sits before you. I think I can readily discern and express about ten different values outside. Before the cast, as an atelier student I was taught with ten values. In practice I use maybe one or two less than that if I am trying to the the look of nature. When I teach, I generally try to point out the difference between nature and the students work. Most of the students I meet in workshops are struggling to get the image successfully and halfway accurately onto the canvas. That is the first skill that a student needs, transcription. This is not necessarily art, it is a skill and anyone can acquire it with some hard work.
Until a student has this ability it seems important to me, to help them "see" nature more clearly. I talk a lot about design, arrangement, color etc. but if I neglect to steer students closer to the look of nature I run the risk of teaching them "how I do things" rather than broader skills they can use themselves. So when I teach I would only suggest to the most advanced students that they paint their values any differently than they see them.
That artists who work in reduced numbers of values agree there are more values than they use seems clear, as they speak of compressing or limiting their values.
2) It is possible, perhaps desirable, to reduce the values in a design to get more unity of effect, a broader look and a clearer assembly of shapes. Usually the effect is one of a stronger, simpler arrangement. But, this is a lens through which painter looks at nature, and not the appearance of nature itself. Compressing values, means to change them to something else, hopefully more desirable artistically.
This is a design method, and as such, a convention, a personal choice. That's OK, it is art after all, and the art lies in the choices we make about how the painting will look more than in cold transcription. Below is a sphere with the parts of the light labeled on it.
The sphere above has five separate lights. A tree in light or a head or figure will generally need five separate values to explain itself. Where these five different values come from on the value scale, whatever size (but ten for the sake of this explanation) can be chosen and they could be derived from the middle of the scale or one end or even spread across its length from Stygian darkness to unalloyed white. I find it difficult to work effectively with fewer than five values. I sometimes will design pictures using three premixed values, but when I make that into a picture I feel the need to add a few more values here and there. Even this five value system precludes the representation of halftones. Each halftone (modeling in the lights) would add a separate value to the list. I don't present all of this to discourage the practice of suppressing or compressing values. This topic arose out of my listing problems that plague workshop students. I would suggest that the artist should first be able to render in a full and not a truncated panoply of values before reducing their number.
4) I didn't hear the idea of compressing values until perhaps fifteen years ago, no doubt because of the enormous and beneficial influence of Richard Schmid. I learned something similar in the Gammell Studios though. It was called the "BIG LOOK". The idea was this....Not to cut up your big shapes with lots of varying values or details within them. One was to keep their shapes big, or uncluttered. Shapes of similar value would be conjoined and darks or lights deliberately linked. All of these plus suppression of detail gave a broader simpler look. Gammell often derided what he called "looking into the shadows" that is allowing yourself to refocus your vision and examine separately from the lights the value changes and detail within the shadows. That is the shadows would be mistakenly painted as they appeared when examined individually and not as seen in relationship to the entire scene including the lights. This was seen as the enemy of the big look.
From the comments that followed this post, it appears that his explanation was very valuable and I hope that it will help you. As a teacher, I have to remember not to teach what I do personally but to teach them to transcribe first in full values. Later they can choose their own artistic interpretation.
Thanks Stapleton. Don't forget to check out his blog.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Historically Illiterate
The last few weeks I have been on a tirade on the subject of standards. Particularly due to Stapleton Kearn's blog about workshop students not knowing the masters in art of the past and somehow tied in with all the election chatter on Facebook. To make this connection clear as mud, it's about elevating oneself above the "chatter among the stumps" and choose to soar above the trees. And if so inclined, fly even higher. Okay now I know I have totally lost you but hopefully intrigued you to keep reading. Here are the points I am trying to make done so much more clearly by David McCullough, learned historian and author, on a 14 min. interview on 60 minutes. Unfortunately there are a few commercials peppered throughout this interview but well worth the viewing. His comments about our youth being historically illiterate is profound.
So many interesting talking points can come from this interview. In defense to all teachers, your job is very difficult given the students of today's culture(s). Just yesterday, a friend and teacher at the college level shared the story of a young woman in her class. She teaches writing/English and most of her students are in their first year funded by Pell Grants. After presenting information on why writers write and the four purposes of writing, she asked for understanding by calling on a young lady sitting in the front row. Even with the four purposes written on the board, the woman responded with "I don't know." Asking for further information about what she didn't understand, the young woman shouted at her saying, "I told you I don't know," and grabbed her books and walked out. REALLY?
This kind of event shouldn't happen in any of colleges or universities, but it seems that our smaller (local) schools in particular draw from communities of students who apparently are not truly interested in learning, so teachers deal with attitudes like this every day of the week. And this is also true in our high schools and even at the elementary level as well. I know because I was in the classroom myself for many years.
Okay, I feel better now getting this off my chest. What can I do to stem the cultural tied that is eroding our country as the great nation that it has been? Truly, nothing! All I can do is keep my personal standards high and my moral underpinnings in place. All comments are welcomed, but know I'm trying to speak from the vantage point of the clouds and not the stumps on the floor of the forest. In my opinion, we need solutions, not more mud slinging and static getting us nowhere. As one of my professors once said, "Our values are not what we profess, but what we actually live."
So many interesting talking points can come from this interview. In defense to all teachers, your job is very difficult given the students of today's culture(s). Just yesterday, a friend and teacher at the college level shared the story of a young woman in her class. She teaches writing/English and most of her students are in their first year funded by Pell Grants. After presenting information on why writers write and the four purposes of writing, she asked for understanding by calling on a young lady sitting in the front row. Even with the four purposes written on the board, the woman responded with "I don't know." Asking for further information about what she didn't understand, the young woman shouted at her saying, "I told you I don't know," and grabbed her books and walked out. REALLY?
This kind of event shouldn't happen in any of colleges or universities, but it seems that our smaller (local) schools in particular draw from communities of students who apparently are not truly interested in learning, so teachers deal with attitudes like this every day of the week. And this is also true in our high schools and even at the elementary level as well. I know because I was in the classroom myself for many years.
Okay, I feel better now getting this off my chest. What can I do to stem the cultural tied that is eroding our country as the great nation that it has been? Truly, nothing! All I can do is keep my personal standards high and my moral underpinnings in place. All comments are welcomed, but know I'm trying to speak from the vantage point of the clouds and not the stumps on the floor of the forest. In my opinion, we need solutions, not more mud slinging and static getting us nowhere. As one of my professors once said, "Our values are not what we profess, but what we actually live."
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