Sunday, July 1, 2012

David Slonim Workshop


I was invited to stay with friends in the Ft. Wayne, IN area and attend a David Slonim workshop sponsored by their art guild.  It was just one of the best workshops I have attended.  David presented some serious information on the fundamentals of art in a fun, playful way.  The emphasis of the 2 and 1/2 day workshop was not that we have a finished painting but that we learn some basic concepts about color harmony and design.  He borrows from the "old masters" to emphasize his points with plenty of good examples of these concepts.  He encouraged experimentation and moving outside our comfort zone.  David also stressed the importance of planning and designing our painting even if it means painting the same material in several different ways.  I am certainly going to make use of these tools as I move forward in my painting journey.  Thank you David!  (and thank you Barb and Karen for the wonderful week.)

After sketching out several drawings of possible compositions for my painting, I settled on this composition.  I loved the big, organic feel of the masses in this composition.  I then painted a gray scale version of what I thought my values would be, spending no more than 30-40 minutes.  I still liked the composition.  Now, my goal is to do a finished painting using my sketch, the photo, and the gray scale painting as reference material.  I may do the finished painting several times.  My plan for the first painting is to do a red/green color harmony and may move on to a split color harmony of yellow green, red violet, blue violet.  After all, this is experimentation!

One thing that I really was encouraged by was David's philosophy about art:  the goal should be about trying to create the best piece of art you can--not just create something that you think will sell.  One of his favorite quotes that he used frequently:  "Do not paint what you see, use what you see to create good art."  I wish I had heard that a few years ago!

If you have an opportunity to take or organize a David Slonim workshop--go for it!

Friday, June 1, 2012

The Rose Covered Gate

Does anyone viewing this blog have any ideas on how to paint many, many roses without the painting looking spotty?

The Watering Can

When I was in New Harmony, I painted this scene en plein air.  After looking at my plein air painting for awhile, I decided to ditch it and paint another version.  Here is the new version on a 6 x 6 format.  So far, I am more pleased with this version.  I really, really want to be a plein air painter, but, so far, I have been sadly disappointed with my attempts.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Flowers in my garden



I have been so inspired this week.  I finally have my garden under control and am ready to paint.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

New Harmony




I just spent a wonderful week in New Harmony at the First Brush of Spring.  I found out something about myself though--I'm really not a good plein air painter!  I absolutely love the idea of painting on location and observing the colors of nature but I get so distracted.  Practice, practice--the message I keep hearing. 

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Indiana Plein Air Painters Paint In

Through IPAPA, we were invited to paint from the collection of a couple in  Indiana who have an extensive collection of early Indiana impressionist paintings.   This is an excerpt from an early T. C. Steele (1885) painted at the end of his stay in Munich or shortly after returning.   The painting was very large and we only had approximately 3 1/2 hours of actual painting time.  I had to choose quickly of what to include and eliminate from the much larger painting.  This T. C.'s painting was "tighter" than his later paintings.  But, the thing that captivated me in the larger painting was the atmospheric background bringing you into the more intimate, backlighting of the figures in the foreground.

Owen County has some beautiful scenes

An artist friend and I spent a couple of mornings early in the month traveling the backroads of Owen and Morgan counties.  We came across this creek scene and I felt I had to try to get it on canvas.

Nancy Franke workshop

I was absolutely delighted to be able to attend Nancy Franke's workshop in Chattanooga in March.  It was held in Lisa Seago's wonderful studio--Artworks.  Nancy is so much fun and inspired me to come home and paint the two paintings that I've posted.  Nancy uses very large brushes even on small a small canvas--encouraging the artist to capture only the essentials of the set up.   I have been a fan of Nancy's work for a long time and if you want to see her work she has a website. 

Friday, February 24, 2012

painting with friends

I have had wonderful houseguests for the past couple of days--two artist friends and their husbands.  We painted, laughed a lot, and painted some more.  Karen and Barb created, I'm sure, a masterpiece.  This is all I could muster--just having too much fun!  What a welcome visit during the month of February.  Spring is coming!!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Quiet Confidence

My granddaughter is a gymnast and she has taken 1st place in her division at the last 2 competitions.  It is so much fun to watch her compete.  She appears to so assured and confident.  She is only 10.  I tried to capture the moment before the awards were announced.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

winter blues

I have so much trouble getting excited about painting.  Perhaps it's because I love to paint flowers and there just aren't any.  Had to work from fake flowers to do this painting and it's not the same--it lacks passion.  Oh, well, it is an attempt at gearing up for spring!