Putney Painters - March 29

I had another good day painting with Richard Schmid, Nancy Guzik and the rest of the Putney Painters last Saturday. Our time was focused on the importance of a good block-in, and how it can either be a great painting all by itself, or set the path to a more polished work.

The day before, Richard and Nancy painted our model Jake at their studio, practicing the techniques we were trying to accomplish on Saturday. Below are two of Nancy's, which were each painted in under 2 hours! (Richards was equally impressive, I just didn't have a chance to photograph it)

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Because of this stress on block-ins, we divided the day into two, 2 1/2 hour poses. Our goal was to squint down, paint the largest shapes first, avoid detail, and nail down the important stuff -- like edges, relationships & drawing. The first pose had a light positioned low on the figure which was really fun and something new for me. (a photo of the actual setup is below the images)

 Richard's Study

 Nancy's Study

My Block-In

The second pose was a more traditional set up (see the opening photo). Nancy's painting below was the best of the session, and the light, composition, & technique were working so well together -- I'll be keeping my eye out for this finished painting. Another champion of the day was Dick McNeil who had two nice block-ins. The below photo is of Dick and Richard during the second session, along with his second painting.

 

July Serenade going to OPA show

My painting "July Serenade" was selected for this years Oil Painters of America National Exhibition. If you find yourself in Coeur d'Alene during June 10 - July 9th, go check it out.

Besides the shows running, there are 6 days of events happening around the opening of the show. If you want to get in some plein air painting, or check out the amazing landscape artist Scott Christensen do a demo, I'm sure it will be a good time and worth the trip.

A list of all the accepted artists is here, and if your interested in the hosting gallery, jump over to Devin Galleries.

Putney Painters - March 12th

I had the privilege of painting again with the Putney Painters this past Saturday and there are a lot of great things happening up there. Richard Schmid brought in the finished painting of the Asian doll he worked on a couple months back (check out this old blog post about that day). This painting blew everyone away . . . it's probably the first time I saw a painting of Richards that had such deliberate design elements (usually he will design the subject with paint, but you would never guess he changed or altered anything because it looks so natural -- in this case he created a design and a painting).

Many of us painted Carol Arnold's daughter, Grace, who was the best little model any artist could wish for. She was so still, awake, and pleasant the entire time. It was probably the 100th time she has sat for a painting and she can be seen, along with Carol's other children, in many of Nancy Guzik's paintings. Below is Nancy's painting from this Saturday:

Kathy Anderson, Katie Swatland and Richard all painted still lifes (which was the theme for the day, until Carol's daughter showed up). The below image is Katie's painting that was absolutely amazing, this photo doesn't come close to doing it justice.

Above is Richard's painting (with my silver cup . . . hopefully he'll finish this painting and my cup famous -- I may never be, but at least my cup will!) To wrap up the post, below is another painting of Nancy's that she brought in to show Carol. Sorry about the glare:

 

Troy Stafford

 
If you love painting, chances are you also have a soft spot for framing.

One of the biggest names in custom frame making these days is Troy Stafford and his New Hampshire based company Stafford Frame Makers. He's been making frames for Jeremy Lipking, Michael Klein, Richard Schmid, Nancy Guzik and countless other master artists, and it's easy to see why these artists and galleries are flocking to Troy and his amazing craftsmanship.

I just ran across a photo gallery of his frames (which include many that I have not seen before), and I was just amazed at the beauty of his work. It's probably rare to say this, but I think as a whole, we artists better get our act together and start painting things that are worthy of these frames, because in many cases, the frame is more inspiring than the art.

To see the gallery, go here