Painting in California

I headed to CA with the plans of posting throughout my time there, but the days were so packed and seemed to always end at 1:30 am or later --  so I'm going to have to catch you up throughout this week.

I spent the first four days with my artist friends (Daniel Keys, Taaron Parsons, Adam Clague, and Jon Stasko) painting on the California coast and in a local studio. This time we spent together was a wonderful experience and the five of us not only got to know each other better, but we all formed some lifelong friendships.

Some Weekend with the Masters specific posts are on the way -- it was a great event this year!

News and Painting

Some great things are happening these days -- I am pleased to announce that my work is now being represented by M Gallery in Charleston, so if you want to view (or buy:) four of my paintings, get down there and check them out. The gallery is also hosting their September show, "Strength & Grace" a one-woman show of my friend Michelle Dunaway.

Also, I will be heading to California tomorrow to help the American Artist team with the Weekend with the Masters event coming up next week. Before the event, a bunch of artists are getting together for some plein air painting and I will try my hardest to keep the blog posts coming about my adventures.

And lastly, I want to leave you with a recent painting. I had process images of this, but my old desktop died and the images went with it. I'm not sure if I'm "done" yet or what the actual title should be . . . If you have a good title, shout it out in the comments.

In the Mirror, 20x30 Oil on Linen

Free Painting Lesson from Brian Neher

Portrait artist Brian Neher has recently produced 5 instructional videos and has posted a free 50 minute lesson to "wet your palette". In the lesson, he demonstrates the foundational principles of representational painting through the painting of an apple.

You can view the whole lesson on YouTube here, or you can visit Brian's site to get the free high-res download for you to keep forever!

Brian has studied with the amazing illustrator and portrait artist Joe Bowler for more than 10 years and he's quickly becoming one of today's elite portrait artists. A look through his work will reveal a commitment to the past masters with personal touches of high-key values, pure color and natural light.

Brian's commission work is mostly painted from photo references (he uses only Black and White photos!), so for all the artists out there that work at night, or don't have access to live models, his lessons may be extra informative.

In the Garden at Richard & Nancy's

I was up in Vermont this past Saturday for a day of painting at Richard Schmid and Nancy Guizik's house. The Putney Painters all gathered in the Garden for a morning painting demo from Richard and then spent the afternoon painting in Richard's studio. Below are some of the process photos of the demo. For a wonderful write-up and full documentation of the demonstration, keep and eye out for a lesson in Katie Swatland's Learning from Richard Schmid. (it will probably be a lesson sometime in the early winter)

This is Richards initial toning. A very thinned wash of violet blue on the right and then Viridian with a bit of yellow ochre (or some other yellow/orange) below. Then Richard went right into a design statement with a slightly thicker stroke of Transparent Oxide Red and Viridian.

Richard then went right into the area of focus . . . clearing out the space he intended for the flowers with a paper towel. I don't have a shot of the garden, but he was looking at several individual plants and composing the painting by picking and choosing the ones that best fit his initial vision.

After finishing the flower, he went back into the background and added the core darks and variations of edges and shapes.

He then went into the other key flower and worked his way out.

 Here is a close-up of the first "sitting" probably 45 minutes in.

 After spending some time with the leaves and surrounding areas, it was actually getting close to lunch (we had a late start). Since he had less than an hour left, he began to make notes of the other main features to ensure he had enough information to finish the painting in the studio.

 Here is another straight-on view after he has made all his "notes"

And here is the final stage for the day. As you can see, he had some extra time and focused some more on the yellow flowers and the foliage.

On another note . . . .

Wild Flowers by Richard Schmid

Kristen Thies and her gallery West Wind Fine Art has recently moved out to Cape Cod and is having one of their first major shows at the end of this month. If your anywhere close to the area, your going to want to go to this reception. 

Dreamers by Nancy Guzik

There will be at least two Schmid paintings (plus those in Kristen's personal collection) as well as five from Nancy and a few other paintings from my friend Daniel Keys who has just recently had the privilege of being represented by Kristen.

Roses & Hydrangeas by Daniel Keys

For more info on the show visit the West Wind Fine Art site . . . if you want to keep up with the gallery, join their mailing list.

Creativity by Nancy Guzik

Allman Picture Frames

I love a good frame, and Curt Allman has been hand crafting some of the greatest frames for the greatest artists and museums for the last 16 years.

I found this wonderful article on their website. It's from an old issue of Fine Art Connoisseur and has some good information about selecting a frame and what to look for in a framer.

Nancy Guzik with co-founder Dustin Allman

Allman frames also has a pre-made "Studio Collection"  for artists if they need something fast and in a standard size. I'll warn you that the prices match the quality of the frames, but that painting of yours will look like it's worth double!

Visit their site at www.allmanpictureframe.com

Richard Schmid with Curt Allman

Snapdragons Still Life

Snapdragons, 16 x 20

I was up in Vermont a couple weeks ago, catching up with a few of the Putney Painters. I started the above still life during the day, and was able to wrapped it up a few days ago.

 Rosemary Ladd's Start

John Smith's standard still life in a drawer set-up

Close-up of Snapdragons

Summer Shore, 12 x 18

I just wrapped up this painting last night and wanted to post a few progress photos. When painting in plein air or working on studio landscapes, I usually incorporate some buildings or man-made objects. It helps me focus my attention on something strong and hard-edged and affords me the freedom of leaving the grass and foliage very loose. Not having that support in this painting was a big difference for me and makes me respect those landscape artists that do it so well.

Douglas Fryer

I love the outdoors, and painting in plein air is probably my favorite thing to do. I have always wanted to focus more time on painting landscapes, but have always felt that humanity, emotion and storytelling always speak louder through figurative pieces (plus, if you can paint an awesome portrait, chances are, you'll be able to paint a great landscape or still life too). That being said, I want to spend some time this summer and do a few landscapes, something more than just the little study that I usually do.

I have a couple favorite landscape artists, and Douglas Fryer is somewhere near the top of my list. I just saw this video produced by Marshall-LeKae Gallery in Scottsdale, and thought it was worth mentioning (the intro is weird and 1 minute long . . . just bear with it, it gets better).

You can check out more of his paintings on his blog/archive here

Some of my other favorite landscape artists are:
Scott Christensen
Dennis Sheehan
John Taft
Michael Godfrey
and many others

Who are some of your favorites?

New Painting with progress photos

I just wrapped up this painting for entry into the Salmagundi Clubs Annual Non-Member show. The source is from a Putney Painter session a couple months back, and my studies from that day were extremely helpful in keeping as much "from life" flare to this painting as possible. 

Above is my initial sketch done in pencil. Just a 15 minute placement of all the important features, making sure I had everything fitting in the canvas.

 I then went right into splashing some paint around for a loose background, and then started blocking in the head. I painted the head first in the two main values, the dark and then light side of the head, then slowly went into the details, trying to only paint what I thought was necessary.

 This is the end of the first evening of painting, probably 2:30 hours at this point

From here, I just worked my way out from the head. The photo source was very different from what I witnessed from life (you never notice this when just doing things from photos . . . when you paint something from life, and then paint the same thing from a photo, that's when you start realizing what photography robs you of). Some examples of the differences was the washed out highlights on the guitar and sofa, the varying texture of the scarf, and the color of the shirt (which in the photo was very grey, but in my studies, very purple/blue)

Here I moved into the details of the guitar and the hand (the hand is painted with only three colors/values -- the light side, the dark side, and then the middle value that can be seen in the angle shift of the fingers)

And here is the final painting

Song for Putney, 12 x 18 oil on linen mounted to board