January insights

Our

assignments last week led us on a rich dialogue! We looked at paintings that inspired you in the New Year. I was impressed with your choices, and inspired in turn.

After our discussion I set some homework for you:

Tami:

1. Work on brush handling. Check out the step by step painting web site for some exercises to try. (She also has a buying guide if you ant to get any new brushes.)

2. Your goal is to finish some of your paintings, so please choose the one you want to work on and be prepared to work on it!

Becky:

1. Explore Red. One of your choices for inspiration was this one, below. Your assignment is to buy some new tubes of red and paint splotches of many different mixtures of red, taking some notes, and make a list or a chart of colors you like best so you can begin to incorporate them into your work.

2. Bring a photo of a landscape that means something to you, and be prepared to riff on it in an abstract way.

Abstract Landscape No 1 Mixed Media By Lelia Demello

My choices were these:

This one called "Rock" by Chilean Abstract Expressionist painter Roberto Matta, who coined the term “inscape” for abstract paintings he made exploring the psychoanalytical landscape of the human mind.

And this one by Wassily Kandinsky - Winter Landscape, 1909

And my goal is to finish the paintings I start. To that end, I've been working this week on my Winter Landscape of the Coburg Hills:

Comments

Paint Application and Mark-Making

We've been talking about brushwork and palette knives, and I want to talk a little about paint application and mark-making. Paint can be applied with so many different tools. We all started out with finger painting, and brushes seem to be an extension of our fingers, but you can put paint onto a ground with a palette knife, old credit card, sponge, roller, etc. And besides the tools you use, you have options with the techniques. I took the following list of paint application techniques from a Craftsy Post: 1. Dry brushing: This is where you scrub layers of colors on using small amounts of paint. 2. Washing: This is when you apply a thin layer of diluted paint over the colors already applied. The thin veil of color allows the colors underneath to still shine through. 3. Dabbing: For adding texture. Apply thick paint with a stiff bristle brush or a sponge, with a pouncing motion or with quick dabs. Dabbing can be done in multiple layers to build depth. 4. Detailing: Thi...

Review assignments

Drawing is a process that is intertwined with seeing. To draw, you need to see the way an artist sees. How to see like an artist is a hard thing to explain, so most people never learn the skill-- but it is learnable by anyone, with practice. Seeing like an artist involves shifting from the verbal/logical use of your brain to the visual/intuitive side. When you use the right side of your brain, you will enter that state where you can't access words, awareness of time disappears, yet you feel alert, relaxed, and happy. And then you will also begin to see things the way artists do. Vase-Face Drawing: This exercise is one way to practice the shift from left to right brain. Using pencil, draw a symbol of a profile of a face- the left brain can easily draw a symbol from memory. Begin on the left side of your paper, so the face is facing to the right. (If you are left-handed, reverse it). Start at the top of the head, and use one uninterrupted line. Make the face approximately 5" ...

Abstract Landscapes

I'm starting out the New Year (2021) with some thought about themes. I think we are all tending towards abstraction, so I want to give a little introduction today into the history of abstraction, as it applies to landscape. I found this great article at Ideelart.com , and I'll quote a bit here, then hope you go check out the entire article: What Landscape Art Gave Abstraction In the Mid-1800s, landscape artists began utilizing a style of painting called “plein-air,” or open-air painting. Plein-air brought painters away from their studios to paint outside. This instantly made landscape painting the most sensual way a painter could work. Compare the alternatives of historic or religious paintings, portraits, slices-of-life, still lives or animal scenes. Plein-air painting offered a world of sensual delights, such as the flickering of light off water, the changing colors of the sky, the miraculous multitude of colors lines and forms in nature. Pl...

Art with Cynthia

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