Watch Me Paint: World-Class Art, World-Class Instruction
It’s been said that a painting needs to be compelling at three inches, three feet and thirty feet. That’s simple enough, but how does the artist make that happen? Erosion, 9×12, by Carol L. Douglas, available through Ocean Park Association. Looking at a painting from a distance (or on the tiny screen of your phone), …
Continue reading “Monday Morning Art School: why does composition matter?”
Diagonals keep us interested because they’re harder for us to “solve”. The Artist’s Studio in an Afternoon Fog, 1894, Winslow Homer. Courtesy of Memorial Art Gallery. Winslow Homer’s most successful compositional motif was the long diagonal. He used it with great success from the beginning of his career right through to his mature Maine seascapes. …
Continue reading “Monday Morning Art School: a simple exercise in composition”
It’s easy to throw all the weight to one side when painting on the coast. Here’s one way to fix that. Roger Akeley’s solution to the coastal composition problem. A few weeks ago, I got a message from student Roger Akeley. Roger had arrived at a drastic solution to the composition problem bedeviling his painting. …
Continue reading “Monday Morning Art School: the coastal composition problem”
During last week’s workshop, Beth, Sharon and I were looking at a house on Pearl Street in Camden. I’d given them a lesson on two-point perspective and then said, “That’s just so you understand the principle. In real life, you’re going to measure angles rather than draw to a vanishing point.” That’s harder to do, …
“Do you have a good definition of plein air painting? Can the painting be finished in the studio? Can it span a couple days in execution?”
These goals are just suggestions; none of us can do them all, at least not right away. What can you take from my brainstorming, and how can you make these ideas your own artistic goals for the coming year?
Drawing is the cheapest and most liberating of all media. All you need is a sketchbook, a mechanical pencil, and a straight-edge.
Bravura brushwork is a sign of self-confidence and competence in an age beset by anxiety and doubt.
If you’re ‘flailing and failing’ too much, your painting problem boils down to this easily correctable error.
Simplification and organization are critical to the success or failure of painting, and they stress the beauty inherent in most objects.