Tag: style

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How to develop your painting style without becoming a parody of yourself

The water was everywhere on this trip west, including in Palo Duro Canyon in Texas, where it was sliding down the rocks and across the road. I guess they’re serious when they talk about flash flooding.

A note on my journey west

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men/Gang aft agley. (Robert Burns)

I wrote that Laura Martinez-Bianco and I were convoy-camping to Sedona Plein Air. That would have been wonderful had we not arrived at Lake Thunderbird in Norman, OK to predictions of flooding and possible tornadoes. Our campsite was on a steep incline next to the reservoir, so we sadly forfeited our $16.80 camping fee and moved on. Pounding rain, lightning and wind dogged us right through the next day.

We’d planned to paint at Palo Duro State Park in Texas. As we arrived, great gouts of rain came crashing down yet again. Foiled, we drove down into the canyon, gawping at the run-off and looking at the spectacular scenery. Mindful of the flooding at Oak Creek in Sedona on Monday that trapped dozens of campers, I started to get nervous. If one more front crossed while we were in the canyon, we might not get back out.

I’ve since made it to my billet at Outbound Sedona, where I’ll be demoing painting on Saturday at 10 AM.

Dawn along Upper Red Rock Loop Road, Sedona, 20X24 oil on canvas, click on image for more information.

The chronology of getting stuck in a rut

What happens when our signature brushwork, favorite colors and familiar compositions become a formula? In The Sense of Order, art historian Sir Ernst Gombrich teaches us step-by-step how to become parodies of ourselves:

  1. Style
  2. Mannerism
  3. Caricature

Style: finding your own voice in painting

Authentic painting style develops through observation, experimentation, practice, our choices and how we see the world. How do we simplify? Which colors do we use? How do we organize shapes, values and edges? These decisions are based on good technique but are ultimately personal. One painter might be muscular; the next is delicate, and neither is better than the other.

An authentic painting style isn’t something you choose. It comes from painting, looking, making mistakes. Thinking about style very much is a trap.

Coal Seam, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, click on image for more details.

Mannerism: when an artist focuses on style

Mannerism begins when an artist repeats a successful stylistic technique without questioning whether it fits the problem at hand. That’s seductive, because it often corresponds with the feeling that you’ve finally figured it all out.

For example, broken brushwork and simplification are both important painting techniques. But when you apply them automatically, regardless of what you’re looking at, your painting will inevitably become mannered and predictable. That happens even faster when you ape the style of other artists, rather than letting your own style evolve naturally.

Observation is what keeps us honest. It forces us to respond to the subject instead of relying on a collection of familiar symbols.

A mannered painting can be technically accomplished and attractive. The problem is that the artist has stopped making fresh decisions. Specific techniques have become ends in themselves.

Caricature: turning mannerisms into formulas

Caricature takes those habits and pushes them too far. Brushwork is exaggerated for its own sake. Colors are brash because loud color is part of the artist’s trademark.

The original idea may have been compelling, but its distinctive features have been amplified until they overwhelm everything else.

This can happen to very successful painters, particularly when collectors and galleries come to expect a certain look. Once a style sells and wins prizes, there is a strong temptation to keep producing more of the same. The danger is that the artist begins serving the brand rather than the painting.

Dusk at the Merry-Go-Round, oil on archival canvasboard, click on image for more information.

How to avoid the style-mannerism-caricature trap

The answer isn’t to deliberately make ugly paintings to prove you’re still thinking and experimenting. It’s to remain responsive to what you’re seeing.

Try a different subject. Work with a limited palette. Change the scale, materials and your compositional crutches. Paint something that doesn’t fit comfortably into your usual repertoire. Keep asking yourself whether each decision solves a problem in the painting.

A recognizable painting style is, for mature artists, unavoidable. But it should be the outflow of artistic decisions, not a goal in itself. Style gives your work coherence. Curiosity keeps it from becoming mannerism, and honest observation keeps it from turning into caricature.

There’s still room in these classes:

I have one workshop already scheduled for 2027! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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What is style in art?

Athabasca River Confluence, 9X12, $696 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Mystery writer Ngaio Marsh studied painting at the Canterbury College School of Art in her native New Zealand. Artists figure in several of her novels. As you might expect, she had intimate familiarity with their habits and careers.

“Don’t try to acquire a manner till you’ve got a little more method,” painter Agatha Troy tells a student in Marsh’s 1938 novel Artists in Crime. It’s an important idea, since style grows naturally from technique.

Marshall Point, oil on archival canvasboard, 9X12, $696, includes shipping and handling in continental US.

What is style in art?

Style has different meanings depending on context, but we all know it when we see it. The major families of painterly style are:

  • Realism, representing the subject as accurately as possible.
  • Impressionism, focusing on fleeting impressions of light and color.
  • Expressionism, emphasizing the emotional and psychological.
  • Abstraction, or non-representational painting.

Within them, however, are myriad other subdivisions, defined by the choices we make in each of the elements of design.

Lobster pound, 14X18, oil on canvas, $1594 framed includes shipping and handling within the continental US.

Don’t overthink your own style

I’m all for understanding our own points of view; that’s the deepest discipline in painting (and life). Yes, style ties our work together in one body, and it ties us to a specific time and place. It’s the art historian’s best tool for classifying artwork.

But style should develop naturally. Forcing it stymies development. While we should study the technique of great painters, imitating their style is a sure path to irrelevance.

It takes some deep scratching

Good painters choose truth over stylishness, even to the point of seeming awkward to their contemporaries. They investigate thorny questions, not just about the world, but about painting itself. When they’re answered, these artists move on. Often, by the time they get through the cycle of making and mounting a body of work, they’re no longer that interested in it. There’s another struggle engaging them.

Owl’s Head, 11X14, oil on archival canvasboard, $1087 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Each time we pick up the brush, there’s variation in how we approach painting problems. That’s why it’s important that you have facility with big brushes, small brushes, palette knives, detail, broad strokes, and tiny strokes. Even if they’re not part of your regular repertoire, they increase your versatility and scope.

Don’t box yourself in

‘Embrace your style’ is a trap that painters may not be able to escape.

There’s a difference between style and being stylish. I enjoy fluid, assured brushwork. That’s not styling; it’s self-confident skill.

Direct and unconscious

Sometimes, what people call style is just technical deficiency. Style for its own sake can be a ruse to cover up badly-conceived paintings. “People often mistake verbose for skill,” a reader once mused. “The best writing is direct and almost unconscious. I think the same thing is true of painting.”

Mature artists don’t generally think about style so much. At that point, style is the gap between what they perceive and what comes off their brush. That’s deeply revelatory, and it can be disturbing when we see it in our own work.

Some of us try to cover that up with stylings, not realizing that those moments of revelation are what viewers hunger for. They, and not the nominal subject of the piece, are the real connection between the artist and his audience.

There’s still room in these classes:

I have one workshop already scheduled for 2027! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Moving from realism to abstraction

High Surf, 12X16, oil on prepared birch painting surface, $1159 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

On Monday and Tuesday, I wrapped up a session of painting classes. I sighed and said, “First I taught you to paint and draw realistically, and now I’m going to teach you to paint and draw non-realistically.”

To the non-artist, this makes no sense. Why go through the laborious business of learning to draw and paint accurately, to then cut out so much of what you just learned? The first step is the journeyman’s and the second step is the master’s.

Sunset over Cadillac Mountain, oil on archival canvasboard, $869 includes shipping and handling.

There is no such thing as absolute realism in painting. Every style, even the most detailed, is a simplification and abstraction of reality. Even hyperrealism is a kind of abstracted and stylized view of the world. Where you eventually land on the continuum between hyperrealism and pure abstraction is ultimately up to you.

But to have complete control over visual representation in art, you must first understand and masterfully replicate reality. Realism is the starting point from which we launch ourselves into an infinite number of artistic styles.

Sometimes people misunderstand abstraction

Ironically, right after class was finished, I had a brief discussion with Bruce McMillan about a painting he did of two pears tossed in the snow. “Many viewers dismiss abstract artists as lacking the skills of ‘accomplished’ artists,” he mused. “They think we can’t paint reality. I sometimes pause to paint something realistic to remind myself and viewers that painters simply paint.”

In truth, it takes great skill to pare something down to its essentials. I was reminded of this while looking at some devastatingly simple monotypes by Marc Hanson.

Surf’s Up is 12X16, on a prepared birch surface. $1159 includes shipping and handling in the Continental US.

But first, realism

The midcentury abstract-expressionist masters were well-trained draftsmen. Their style intentionally moved away from traditional figurative work. They focused on expressing emotion and the act of painting itself with large, gestural brushstrokes and spontaneous technique.

Learning to draw realistically, even if you plan to be an abstract artist, is valuable because it provides a foundation in form, perspective, anatomy, and the nuances of light and shadow. This grounding allows you to manipulate and distort these elements when creating abstract compositions. Knowing the rules lets you break them. 

Realism gives you a visual vocabulary, along with compositional awareness. But once you’re there, then what?

What’s your style?

“I want to develop my style” is one of the most common things people say to me, and ironically one of the least important. We all have a nascent style from the first time we pick up a pencil. Our mature style is what’s left when all our errors are stripped away, but in some ways that’s a controlled manipulation. We distort and simplify things in our worldview. To do so intentionally takes practice.

The worst thing you can do is chase someone else’s style. There are things you can learn from other artists, things you can control, errors you can overcome, but ultimately, your voice is yours alone.

Forsythia at Three Chimneys, oil on archival canvasboard, $869 framed includes shipping and handling in continental United States. You think today’s Valentine’s Day, and you’re right, but it’s also the midpoint of February, which means March is right around the corner, and I may live to see the spring.

Here’s where we jump off the diving board:

As I told someone today, I never thought being an artist was about inventory control. I think these numbers are right.

Zoom Class: Beyond realism to expressive painting—four seats left

Tuesdays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST

February 18, 25
March 4, 18, 25
April 1

This class focuses on design and composition for expressive painting. Students will be encouraged to develop their own personal creative vision while working on refining their artistic skills through traditional studies.

This class is targeted toward more advanced painters who’ve already mastered the basics of paint application. It’s open to students in watercolor, gouache, oils, and pastel. Learn More

Zoom class: design and drawing—three seats left

Mondays, 6 PM – 9 PM EST

February 17, 24,
March 3,
March 17, 24, 31

This class improves on the skills learned in Fundamentals of Drawing. We’ll use a pencil but all of these concepts are transferrable to painting; experienced painters are encouraged to try them in paint as well.

This class is targeted to the learner who has mastered measurement, shading, and perspective and wants to further develop skills in design and rendering. Learn More

There’s still room in these classes:

I have one workshop already scheduled for 2027! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

What is style?

Beautiful Dream (Rockport Harbor), oil on canvasboard, 12X16 $1,449.00 framed, includes shipping in continental US

Style is tricky. It can have different meanings depending on context, but we all know it when we see it. Just as we recognize Modern Farmhouse in decorating and Vintage in fashion, there are styles in painting.

The major families of painterly style are:

  • Realism, representing the subject as accurately as possible.
  • Impressionism, focusing on fleeting impressions of light and color.
  • Expressionism, emphasizing the emotional and psychological.
  • Abstraction, or non-representational painting.

Within them, however, are myriad other categories, classified by the choices the artists have made in each of the elements of design.

Larky Morning at Rockport Harbor, 11X14, on birch board, unframed, $869 includes shipping in continental US.

Don’t overthink your own style

I’m all for understanding our own points of view; that’s the deepest discipline in painting (and life). Yes, style ties our work together in one body, and it ties us to a specific time and place. It’s the art historian’s best tool for classifying artwork.

But style should develop naturally. Forcing it stymies development.

I can never be a Scottish colourist, any more than I can be Wayne Thiebaud. Imitating the style of Dead Masters is a sure path to irrelevance. Once you’ve learned to paint, you should spend at least as much time with your peers as with the past. Painting is, above all, a dialogue, and you live here and now.

Ketch and Schooner, 8X10, oil on archival canvasboard, $652 framed includes shipping in continental US.

It takes some deep scratching

Good painters choose truth over stylishness, even to the point of seeming awkward to their contemporaries. They investigate thorny questions, not just about the world, but about painting itself. When they’re answered, these artists move on. Often, by the time they get through the cycle of making and mounting a body of work, they’re no longer that interested in it. There’s another struggle engaging them.

Each time we pick up the brush, there’s variation in how we approach painting problems. That’s why it’s important that you have facility with big brushes, small brushes, palette knives, detail, broad strokes, and tiny strokes. Even if they’re not part of your regular repertoire, they increase your versatility and scope.

Don’t box yourself in

‘Embrace your style’ is a trap that painters may not be able to escape.

There’s a difference between style and being stylish. I enjoy fluid, assured brushwork. That’s not styling; it’s self-confident skill.

Sometimes, what people call style is just technical deficiency. For example, some painters separate their color fields with narrow lines-white paper in watercolor, dark outlines in oils. That could be a design choice, or it could be that they never learned to marry edges.

Skylarking II, 18X24, oil on linen, in a handmade cherry frame, $2318 includes shipping in continental US.

Direct and unconscious

I do not love painters who use the same scribing or pattern-making on the surface of every painting. If you study the best mark-makers, like Vincent van Gogh, you’ll see that their surfaces are highly varied.

Style for its own sake is just a ruse to cover up badly-conceived paintings. “People often mistake verbose for skill,” a reader mused recently. “The best writing it direct and almost unconscious. I think the same thing is true of painting.”

Mature artists don’t generally think about style. At that point, style is the gap between what they perceive and what comes off their brush. That’s deeply revelatory, and it can be disturbing when we see it in our own work.

Some of us try to cover that up with stylings, not realizing that those moments of revelation are what viewers hunger for. They-not the nominal subject of the piece-are the real connection between the artist and his audience.

There’s still room in these classes:

I have one workshop already scheduled for 2027! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

Posted on

The limitations of style

“Ravening Wolves,” oil on canvas, 24X30, available.

I’ll be painting next weekend in Camden on Canvas. I’m a little rusty because my time right now is being taken up by things that have nothing to do with painting. While I can’t go out and do a full plein air painting, I’m taking an hour a day to practice. These little ditties have no higher-level thinking and the subject is unimportant. For example, yesterday I painted a basket of beach toys.

I don’t worry about finishing these sketches. To paint like that occasionally is a relief, for style can be a trap and a delusion.

The Late Bus, 8X6, oil on canvasboard, $435 framed, available.

A reader told me yesterday, “My goal this summer is to get closer to a point of view and/or style.” I’m all for understanding point of view; it’s the deepest discipline in painting (and life). But style is something that should develop naturally. Forcing it stymies development.

Style is the mark-making, composition, color palette and other attributes in a finished work. Style ties an artist’s work together in one body, and it ties that artist to a specific time and place. It’s the art historian’s best tool for classifying artwork.

I can never be a Scottish colourist, any more than I can be Wayne Thiebaud. We’re each tied to our own specific moment. Imitating the style of Dead Masters is a sure path to irrelevance (while copying them is a great learning technique).

Great painters choose beauty over stylishness, even to the point of seeming awkward to their contemporaries. The difference is depth and staying power. It takes some scratching to get down to fundamental truth.

Beautiful Dream (Rockport Harbor), oil on canvasboard, 12X16 $1,449.00 framed.

A good artist investigates thorny questions, not just about the world, but about painting itself. When they are answered, he moves on, just like Omar Khayyam‘s moving finger. Often, by the time we get through the cycle of making and mounting a body of work, we’re no longer that interested in it. We’ve moved on to another struggle.

Each time we pick up the brush, there’s variation in how we approach painting problems. I might use a palette knife for a sky, even though palette knife painting is not part of my regular repertoire. I’ll occasionally revert to painting the way I first learned, with lots of detail and modeling. I refuse to box myself in by saying that a technique is inappropriate because it isn’t my style. ‘Embracing your style’ is a trap that painters may not be able to escape.

There’s a difference between style and being stylish. I enjoy Olena Babak’s ability to describe reflections in a single, fluid brush line. That’s not styling; it’s self-confident skill that results in stylish brush work.

Sometimes, what people call style is just technical deficiency. For example, some painters separate their color fields with narrow lines-white paper in watercolor, dark outlines in oils. I’d like to know that they embraced this voluntarily, not because they never learned how to marry edges.

Wreck of the SS Ethie, oil on canvas, 18X24, available

I do not admire painters who use the same scribing or pattern-making on the surface of every painting. It’s style for its own sake, and it often is just a ruse to cover up badly-conceived paintings.

Mature artists don’t generally think about style. At that point, style is the gap between what they perceive and what comes off their brush. That’s deeply revelatory, and it can be disturbing when we see it in our own work.

Some of us try to cover that up with stylings, not realizing that those moments of revelation are what viewers hunger for. They-not the nominal subject of the piece-are the real connection between the artist and his audience.