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Another slice of my personal humble pie is the fact that I'm pretty bad at math in general and downright horrible at geometry in particular. You'd never ever find me trying to use these skills when making art--or so I thought. But when I was gleaning tips from watercolor artist Law Wai Hin on...
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You don't have to think terribly hard to figure out that the painting genre that has all of these characteristics in common is floral painting . It is a practice that has inspired artists to create beautiful, graceful paintings for centuries, but it is so much more than that. Classic: So many artists...
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Short of lobotomy, we will always have the equivalent of mental trails that our brains follow when we are painting. Artists develop these based on painting techniques that they've learned along the way, or they can be expressions of inherent ideas that each of us has about how to paint. Motivating...
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Not if artist Claudia Seymour has anything to say about it. This year I had the pleasure of meeting Seymour at the Salmagundi Club in New York City to create two three-hour DVDs with her, including this year's The Art of Painting Flowers in Oil . Spring Things by Claudia Seymour, oil on linen, 2011...
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Dutch still life painting set the standard for out-of-this-world virtuosity in the 17th century, and I'll never get over the unusual mix of objects artists chose to depict: food of all kinds, polished silverware and gleaming glass, embroidered and heavily worked tablecloths, and tons and tons of...
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The botanical gardens in Washington, DC, near the Capitol. When I'm visiting family in Virginia during winter, I always make a point to walk through the botanical gardens near the Capitol in Washington, DC. It is one of my favorite places, and the hothouse flower rooms are just what I need to warm...
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T o Be Where There's Life by Ryan Coleman, oil on canvas, 30 x 40, 2010. The coolest thing I ever learned about painting flowers , specifically how to paint a rose, was when a painting teacher told me that you paint them by not painting them. Back then I gave her the stink eye because, really, how...
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Notice how the composition of this sparse still life is deft--from the angle of the bottle to the serpentine curve of the ivy sprig. (Dried Ivy by Kristin Kunc, 8 x 12, oil on linen, 2008). I'm not a knick-knack girl, but I do really have a connection to the objects around me. I project feelings...
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Rhododendron by James Sulkowski, 2001, oil painting. Notice how the flowers are arranged in a curving S-shape, starting in the back and bring your eye to the foreground. Most artists have a love-hate relationship with floral painting. There's plenty to learn from the genre, but I've found that...
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White Radiance by Scott Royston, 2007, oil on canvas, 14 x 11. When Scott Royston sets his sights on flowers for one of his still life oil painting compositions, he isn’t drawn to tiny buds or small bouquets but expressive flora in full bloom. For him, painting flowers is a gradual process that...
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Dirk Hagner's depiction of dying sunflowers won a Juror's Choice Award in the Blossom Art of Flowers competition in 2007. An artist shuts the door on inspiration and creative possibilities when he or she withdraws from exploring subject matter because there doesn’t appear to be anything...
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Arums II by Tamara de Lempicka, 1931 I've grown to appreciate floral paintings. Of course, flowers are nice to look at, and I recognize the technical skill needed to paint them, but I wasn't always certain of the appeal of the subject matter. The question of how an artist approaches a bouquet...
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Robert Johnson's floral still life demonstration began with a studied, thoughtfully arranged composition (left) that culminated in the oil painting on the right. Robert Johnson strikes the perfect balance between master artist and down-to-earth mentor, supporting his students while pushing them to...
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Blue Longing by Crystal MacEachern, 2007, acrylic on paper, 12 x 14. My main recommendation for this floral painting concerns illumination and shadow. There is a hint of shadow rendering in the centers of the flowers, and this concept needs to be used in the flower petals also. To render objects in a...
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I recently assisted my granddaughter, Amanda, as she painted with water-soluble tempera colors in our backyard. Like most four-year-olds, she loves to draw and paint, and although her drawings have become increasingly controlled pictures of herself, her parents, five pets, and her home, the paintings...