-
Sonata of the Sea--Finale by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, 1908. One of my favorite movements in art is the Symbolist movement of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. The artists were so free in exploring what mattered to them—personal narrative, rich histories and mythologies, and even...
-
I want to share an inspiring story I just heard from one of our members, Mark Beale . Enjoy! Bryce Canyon by Bruce Stam, oil painting, 8 x 10. Backwater Twilight by Mark Beale, oil painting, 9 x 12. Bruce Stam and I are two landscape painters from opposite sides of the country who gravitated to each...
-
Lee's Ranch - Sunny Day by Camille Przewodek, 9 x 12, oil on canvas. Even now it sounds like a beautiful, incredible, impossible thing to accomplish. I mean, paint light ? It seemed like magic to me at first. And I didn't understand what it all entailed. That changed after I heard Camille Przewodek...
-
During this time of year I like to reflect upon and appreciate all the blessings in my life (...also eat a lot of carbs and watch TV marathons). But lately I've been dwelling on how lucky we are to have so much amazing art created and inspired by the American landscape. I would have no problem filling...
-
Optimal Orientation of Subject and Artist in Plein Air Before the first daub of paint is squeezed out of the tube and brush is put to canvas, many plein air painters have already set themselves up for failure. How? By selecting a site that doesn't translate well into painting. Just because a scene...
-
Demonstration: Exploring Composition Through a Limited Focus A "limited focus" isn't limiting at all, but expands our options in composition The first compositional move any painter makes is to apply a limited focus. Whether it be a still life, an interior, a figure, or a landscape (which...
-
This December, Signilar —the maker of top notch art instruction videos—is hosting a painting workshop led by portrait artist Judith Carducci in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. To gush just a lil' bit, this seems like an amazing opportunity! You get to experience painting in a beautiful natural...
-
When discussing landscape painting , we often hear the phrase "capturing a sense of place." What does that mean to you? To me, it means so much more than just recording the physical attributes of the location. It goes way beyond suggesting the time of day or weather conditions. If a plein air...
-
Anselm Kiefer is not a landscape painter by any stretch of the imagination, and yet his incredibly powerful work is based in and of the land. Observing his mixed media paintings and sculpture has taught me a lot about what a truly impactful landscape painting can be-and one thing that I realize it doesn't...
-
But that is exactly what makes them so powerful. I've never been more moved by seeing a work in person than I am when I see Kiefer's. They floor me. As I said in my other post on Kiefer , it certainly has to do, in part, with the fact that his work isn't picture perfect. And it also has to...
-
Breaking the Light by Don Demers, 24 x 36, oil painting. Don Demers knows that inspiration is always there if you know how to look for it, but he's also nobody's fool—he understands that to create a breathtaking and moving painting you sometimes have to merge moments together for the greatest...
-
Ernest Lawson (1873 - 1939) came to maturity at the dawn of the 20th century, so his work was modern and gritty and real. His are not the idyllic landscape paintings of Corot , nor are they the dazzling light shows in Monet's plein air paintings . They are tough, and yet there is an elegance and...
-
Slicker by Mary Whyte, watercolor painting, 18 1/2 x 18. I went through a phase when I thought I could control everything--where my career was headed, how my relationships were going to turn out, and what kind of life I was going to have. Ah, I crack myself up. What was I thinking? I now realize that...
-
But I think it's time for some straight talk. I've participated in many, many plein air painting critiques over the years, and I can't begin to tell you how often I've been faced with landscape paintings that are a little off. Perhaps it's an ugly red stop sign that distracts from...
-
Here's the oil painting by Casper David Friedrich that I have on a postcard called The Sea of Ice (1824, oil on canvas, 38 x 50). In college, I created a series of mixed media collages that incorporated several of the same images, but each looked different in its final form and presented a distinctive...