the SGVA blog

Kari Webster

2012-01-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

I am an artist at heart and it runs in my blood. Many of my family members have been artists and have done great work. I attended classes in high school and during and after college, but I have not always had the time to keep up my skills as much as I would have liked. I am striving to always find the time now and it is my goal to follow my heart in art.

I enjoy acrylic or watercolor but would like to learn to use more oil paints. I love to paint/draw most anything but I hope to increase my skills in portrait and landscapes.

Accomplishments:

Associate of science at Weber State University
Bachelor of Information Systems at Utah State University
Real Estate License

Gallery: View Works
Contact: kariwebster1@gmail.com

Library: The Artist's Magazine - March 2012

2012-01-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

Title: The Artist's Magazine - March 2012
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: F+W Media Inc.
Media: Magazine
Size: N/A
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: SGVA Library
Synopsis:

Oil Painting Grounds
Classical Painting Techniques
Staying Young at Heart
Make Clouds Move in Pastel
Multifigure Paintings
Details of the Mystery - Paul Fenniak renders the strangeness of contemporary life by placing ordinary people in odd situations.
Slow & Steady - Master painter Douglas Flynt methodically explains the nuances of classical techniques for composing and painting a still life.
California Dreaming - Working within a narrow value range in pastel, Jannene Behl depicts the lush landscapes of the Pacific Coast.
The Hybrid Landscape of the Heart - With a startlingly original vision and alternating applications of thick and thin paint, Melanie Daniel deconstructs images of Canada and Israel.
At Their Peak - Having retired from the workaday world, the ten winners of our Over 60 Art Competition celebrate their lives' second acts.

Term: Craquelure

2012-01-26T10:52:00.001-07:00

A distinctive pattern of hairline cracks that appear in the surface of a painting as it ages (sometimes referred to as crazing). The cracks can cover the whole painting or just portions of the image. Craquelure patterns differs depending on type of support, ground and paint used. For example, on wood supports the craquelure pattern will follow the grain of the wood. The cracks are caused primarily by the shrinkage of aging paint, varnish, or ground.

Term: Paint

2012-01-26T10:51:00.001-07:00

A liquid solution that hardens to a solid film after it is applied to a surface. The solid film adheres to the surface allowing the paint to become a enduring decoration. The paint mixture usually consists of a solid pigment, a liquid binder, and solvents added to alter the consistency. For example, oil paints are made with natural oils such as linseed, walnut, or poppy and require mineral solvents. Acrylic paints are made with acrylic polymer emulsion made from acrylic resins and can be diluted with water.

Term: Binder

2012-01-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

A binder, commonly referred to as a vehicle in paint, is the agent that makes paint stick to the support. It is the component in paint that forms a solid film. The binder holds the pigments together and influences the visual properties of the paint (such as, gloss, durability, flexibility, and so forth).

Binders can be categorized according to how they cure or dry. For example, the binder used in watercolor and gouache is gum arabic which dries by evaporation. Oil paints use some sort of drying oil, usually linseed or a modified oil called an alkyd. Oil paints cure using a oxidative crosslinking process.

Quote: Painting Should Never Look Difficult

2012-01-26T09:42:00.001-07:00

"Painting should never look as if it were done with difficulty, however difficult it may actually have been."

Robert Henri

Quote: Project Into Your Subject Till You Live In It

2012-01-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

"Project your mind into your subject till you actually live in it. Throw your heart into the picture and jump in after it... Art is not a transcript or a copy. Art is the expression of those beauties and emotions that stir the human soul."

Howard Pyle

Quote: Knowing Your Craft Is Not Enough To Paint A Picture

2012-01-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

"There are ten thousand people in the United States who can paint and draw to beat the band. You have never heard of them and you never will. They have thoroughly mastered their craft and that is all they have—their craft… Merely knowing your craft will never be enough to make a picture… If you ever amount to anything at all, it will be because you are true to that deep desire or ideal which made you seek artistic expression in pictures."

Harvey Dunn

Quote: Brush Strokes Carry A Message

2012-01-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

"Brush strokes carry a message whether you will it or not. The stroke is just like the artist at the time he makes it. All the certainties, all the uncertainties, all the bigness of his spirit and all the littleness are in it."

Robert Henri

Quote: Express Own Emotions An Be Master Of Form

2012-01-20T06:15:00.003-07:00

"Great painting is the result of two factors. The first essential is that the painter should be expressing his own genuine emotional reactions in a form which is the appropriate vehicle for that expression. The second factor is that he should be a master of that form."

R. Ives Gammell

Tip: Successful Glazing

2012-01-18T09:15:00.003-07:00

Glazing is a simple idea that can be tricky to implement. Here are a few suggestions for making your glazes work each and every time.

Make sure the underpainting is nearly complete and the surface is completely covered with paint.
Do not try to glaze over paint that is still drying.
After glazing, you can vary the effect by removing some of the glaze with a cloth or dry brush. Dabbing at the glaze will remove any streaks and help soften edges.
After the glaze is tacky, add new paint to the modeled areas of the picture to emphasize the form and bring out more intense colors. This is helpful as glazing tends to flatten the image and dull some colors.
Do not glaze over a previously glazed area unless the glaze is thoroughly dry. Depending on the mediums used, the new glaze could remove portions of the previous layer.

Quote: Waiting For The Mood Is The Stamp Of Amateurism

2012-01-18T07:25:00.001-07:00

"I have the reputation of being a rapid worker, but in reality I am a very steady, slow worker. I make many experiments before I begin, but when I start I go straight away. I work with a belief that the deliberate work is the swiftest... I paint practically all day, according to the work I have in hand... I consider six hours a very good day's work. As for waiting for inspiration I have no faith in it. I am guided by the nature of the task I have in hand. I take the thing as it comes... Waiting for the mood, being unable to control oneself, is the stamp of amateurism. My principle is that one ought always to control oneself."

Frederic Lord Leighton

Library: Working Out a Painting

2012-01-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

Title: Working Out a Painting - Techniques For Transforming Your Oils
Owner: Curt Curtis
Author: Colleen Browning
Media: Book (hardcover)
Size: 144 pages
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: Owner
Synopsis:
A painting begins as an idea in the mind of the painter and is gradually worked out from tentative image to full maturity. Every painter knows that, in reality, there is no straight line from initial sketch to finished work; rather, there is an exciting but often arduous journey full of small deviations and major obstacles that must be explored and overcome before the desired destination is reached.

Working Out a Painting is about the adventure of creating a figurative painting. It is also about the process of painting a picture in oil, describing in detail the almost magical transformations that an oil painting goes through on its way to becoming a mature work of art. In this book Collen Browning stresses the innate opportunities for change and development in the forgiving medium of oil.

Class: Introduction to Painting with Hard and Soft Dry Pastels

2012-01-16T07:49:00.000-07:00

In this class students will learn about the history of pastels with some reference to the French Impressionists. They shall receive instruction in various supports and preparation of supports unique to pastel painting. They will execute a painting that include processes such as underpainting, some blending, and methods of layering the medium. Information will be given regarding proper care, matting and framing of pastel art. Work by contemporary pastel artists will be shared with students.

Patricia has graciously offered to teach this class as a fundraiser for the SGVA. Any proceeds received will be used to purchase a projector for future SGVA classes. Thank you so much Pat!

Instructor: Patricia Christensen
Difficulty: Beginner
Type of Class: Demonstration, Lecture and Activities
Media: Pastel
Supply List:

Drawing Board
1/2 Sheet Canson MiTeintes Pastel Paper (color "Moonstone")
Dry Pastels (no Oil Pastels)

To enroll indicate whether you are an SGVA member by clicking on the arrow to the right of one of the "SGVA Membership" box below (this will show you the price you will be charged for the class), then click the "Pay Now" button. If the session is full you will told that the item is "sold out" and you will not be charged. If there is still room in the class, you will be prompted for the information needed to complete the transaction.

Enrollment is limited to the first 15 applicants. SGVA members may not enroll at the member rate unless they fully satisfied the conditions of membership. Incorrect enrollments will be returned after being charged a small handling fee.

Date: Saturday, February 25th
Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Syracuse Community Center, Arts and Crafts Room

Quote: A Certain Effect Is Produced Upon Us

2012-01-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

"Imitation is worthless. Photography does it much better than you or I can... Now, in art, in true art, we are not seeking to deceive. We do not pretend that this is a real tree, a real river, but we use the tree or the river as a means to give you the feeling or impression that under certain conditions a certain effect is produced upon us."

George Inness

Library: Southwest Art - January 2012

2012-01-06T21:16:00.002-07:00

Title: Southwest Art - January 2012
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: F + W Media, Inc.
Media: Magazine
Size: N/A
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: SGVA Library
Synopsis:

Special Focus: Painting the Figure
A New Book: Landscapes Across America
Preview the Coors Western Art Show
A Closer Look- Kathrine Lemke Waste captures fleeting moments in exquisite still-life paintings.
My World- A visit with Nicholas Coleman at his studio in Provo, UT.
From the Editor- Thoughts on the new West Select show at the Phoenix Art Museum.
Artist to Watch- Gary Hernandez makes connections with figurative paintings.
Art Values- Three figurative paintings to add to your collection.

Library: Southwest Art - December 2011

2012-01-06T20:58:00.005-07:00

Title: Southwest Art - December 2011
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: F + W Media, Inc.
Media: Magazine
Size: N/A
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: SGVA Library
Synopsis:

Meet the Winners of our Artistic Excellence competition
Poetry of Place- Plein-air painter Dave Santillanes holds an intimate conversation with nature.
Old and New Worlds- Hsin-Yao Tseng draws on ancient and modern aesthetics to portray the world around him.
My World- A visit with Trudy Evard Chiddix at her studio in Evergreen, CO.
Against the Tide- Painter Robert Lemler has charted his own artistic course.
From Apple to Umami- Six artists savor still lifes of food.
From the Editor- A report from the Cowboy Artists of America show.
Artist to Watch- Erin O'Connor feels at home in nature.
Art Values- Three urbanscapes to add to your collection.
Success Stories- Catching up with Brian Blood, who first appeared in our pages in May 2002.

Library: Southwest Art - November 2011

2012-01-06T17:48:00.007-07:00

Title: Southwest Art - November 2011
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: F + W Media, Inc.
Media: Magazine
Size: N/A
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: SGVA Library
Synopsis:

Two Glass Masters Join Forces
Family Ties: Related Artists Across the West
Plus: Rocky Mountain Landscapes
Right Under the Sky- Oil painter Greg Scheibel earns his plein-air stripes in the great outdoors.
Telling Stories- California artist Julio Reyes composes new classics.
My World- A visit with Wanda Choate at her studio in Springfield, TN.
From the Editor- Celebrating the virtues of family.
Artist to Watch- Kerry Schroeder's paintings are portraits of nature.
Art Values- Three paintings of toys to add to your collection.
Success Stories- Catching up with Morgan Weistling, who first appeared in our pages in January 1999.
From Our Archives- A look at some notable covers from the past 40 years.

Library: International Artist - December/January 2012

2012-01-06T16:51:00.010-07:00

Title: International Artist - December/January 2012
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: International Artist Publishing Inc.
Media: Magazine
Size: N/A
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: SGVA Library
Synopsis:

The Making of a Masterpiece
A Shared Vision- Christine Egnoski reflects on the beginnings of the Portrait Society and the achievements of the Society's late chairman, Gordon Wetmore
My Point of View- Christine Egnoski speaks with featured artist Patricia Watwood
Masters Showcase
Portrait Demonstration- Michelle Dunaway
A Day in the Life of an Artist, Morton Kaish- A series where we take a look into the lives of some of the world's most noted artists
Jean-Baptist Monge- We look at what drives this seasoned illustrator
James Gurney Masterclass Part 6 Sunbeams, Shadowbeams & Dappled Light- James Gurney, the author, artist, and illustrator of the #1 bestselling art instruction books Imaginative Realism and Color and Light reveals useful insights about painting light
Part 2 Composing and Painting from Reference Photographs- Readers are in for a treat in the months to come as you enjoy this regular column by award winning all media artist Bill James
Creating a Convincing Alternate Reality- Dana Levin evokes poetry in realism through meticulous attention to how a painting is finished
Apply Like Weak Tea: Multiple Glazings for Vibrant Color- Doris Davis Glackin practices patient glazing on each part of a plant
The Brightest Sparks- Martin Wessler believes the key to a really good work of art is knowing clearly what the "spark" is
The Making of The Toy Peddler of Dupont Street- The step-by-step development of Mian Situ's latest masterpiece for the Jackson Hole art auction
Like Being There: Capturing the Unseen- Transferring the feeling of the moment, from the artist to the beholder, is the motivation to paint for
Painting on a Bella Donna Theme- Pamela Griffith customised to match a theme desired by her client
Going [very] Wild in Africa- Australian wildlife artist Steve Morvell claims you cannot "truly" paint something you have never personally experienced-- here is an opportunity to add to your experience!
Understanding Color Part 15- Michael Wilcox is a leading expert in the science of color. In this issue we will now take a look at the various greens
The Making of an Artist Part 38- "Communicating Emotion with Brushwork" & "Complementary Color Harmony"
How Could Your Gallery Work?
The Big Stick Approach- John Lovett shows you how to beat your paintings into submission
Harley Brown's Fascinating Things No One Else Will Tell You

Quote: Accept Criticism With Grace

2012-01-04T10:16:00.001-07:00

"I think painters should have the ambition to be great artists but also the humility to accept criticism with grace. Of course, you don't have to follow the criticism, but you should think about it. Keep your mind open, and don't think that the ordinary layman, who knows nothing of art vocabulary or theory, cannot make valuable comments about your work. These comments may, in fact, be surprisingly useful just because they are unaffected by current art styles and opinions."

Colleen Browning

A Knowlegde Of Their Fathers

2011-12-20T10:59:00.001-07:00

My children bought me a painting a few years ago. My wife didn't like the frame so we bought a new frame for it. Eventually we let the painting go but we kept the purchased frame. It is a size that I do not normally work in. The empty frame has been sitting in my studio for some time now. So, I painted this picture to go in the frame.

I titled this picture "Bringing them to a knowledge of their fathers..." (2 Nephi 3:12), or "A Knowledge Of Their Fathers". The phrase comes from the Book of Mormon and suggests that reading it will bring people to better understand those who lived on this continent years ago. As I grow older, my appreciation for the knowledge and accomplishments of prior generations and preceding civilizations grows as well.

I hope you enjoy this picture.

Artist: Curt Curtis
Media: Oil
Support: Board
Size: 12" x 16"
Framing: Not framed
Finish: None

Library: Oil Painting - A Direct Approach

2011-12-17T09:19:00.004-07:00

Title: Oil Painting - A Direct Approach
Owner: Curt Curtis
Author: Joyce Pike
Media: Book (hardcover)
Size: 152 pages
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: Owner
Synopsis:
Here's how to create oil paintings that sparkle with clean, clear color, without muddy, overworked details - the kinds of paintings that have become Joyce Pike's trademark and have made her a successful artists and teacher.

In her chatty, easy -to-understand style, Pike will lead you through every step of her direct painting method. She'll help you make important decisions before you pick up a brush, so you'll make every stroke count, keeping your colors clean and avoiding the muddiness that can occur with layer upon layer of paint.

Look over Joyce's shoulder as she shows you how to establish value and color with a thin underpainting of acrylic, then use oils to loosely sketch in each object in your painting. She'll demonstrate how to block in an entire picture with just one layer of oil, then carefully apply each detail, then the finishing touches.

By studying enlarged details of her paintings, and by following her step-by-step demonstrations, you'll learn how to apply Pike's direct approach to subjects in your studio, including still lifes and figures. Here Pike shares advice on how to select and arrange your subject, how to use a spotlight for dramatic effects, and how to compose a painting to tell a story or express emotion. Next go out of doors to paint landscapes and seascapes, and learn Pike's special techniques for mixing life-life greens, for rendering the textures of rocks and the desert, for simplifying the perspective of boats and buildings, and for capturing the moods and motions of the sea.

In all, you'll learn how to use pure color and descriptive brushwork to create rich radiant oil paintings.

Library: The Artist's Magazine - January/February 2012

2011-12-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Title: The Artist's Magazine - January/February 2012
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: F+W Media Inc.
Media: Magazine
Size: N/A
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: SGVA Library
Synopsis:

Let it Snow! - Five artists share tips for painting the winter landscape—in pastel, oil, watercolor and acrylic.
Floating and In Flux - Working with watercolor on synthetic paper, George James depicts a mutable world.
Luminous Illusion - Ted Polomis applies transparent glazes over opaque colors to render playful yet precise still lifes.
Face to Face With Social Media - Connect with customers and build your brand via Facebook.
Fantastic Gardens - Colored pencil plus watercolor—the secret to Karen Anne Klein's ornate depictions of the natural world.
In Balance - Will Barnet, at 100 years old, continues to demonstrate mastery of design.
Star Students - We applaud the student winners of The Artist's Magazine's 28th Annual Art Competition.
Anatomy of a Fold - To depict drapery, master these seven folds.
An underpainting informs a spare landscape in pastel.
The Artist's Life - Albuquerque as an artists' town; cookies as art; Leonardo's masterpieces reunited; and more.

Library: Hints To Young Painters, And The Process of Portrait-Painting

2011-12-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Title: Hints To Young Painters, And The Process of Portrait-Painting
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: Thomas Sully
Media: Digital book
Size: N/A
Availability: View Online
Location: Google books
Synopsis:

Variously known as "The American Sir Thomas Lawrence," and "The American Patriarch of Painting," the English-born artist, Thomas Sully, was one of America's greatest portrait painters. Of the 2631 paintings Sully created in his seventy-year career, more than 2000 were portraits, including pictures of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, the Marquis de Lafayette, John Quincy Adams, James K. Polk, and the then newly-crowned Queen Victoria (1837). Of these works, the vast majority are in collections in the United States.
In 1819, Sully began taking on students, teaching them to paint free of charge. Due to health and time restrictions, he was eventually forced to limit the number of students to those who were already skilled at drawing and who could afford an annual tuition of $500. In the 1850s, however, as Sully's domination of the portraiture field began to wane, his thoughts once again returned to teaching on a larger scale. During this time, he began an art instruction book, but by the time of his death, twenty years later, the manuscript had yet to be delivered to any publisher.
This is that book, which Sully revised in 1871, and which was finally published posthumously in 1873. Though trained as a miniaturist, Sully briefly studied with Benjamin West, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and Gilbert Stuart, whom Sully credited with having the greatest impact upon his career; it is likely that the color palette Sully recommends in the book is the same he learned from Stuart in the three weeks he studied with the man.

Tip: Reference Photographs, Copyrights, and Privacy Rights

2011-12-16T10:13:00.001-07:00

There are two legal rights to be concerned with when using photographs as reference in paintings. The first is copyright and the second is the right of privacy (or the right of publicity in the case of famous people). Each of these rights are briefly described below.

Right of Privacy

If you are painting a live person using a photograph as reference, the right of privacy applies. Each person controls his or her own privacy rights if they are a competent adult. Before a child reaches the age of majority (generally 18 years old) or if a person is legally incompetent, these rights are protected by the individual's legal guardians (such as a parent).

Before you can reproduce an image that is substantially similar to a living person, that person or person's guardian must sign a release allowing you to do so. In other words, if you are going to create an image of a person that is accurate enough to be recognized, you need his or her permission.

Copyrights

Copyrights protect the creator of an original work giving him or her exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyrights apply to photographs, paintings, and other works of art whether they are found in books or on the internet. The idea is simple, unless a photographer has given you express permission to reproduce his or her photograph, you cannot copy it.

A more common practice is to use one or more photographs as reference when creating a new work of art. This can be done so long as the new image is substantially different from the original and would not be recognized as a reproduction. This of it this way, if someone was shown the photograph and your painting, would they say my painting was based on the photograph? If the answer is yes, then it is a derivative use of the photograph and not a reference use.

Public domain is the term for media that is totally free for the public to use. If you are looking for a photograph to model a painting after, this is what you want. For instance, all photographs made before 1921 are in the public domain as copyrights did not exist before that time. The terms "free" or "royalty free" do not mean that the photographs are in the public domain, only that you do not have to pay to use them. Copyrights still apply.

Tip: Barrett on Folds

2011-12-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

In the January/February 2012 issue of The Artist's Magazine, Utah's own Robert T. Barrett describes the different types of folds that are routinely seen in drapery, clothing, and other fabrics. He contends that in order to draw folds more convincingly, you must "understand the anatomy of folds."

As Barret describes, folds in fabric are strongly influenced by gravity and the objects that either support (hold up) or obstruct (causes tension) the fabric. In most cases, the points of support and tension are caused by the forms obscured by the fabric. For example, if the fabric is being worn by a person, the human body provides the supports and obstructions that create the folds.

Each of the seven folds are briefly described below. Barrett's illustrations show the points of support and tension, as well as the effects of gravity.

The pipe fold is the most common. It usually forms where there is a single point of support. These folds are governed more by gravity than the forms beneath the fabrics.

Diaper folds are triangular in shape. They are caused by two supports. The angle of the fold is determined primarily by the amount of slack between them.

A zigzag fold can be thought of as a bent pipe fold. The bend forces the fabric to fold in zigzag patterns across the cylindrical shape caused by gravity alone.

A half-lock fold is similar to the zigzag fold but is more compressed.

The spiral fold is less common but appears where loose fabric is gathered tightly at one end.

A drop fold is irregular in nature. It is caused when fabrics are draped loosely on or over a support. You will see a variety of other fold shapes occuring within a drop fold.

The inert fold is static and horizontal in nature. Like the drop fold, it may contains a variety of other fold shapes.

Term: Mineral Oil

2011-12-09T13:49:00.001-07:00

Mineral oil is a colorless, odorless mixture of alkanes and cyclic paraffins that come from non-vegetable sources (such as, petroleum where it is a plentiful byproduct of gasoline distillation). It is a non-drying oil that is used increasingly to clean oil paints from brushes and other painting products. Although it is not as effective as other solvents, mineral oil is nontoxic and inexpensive. Mineral oil has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in personal products and food, and is a common ingredient in baby lotions, cold creams, ointments and cosmetics.

Term: Processed Oils

2011-12-09T08:58:00.001-07:00

Processed oils include a variety of drying oils that have been treated to improve their painting characteristics (such as, reduced drying time, non-yellowing, and so forth). The most common types of processed oils and their properties are briefly described below:

Sun-Thickened Oil - Sun-thickened oil is a created by exposing it to the sun in an open container for several months. This oil has a thick, syrup-like consistency and is somewhat bleached in color. It dries quickly and hardens to a tough, non-yellowing film.
Sun-Bleached Oil - Like sun-thickened oil, this oil is created by exposing it to the sun but in a closed container (to minimize the oxidation). The result is an oil that is lighter in color and has less tendency to yellow.
Stand Oil - Stand oil (or polymerized oil) is made by heating linseed oil to a high temperature for several days in the absence of oxygen. The oil has a pale clear color and is rather thick. It produces a tough, enamel-like, non-yellowing film but it takes longer to dry (about a week to be dry to the touch although it will remain tacky for some time thereafter).
Boiled Oil - Boiled oils have been heated and mixed with a dryer to give them a faster-drying time and a glossy finish. These oils tend to yellow and darken with age, so they should be used only in lower layers of paint and with darker colors.
Refined Oil - The term "refined" can be used to describe all types of processed oils but it is used more commonly to refer to an oil that has been bleached and purified. The refining process is called alkali refining and involves mixing the oil with soda and lightly heating it until the impurities can be isolated and removed.

Term: Drying Oils

2011-12-08T21:13:00.001-07:00

Drying oils are vegetable oils that become dry to the touch under normal temperatures after being exposed to the air for a period of time. Drying oils do not actually dry in the traditional sense (that is, through evaporation of water or other solvents) but rather react chemically with oxygen to hardens to a tough, solid film.

Drying oils are the binder used to create oil-based paints and mediums. Oils can also be added to paint to modify its consistency, make a glossier finish, or extend the drying time. Using oils rather than solvents to thin paints prevents over thinning which is particularly useful in maintaining the flexibility of paints when working fat over lean.

Common drying oils include linseed (or flax seed), walnut, poppy and safflower. These oils have different drying rates, consistencies and color. Non-drying oils are mineral oils and vegetable oils, such as peanut oil and cottonseed oil, that do not oxidize and harden naturally. These oils should not be combined with oil-based paints.

Mickey Hutchinson

2011-12-05T19:17:00.001-07:00

Mickey is one of the founding members of the SGVA. She enjoys working with many mediums, including oil, acrylic, watercolor, color pencil, and more.

Gallery: View Works
Contact: Mickey Hutchinson

Tip: Painting With a Knife

2011-12-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

Painting with a knife is a bit like spreading icing on a cake. Although a painting knife can be used with any paint, it is most effective with paint that is relatively stiff, like butter or icing (such as, oil and acrylic paints). As you might imagine, knives produce quite a different texture and effect than do brushes. For instance, knives are excellent at applying thick impasto strokes, creating sweeping areas of clean color, and making tiny shapes as well.

Painting with a knife is not particularly difficult to learn. In fact, some aspects of painting are great simplified when using a knife. For example, knives are much easier to clean than brushes. Just wipe away any excess paint from the blade using a cloth or paper towel. Even if you let the paint dry on the knife, it can be easily removed by scraping it with a damp cloth, fingernail, or another knife. However, if a knife is made from steel rather than stainless steel, it may rust if you leave water-based paints to dry.

Here is how you paint using a knife:

Mix your paint as you normally do using a palette knife. You may also use the painting knife for this purpose if it has a large enough blade.
With a clean knife, pick up a small amount of paint from your palette near the tip on the edge of the blade. It should feel something like taking a small amount of butter from a butter plate.
Using the side of the blade, spread the paint across your canvas. This stroke can be light or heavy. A light touch will allow the paint to be pulled from the knife by the weave of the canvas. Increase the pressure and you can scrap the paint accross the surface, leaving paint only between the fibers. You can vary the touch depending on the effect you want to acheive.
You can also press paint onto the canvas by pushing the blade flat against the canvas.
Using only the tip of the blade to pick-up and apply the paint, you can produce small dots of color. Using only the the edge of the knife while moving the knife in the same direction as the blade, you can produce very fine lines.
A clean blade can also be used to scrap layers of existing paint to expose the canvas or lower levels of paint (see s'graffito).
If you let the painted surface dry, the canvas can be lightly sanded making it easier to apply a second layer of paint.

Be careful to note that the edge of a painting blade becomes sharper the more it is used. If the blade becomes too sharp, or if the blade breaks, you can grind-down the edge to make a smaller blade.

Georg Miciu-Nicolaevici, Detail of "La Yunta" (The Pair)

Library: The Elements of Drawing - John Ruskin’s Teaching Collection at Oxford

2011-12-05T09:29:00.001-07:00

Title: The Elements of Drawing - John Ruskin's Teaching Collection at Oxford
Owner: Ashmolean
Author: John Ruskin
Media: Other
Size: N/A
Availability: View Online
Location: Ashmolean (Ruskin)
Synopsis:

John Ruskin was a Victorian writer, art critic, draftsman and watercolorist. He is most well-known for his defense of the fledgling Pre-Raphaelite group of painters. That group was also influenced by Ruskin's own writing, particularly his elevation of "truth to nature" as a high ideal for artists. That philosophy, and Ruskin himself, first attained prominence with an essay in Modern Painters in 1843 in which he defended the work of J.M.W. Turner.
Ruskin was also the author of a treatise on drawing entitled The Elements of Drawing, that is still relevant and continues to be reprinted and valued today. Among his other accomplishments, Ruskin was a professor of fine art at University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing, which continues today as The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (usually referred to as simply "The Ruskin").
Associated with the university is the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, which has placed online a resource titled The Elements of Drawing - John Ruskin’s Teaching Collection at Oxford. It features digitizations of much of Ruskin’s collection of almost 1500 works that he assembled for use in his school. The collection includes drawings and watercolors by himself and a number of other artists as well as prints and photographs.
You can browse and search the collection in several ways, but the best introduction is probably the highlights assortment of 50 objects. The objects listings have pages describing the works, and most are linked to larger versions of the images.

Supplies: Rosemary & Company's Brushes

2011-12-05T08:57:00.001-07:00

Legacy Art Products is the American distributor of Rosemary & Company's artist paint brushes. World renowned for their quality, these brushes are the trusted tools of professional painters and students world over. Manufactured in England, each brush measures roughly thirteen inches. With polished black handles, the brush hairs are set into a nickel plated copper ferule. Durable, these brushes retain their shapes and edges if cared for properly.

The first style offered is Rosemary's Ivory synthetic brushes, which are described as a fine imitation of a bristle brush, but whose "silky spring" does not leave the characteristic brush marks associated with the natural hair version. Rosemary designed these to be a "working tool for oil artists" - a brush that does not splay, keeps a good firm shape, can carry a good load of paint, and cleans out very well. It is a popular brush range which outsells its Chungking bristle counterparts by a ratio of 10:1.

The second style offered is Rosemary's Master's Choice Mongoose brushes, a natural-hair, brush line which has garnered fans throughout the United States. Mongoose hair offers a semi-firm stroke, which finishes velvety under a light touch. Its marks are distinctive, and the hairs are resilient and wear well. The Series 279 Long Flat is particularly popular, earning endorsements from Jeremy Lipking, Morgan Weistling, Tony Pro, and Richard Schmid.

Size: Varies
Exchange Type: Purchase
Price: Varies by size and type
Owner: Legacy Art Products

Term: Palette Knife

2011-11-30T18:54:00.001-07:00

Palette knives have long, straight blades or are shaped like spatulas. They are used primarily for mixing paint, mediums, and sizing before applying them to a support. They are also used to scrape a palette clean but are not designed to apply paint to a canvas. A palette knife can be made from metal, plastic, or wood and will either be completely straight or have a slight crank (or bend) between the handle and the blade.

Although the term palette knife is often used to describe all knives used in the painting process, a painting knife is different than a palette knife. Painting knives have triangular, pear or trowel-shaped blades that are smaller and more flexible. They are used in place of a brush for applying paint directly onto a canvas or painting surface, but they can also be used to mix paints on a palette as well.

Painting knives are most commonly made from metal with a wood handle. Between the handle and the blade there is usually a large crank or crook, to keep the artist's hand off the paint surface. Painting knives come in a wide variety of styles, shapes, and sizes. Painting knives blades are blunt but can become sharper as the blade is rubbed over a rough painting surface.

Tip: Gauguin's Painting Technique

2011-11-29T16:13:00.001-07:00

Gauguin used unprimed, sackcloth-like fabrics to paint on. He valued their texture as well as their ability to produce dull, matte surfaces. When he used primed canvas, the primer was always thin, pale and absorbent giving it a similar appearance to unprimed cloth. This was the case with Christmas Night which is the work that we will use for our analysis of Gauguin's technique.

Gauguin's palette included white, Prussian blue, ultramarine blue, vermilion, veridian green, yellow ochre, alizarin red,emerald green, Naples yellow, and perhaps cadmium yellow. On occasion Gauguin added wax to his paint to stiffen it and make it even more matte.

The contours of the subject were outlined directly on the primed canvas in vermilion and dark ultramarine or Prussian blue paint. Thereafter, the paint was brushed on stiffly with little scumbling. The colors were applied wet-over-dry by dragging the brush over the rough canvas or over previous layers of dried paint, allowing color to show through. Some wet-on-wet brushwork is also apparent.

Here you can see where the dark outline of the heads has been filled-in with wet-in-wet colors. The faces are very two-dimensional compared to other parts of the painting. The pale background and snowy foreground appear to have been worked in around the figures, partially obscuring one horn and some of the original outline.

Looking closer at the foreground, you can see the texture of the canvas and the thin layers of paint with dabs of stiff paint that caught on the textured surface. The paint is generally applied relatively flat and opaque.

Lastly, you can see in the background colors that have been streaked together wet-in-wet to depict snow-covered roofs and hazy clouds. Even the clouds have been outlined in a pale blue similar to other key elements of the painting.

Term: Foxing

2011-11-29T08:20:00.001-07:00

Brownish-yellow patches of discoloration that appear on vintage paper including watercolors, prints and books. Although the causes of foxing are not well understood, it is believed to be caused by molds that grow on the iron salts left on the paper from production. High humidity may also contribute to foxing. Foxing can be treated but it is unlikely to be removed entirely. Although unsightly, foxing does not affect the actual integrity of the paper.

Term: Area by Area

2011-11-23T10:39:00.001-07:00

An approach to painting where the artist creates a detailed sketch to locate the main points and landmarks, then immediately paints a small area to a finished state. The overall picture is completed as the artist moves from one area to the next, finishing each section before moving on. This is also referred to as windowshading.

This approach is in stark contrast to the more traditional approach of underpainting the entire picture loosely before any details are added. The key to painting area by area is ensuring the drawing is right, and then rendering each area with careful attention to its relationship to other areas.

Term: Enameled

2011-11-23T09:18:00.001-07:00

Enameled is a term that is sometimes used in art to describe a very smoothly painted surface. It is a surface texture without ridges or areas of deliberately roughened paint. The term comes from vitreous enamel which is applied to objects with brushes and fired in a kiln, or enamel paint which dries to a hard, glossy finish. Enameled surfaces are most often associated with techniques like glazing and scumbling. Impasto could be considered the opposite of enameled.

Quote: The Most Perfect Thing In the World Is Nature

2011-11-22T08:30:00.001-07:00

"All my attention as an artist is devoted to reproducing exactly what
I see in nature. I do not endeavor to 'express something.' Those who have a pre-conceived idea an inspiration as they call it are seldom able to render their ideal. Those, on the contrary, who charm us by their talent have done nothing throughout the ages but reproduce nature. They copy as closely as ever they can the most beautiful, the most admirable, the most perfect thing in the world which is nature."

Auguste Rodin

Quote: Scientific Facts Are Generally Artistic Lies

2011-11-22T08:24:00.001-07:00

"...scientific facts are generally artistic lies. Art has nothing to do with things as they are, but only with things as they appear to be, with the visual not the actual, with impressions, not with realities. It is a scientific fact, for instance, that trees are green, and yet it is only under the rarest combination of favoring circumstances that a tree is really green to the visual sense... Each rock, each tree, each waving field of grain has, of course, its fixed and definite local color, but the appearance of each of these objects changes a thousand times a day. And it is with this equation this fleeting, intangible, ever-shifting, ever-varying appearance, that artists have to do. The facts of nature are to him nothing, the mood everything..."

"Here then clearly lies the division line between science and art, the one gives us actual truths, the other visual truths; the one facts, the other moods, impressions, visions; each in its place admirable, each ministering to one of the two great needs of humanity, the physical and the spiritual."

Birge Harrison

Term: Strainer

2011-11-21T19:50:00.001-07:00

A strainer is a rigid frame over which a painting canvas is stretched to make a support. The frame is usually made with wooden members that have tongue-and-groove ends that are fixed. These corners are secured with nails, screws, dowels, glue, pegs, or other types of hardware. A stretcher is very similar to a strainer but a stretcher has expandable corners. For this reason, it can be expanded to tighten a loose canvas even after the canvas has been attached. The straightness and strength of the wooden stretcher bars determine how flat and taut the final painting will be.

Quote: Great Pictures Look Good From A Distance And Up Close

2011-11-21T15:03:00.001-07:00

"The Belgian master, Alfred Stevens, was wont to say that a picture in order to be truly great must excel from two different points of view. When seen from a distance it must be handsome in color, fine in composition, and true to the scene depicted; and when examined at close range the pigment must reveal that precious and jewel-like surface which is described by the word 'quality.'"

Birge Harrison

Term: Aerial Perspective

2011-11-20T09:58:00.001-07:00

Aerial perspective or atmospheric perspective refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as it's viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any markings or details within the object also diminishes. The colors of the object also become less saturated and shift toward the background color.

From The Artist's Magazine

Class: Techniques of Abstraction

2011-11-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Abstract art uses the visual language of form, color and line to create compositions that do not represent reality. The degree of abstraction from what we know can be slight, partial, or complete. Painting in the abstract frees the artist to express himself or herself in ways that cannot be experienced in any other way.

Abstraction became an accepted form of fine art in the twentieth century. The general theory among abstract artists is that art should portray the spiritual realm and not just the visual world. Even realists value abstract elements in the artwork they produce.

In this class, Gary Bateman will teach his approach to creating abstract art. Gary has a unique set of techniques that he has developed during his 40 year career. In fact, his perseverance and love of the work has resulted in some great successes in the last few years.

Gary will teach using acrylics but he will also discuss how he works with oils to achieve desired effects. In addition to the demonstration and lecture, Gary will help the students begin their own works in monochrome using pencil or charcoal.

Instructor: Gary Bateman
Difficulty: All Skill Levels
Media: Acrylics and Oil
Supply List:

Pencil or charcoal
Drawing paper
Drawing board (if the paper is not in a drawing pad)
Erasers (if desired)

To enroll indicate whether you are an SGVA member by clicking on the arrow to the right of one of the "Membership" box below (this will show you the price you will be charged for the class), then click the "Pay Now" button. If the session is full you will told that the item is "sold out" and you will not be charged. If there is still room in the class, you will be prompted for the information needed to complete the transaction.

Enrollment is limited to the first 15 applicants. SGVA members may not enroll at the member rate unless they fully satisfied the conditions of membership. Incorrect enrollments will be returned after being charged a small handling fee.

Date: Saturday, January 21st
Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Syracuse Community Center, Arts and Crafts Room

Quote: Proportion Gives Elegance, Movement Grace

2011-11-19T15:28:00.001-07:00

"A figure may be elegant but not graceful. Proportion gives elegance, movement grace, color charm... If a picture is not showy enough it is the fault of values; if it lacks in charm the color is wrong; if it is not solid local conditions are to blame."

Charles Lasar

Quote: Never Paint A Portrait As A Pose

2011-11-19T14:48:00.001-07:00

"Never paint a portrait as though the person were posing. A natural position can only be kept for a few seconds, it is like a flash of lightning. You must just put down a few large marks for the chosen position of head, hands, feet, etc., and keep fitting the sitter into them."

Charles Lasar

Tip: Composition Don'ts

2011-11-17T17:55:00.001-07:00

You can probably tell that I have enjoyed reading Birge Harrison's book Landscape Painting more than I thought I would. The chapter on composition was no disappointment. Harrison dismisses most of the rules of composition by saying that the only rules of any practical value are "negative rather than positive." He expresses them as a series of DON'Ts.

Here they are:

Don't try to say two things on one canvas
Don't divide your picture into spaces of equal size and proportion
Don't have anything in the picture which does not explain itself
Don't repeat the main line of your picture with another important line parallel to it
Don't let the dominant line of your picture end aimlessly in mid-air
Don't crowd your composition
Don't put in a single unnecessary feature

I won't elaborate on these as they are self-explanatory, for the most part. Also if you want to ready the book it is available online. Just click here to view it.

Tip: Save Something In Reserve

2011-11-14T15:28:00.001-07:00

A common practice for many artists is to establish the darkest and lightest values in a painting early. This allows for better management of all the values throughout the painting process. When establishing this initial value range, remember to keep some of the extreme light and dark values in reserve. In some respects it is like money. It is always nice to keep some for later, just in case you need it.

The challenge with all aspects of color is to translate the seemingly limitless variations found in nature to the limited range of colors found on a palette. Nevertheless, if the artist is careful it is possible to render the illusion of almost any scene without exhausting our limited value scale. Just don't spend all your values too early.

Here is how Birge Harrison described it:

"Nature never exhausts her value-scale. Even in the most violent effects, she always holds plenty in reserve. And, so far as is possible with our limited scale, we should do the same... [this] means that we should always be able to go a little higher on the high note or a little lower on the low note if it is desirable to do so."

Quote: A Picture Is Often Complete Long Before You Suspect It

2011-11-14T15:27:00.001-07:00

Moonrise on the Beach

"See big! Grab the essential, and leave the little things for any foolish person who chooses to gather them up. To tell the truth, detail is so blatant, so insistent, that it takes years of hard training to see beyond it, to appreciate the essential bigness of things. This is particularly true of outdoor nature... An outdoor picture motive is complicated indeed if it cannot be divided into four or five dominant values. If these are understood, and painted with sympathetic truth, it is astonishing how little detail it requires to complete the picture the trunk of a tree, a few scattered leaves, the curve of a road, and the trick is turned. Always leave something to the imagination of the beholder. A picture is often complete long before you suspect it."

Birge Harrison

Quote: Values, The Most Important Quality

2011-11-14T15:26:00.001-07:00

Madison Square

"Personally, I am inclined to hold values to be the most important quality in a picture and this in spite of the fact that the work must depend for its charm upon the other qualities of color, design, and refraction. But a picture that is good in all these respects being weak and unsound in values, will nevertheless be a poor picture. Values might be compared to the skeleton in a human figure, which depends for its beauty upon the exquisite curves of the rounded limbs, the silken sheen of the hair, and the color of eyes and lips and blushing cheeks. Remove the skeleton, and the whole fabric of beauty falls to earth a shapeless mass. Moreover, values are one of the few things in art that can be learned by almost any one who is gifted with ordinary eyesight; and for that particular reason they should engage the earnest attention of every serious student. One who has thoroughly mastered them has gone a long way on the road to success in painting."

Birge Harrison

Quote: Art Students Want To Fine Short Path To Excellence

2011-11-13T07:47:00.001-07:00

"Art students are terrified at the prospect before them, of the toil required to attain exactness. ... They wish to find some shorter path to excellence, and hope to obtain the reward of eminence by other means than those which the indispensable rules of art have prescribed. They must therefore be told again and again that labour is the only price of solid fame, and that whatever their force of genius may be, there is no easy method of becoming a good painter."

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Library: The Artist's Magazine - December 2011

2011-11-12T11:41:00.001-07:00

Title: The Artist's Magazine - December 2011
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: F+W Media Inc.
Media: Magazine
Size: N/A
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: SGVA Library
Synopsis:

Simple Secret of Composition: the Vertical Line
All About Alkyds
The 30 Winners of the 28th Annual Art Competition - The winners of this year's competition describe the tactics and techniques that underlie their dynamic works
Plan Ahead: 170+ Workshop Here & Abroad
Master Spatial Relationships by Drawing Triangles
Find the Vertical - Energize compositions that are horizontal in format by imposing a vertical line

Term: Alkyd

2011-11-12T11:14:00.001-07:00

An alkyd resin is a polyester modified by the addition of fatty acids and other components. The term alkyd is used in art to refer to paints and mediums that include alkyds. If you use Galkyd or Liquin mediums then you are already painting with alkyds.

Alkyd modified paints dry faster than oils and tend to be more transparent as well. Alkyd paints often dry to the touch in 12-24 hours and can be varnished in 30 days. In addition, most alkyd colors dry at the same rate and have a uniform finish when dry.

Alkyd paints are fully compatible with oil paints and are ideal for those who glaze, paint wet-on-wet, or travel when painting. Alkyds offer direct painters the advantage of drying just enough during a painting session to become tacky, so additional layers of paint can be applied more easily in the same session.

Tip: Color Vibration

2011-11-12T07:14:00.001-07:00

Paul Signac

According to Birge Harrison, the most splendid achievement of the nineteenth century was the discovery of the "technical means by which the scintillating effect of living light could be transferred to the dead and rigid surface of a canvas." He calls this effect vibration.

The Impressionists were the first to discover the effect. They obtained it by laying pure pigments side by side on the canvas. When viewed from a distance these colors came together and appeared to the viewer as the desired color, while at the same time giving that color a luminous quality, or vibration.

As much as Harrison admired the quality of the Impressionists' colors, he found the overall quality of their work to be diminished. Whether you agree with him or not, Harrison goes on to suggest an approach now used by many artists that creates vibrancy without sacrificing quality.

Richard McKinley

Basically he recommends painting cool colors over a warm undercoat without blending or complete coverage. Here is how he describes it in his book, Landscape Painting.

"...vibration is obtained by means of a cool overtone painted freshly into a warm undertone, care being taken not to mix or blend the two coats and not to cover up completely the undertone, rather letting it show through brokenly all over the canvas; the vibration being secured, naturally, by the separate play of the warm and the cold notes. Neither alone would accomplish this purpose, nor would the neutral gray that would result from a too thorough mixing of the tones in the final brush-work."

Here are the advantages Harrison sees in using this approach to obtain vibrant colors:

The approach makes more sense to an artist than juxtaposing small bits of colors. In nature, the local color of the earth, leaves, and grasses are almost always warmer than the light that falls on it from the sky.
The approach is more flexible, in that it allows compositional adjustments to be made when putting in the undertones. This can be done without compromising the surface quality of cooler paint that is added later.

Tip: Using Trangulation For Proportional Accuracy

2011-11-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Triangulation is defined as a "method of determining the relative positions of points in space by measuring the distances, and sometimes angles, between those points and other reference points whose positions are known." (American Heritage Science Dictionary). This concept is used in navigation, GPS positioning, and even in cell phone technology (as in the illustration to the left where triangulation locates a particular phone).

In drawing, the term triangulation is used to describe several different techniques, but one of them can be used to capture accurate proportions when drawing from life. It can also be used to scale any image up or down without the need for grids or boxes. Because it is so versatile we have tried to describe it here as a tip for you to use.

This technique works because it is based on a principle of geometry that states "if two corresponding angles of two triangles have the same measure, the triangles are similar." In other words, if you draw two non-parallel lines that have the same angle with respect to your reference, then they will have the same proportions as your reference regardless of any differences in size.

Here is how it works:

Find three points on the reference image that are somewhat central.
Draw a line that is parallel to an imaginary line that connects two of the three points.
Then draw two points on the line to represent the two points from the reference. The distance between these two points will dictate the size of the final drawing. Make the distance between them larger than the original and you will be scaling up, make the distance smaller and you will be scaling down.
Through either of these points, draw another line that is parallel to an imaginary line that connects the point to the third point on the reference.
Through the other point draw a line that is parallel to an imaginary line that goes through it and the third point also used in the prior step. On your drawing, the third point will be located where the two new lines intersect.
Once you have established this first similar triangle, other points can be transferred from the reference image to the drawing using it and any two existing points on the drawing (repeating steps 4 and 5 described above).

Although I have made it sound as if a line can be drawn with a single stroke, it is more typical and more accurate to establish each line by making several light strokes, one over the other. Making multiple passes over each line will increase the likelihood that the composite of the lines is a better representation of the proportion in the reference.

If you have trouble seeing the angle between two points, you can imagine centering a clock face over one of the points. From the center of the imagined clock try to estimate where the hand on the clock would point to reach the second point. For example, it may point to 1:00 or 8:00 depending on the orientation. The time indicated on the clock shows the angle the line should take on your drawing.

You do not need to triangulate every point from your reference but enough to make the proportions realistic. Once the key proportions are accurately transferred, you can focus on completing the rest of the form or shape. In our example, you can see that the image has been scaled down slightly.

Term: Shape

2011-11-09T07:55:00.001-07:00

Shape is an element of art that describes an enclosed space bounded by edges created by other elements (such as, lines, colors, values, textures, and so forth). Shapes can be geometric with clearly defined edges (including, square, circle, triangle, and so forth) or organic with naturally occurring edges that are irregular (such as the shape of a leaf, tree, or lake).

Shapes have only height and width and are limited to two dimensional or flat media. Forms, on the other hand, have depth as well as shape. Three dimensional forms are the basis of sculpture and many decorative arts. An illusion of form can be created in two dimensions with the help of shading, which gives it a feeling of depth.

Quote: See The Mood And Impression Given

2011-11-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

"I think of a sparkling effect with watercolor; tonal qualities with oils; black, white and gray to express an abbreviated form, or the subject of the essential structure. In all these things—painting, drawing, and prints—I have tried to get the essential character of the subject I was doing. I believe that an expression of that is vital—to try to see in the thing itself the mood and the impression that it gives. This I have tried to paint. To me art is an expression of the sense of the thing rather than a reproduction of it."

LeConte Stewart

Quote: Equip Painters To Act On Creative Impulse

2011-11-08T15:30:00.001-07:00

The Clouds Return After the Rain

"A painter’s training does not consist primarily in instruction as to the handling of his materials. Such knowledge is extremely important, of course, but it is not the main thing. The essential purpose of a painter’s training should be to equip him with the means of solving any problem suggested to him by his creative impulse."

R. Ives Gammell

Term: Line

2011-11-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

A line in drawing refers to a mark that has length, width and direction. Lines are used to delineate form and to suggest movement. Lines can be combined with other lines to create textures and patterns.

As an element of art, line describes the path that the viewer's eye takes as it follows shapes, values and colors. This type of line is not always literal but may simply be implied by the arrangement in a composition.

Lines can be used to convey emotions as well. For example, horizontal lines suggest rest or repose. Therefore compositions in which a horizontal line dominates tend to have a quiet and peaceful feeling. Vertical lines communicate loftiness and spirituality. The quality and character of each line also contributes to the mood of a work. For instance, lines can be soft, bold, broken or confident.

Baby Portrait

2011-11-07T14:43:00.001-07:00

This project was started in Crystal Cook's class.

Artist: Kathy McFadden
Subject: People
Style: Traditional
Media: Watercolor
Support: Paper
Size: 9" X 9"
Framing: Not framed
Finish: None

Julia Tatiana Hinckley

2011-11-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

As a versatile artist who works primarily with the creamy rich textures of oil paint, Julia Hinckley uses both brush and knife techniques with vivid color and dramatic values. Each painting striving to reach a dynamic and a peaceful balance between simple beauty and the intrigue of the world, developing into a visual statement which is not representative of the real world, but her unique sense of reality. She feels it is important in art to not only experience a specific beauty, but also an understanding and point of view beyond the canvas and the scene.

Originally from North of the San Francisco, Julia moved to Utah after getting married. She has a love for all kinds of animals and has worked as an animal advocate and with animal rescue, as well as a chauffeur, chimney sweep, film booker and more recently as a draftsman. Now she is following her dream of being a working artist having recently completed a bachelor of fine arts (with honors) at Weber State University. This included a grand finale of a month of studying art in Venice and Florence, Italy this last summer. The goal now is to continue an education with workshops and practice, lots of practice and to establish herself as an artist. The one thing she learned from the many accomplished people she has had the pleasure to know is that they aren’t so special as much as they are determined and confident in their choices and in themselves as she is working to be.

Gallery: View Works
Contact: Moon Brush Art

Quote: Orchestration Of Value Tone And Color

2011-11-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

"This orchestration of value, tonal as well as color, if I can achieve it, is something that gives the feeling of the composition. These values are difficult to adequately express. It is, however, a matter of colors, dark and light, organized into a design. These color masses and the relative position they take, have aesthetic significance. It is this ensemble of dark and light—of colors properly balanced so far as we are able to put them together—that is really important."

LeConte Stewart

Quote: Use Art To Say The Unsayable

2011-11-04T10:13:00.001-06:00

"Art exists so that we may say the unsayable. Art is always a matter of caring, of being moved. Unless we care, ideas of value are not apt to come, and so far as painting goes, the painter must care. He must be moved by what he is trying to paint."

LeConte Stewart

Quote: Painting From Photography Doesn't Go

2011-11-04T10:12:00.001-06:00

"I’ve tried creating a painting from photography, but it didn’t go because a slide is such a scientific, chemical, mechanical reproduction of nature, and when you’re out there, the whole thing comes upon you. All around me I’m enveloped, and I feel the influence, the emotional impact of it. If you start on a picture at that certain hour, that’s the time to paint it—under a certain light condition. Everything in landscape is the light that envelops it, and you know it changes as the sun goes west."

LeConte Stewart

Term: Texture

2011-11-03T12:01:00.003-06:00

Texture is an element of art that describes both the way a piece feels when touched, and the visual sense of how an object would feel if it existed in real life. Texture is all about the surface quality of a work, whether tactile or visual. Texture can be applied by different uses of media (see Impasto for example) or implied by using combinations of line, pattern, shading, color, and tone (see Frottage for example).

Use Texture To Add Interest

2011-11-03T11:35:00.002-06:00

"I aim for an abstract element of a realistic subject and use texture to add interest and suggest depth."

Margaret Roseman

Quote: Winter Is Lovely To Paint

2011-11-02T09:46:00.002-06:00

"Winter is lovely to paint because you get lovely color harmony. You get lovely notes of color, complementary colors of lavenders and oranges and beautiful notes of the sky. See how different they are, and yet they are closely related. You’ve got a beautiful harmony of color relationships—the lavenders in the road. Every note of color has a relationship. Just the sequence is tied up in a beautiful harmony. You feel that way about it."

LeConte Stewart

Quote: Everything I Paint Has An Abstract Design

2011-11-02T09:41:00.001-06:00

"Everything that I paint has an abstract design, I believe. In that sense it is another undercoat of study. I firmly believe in that, and everything that I do has a design—a pattern of spots, spaces, areas of dark and light, and colors—and I think every picture should have that. It’s very important, but in itself, if you leave it that way as an abstraction, I’ve got no use for it."

LeConte Stewart

Quote: Capture The Light, Express Mood

2011-10-30T17:54:00.001-06:00

"Whatever I did, I worked to capture the light - light in the right relationship with tone, working over the whole canvas to keep up a constant relationship of one tone against another. For me this was really the meaning of the envelope the French talked about. That is, as I viewed it, the envelopment of the work, the scene, within a harmony of light and air and color-tone. Through the atmospheric envelope, I could express mood - that in nature and my own response to it."

LeConte Stewart

Term: Direction

2011-10-30T17:43:00.002-06:00

Kristina Jurick

A principle of design that aligns the elements in order to lead the eye in a particular way, or to give a painting movement. Direction can be thought of as the path the viewer's eye will follow.

Lines naturally have direction. Shapes, textures and patterns can also be configured toward a certain area to give direction. As we see in many works, the subject can also dictate the overall direction of piece.

The dominant direction can have a powerful influence on the mood of a painting. For example, a horizontal direction suggests calmness, stability and tranquility, whereas vertical direction gives a feeling of balance, formality and alertness.

Term: Dominance

2011-10-28T09:57:00.000-06:00

As a principle of design, dominance means that one thing stands out in relation to the rest of the painting. Dominance can be applied to one or more of the elements to give emphasis and guide the viewer. Dominance gives a painting interest, and keeps the composition from being monotonous or confusing.

Emphasis is frequently achieved by means of subject choices, contrast and isolation. For example, strongly contrasting elements create focal points, or places to which the viewer's attention is naturally drawn. Careful use of dominance allows an artist to control where the viewer looks first, and where his or her attention goes from there.

Quote: Using Impressionism To Express Ideas Not The Main Motive

2011-10-28T09:11:00.004-06:00

"In my own use of impressionist technique, I have thought to myself, 'Why can’t we use this thing to express our ideas rather than making it the main motive in painting?' That’s what I’ve tried to do. I’ve tried to think of impressionism as a means of interpreting landscape rather than making paintings obviously impressionistic."

LeConte Stewart

Term: Harmony

2011-10-27T12:54:00.000-06:00

Flesh in Harmony, Yazan Khalifeh

A principle of design that combines elements of art to emphasize their similarities and bind the picture into a consistent and orderly whole. Harmony gives a sense of order to the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it feels cluttered, busy and wearisome to the viewer. Harmony is a balance between extreme unity, which does not fully engage the viewer, and extreme complexity, which overstimulates the viewer.

Quote: I Don’t Care About Scenic Stuff

2011-10-27T12:17:00.000-06:00

"I don’t care about that scenic stuff. We have big mountains and buttes and things like that. I’ve gone to Teton National Park in the summertime. I turned my back on the Teton Mountains and painted just east of there. The spectacular is not for me. It’s the subtle - those things that are introspective, that you peer into, and see, and feel - those things that are closest to humanity, and that’s where art springs. It comes in the hearts of humanity, and people that sense that thing can enjoy it."

LeConte Stewart

Library: How to Draw What You See

2011-10-27T12:08:00.000-06:00

Title: How to Draw What You See
Owner: Curt Curtis
Author: Rudy De Reyna
Media: Book (hardcover)
Size: 175 pages
Availability: Contact Owner to Borrow
Location: Owner
Synopsis:
When this book was originally published in 1970, it zoomed to the top of Watson-Guptill’s best-seller list and it has remained there ever since. “I believe that you must be able to draw things as you see them - realistically,” wrote Rudy de Reyna in his introduction. Today, generations of artists have learned to draw what they see, to truly capture the world around them, using de Reyna’s methods. How to Draw What You See shows artists how to recognize the basic shape of an object - cube, cylinder, cone, or sphere - and use that shape to draw the object, no matter how much detail it contains.

If you are looking for a single book that covers just about the entire scope of drawing, this is that kind of book. This book is now into its 35th Anniversary Edition printing, and is one of the longest selling books on the market. The figure drawing section is well developed and good for the beginner. The book covers still life, landscape, perspective and composition, lighting, and materials and various strokes. The book moves on to more advanced drawing with wash, opaque, acrylics and ink.

Term: Varnish

2011-10-25T13:47:00.000-06:00

Picture varnishes are transparent, protective coatings added to paintings when they are dry. Finish varnish is applied as the final layer of a painting. It is most often used when a painting is not going to be put under glass (with mediums such as oil or acrylic rather than watercolor or pastel). Finish varnish protects the painting against particulates in the air, abrasion against the surface, and fading through exposure to light. It also gives the painting a uniform look, making all parts of the surface equally glossy, satin, or matte. Most finish varnishes are temporary so they can be removed and replaced when they become discolored or dirty.

Retouch varnish is different than finish varnish as it is applied to an oil painting while it is still drying (which may take many months). For instance, retouch varnish can be used to improve the look of a new painting that is going to be exhibited before it is old enough for finish varnish. Retouch varnish can also be used to compensate for the sinking in that occurs when a painting is still in progress. This is possible because retouch varnish is considered permanent and new paint can be safely applied over it.

No varnish should not be used as a medium, since this will make the colors sensitive to solvent. Where this is done, attempts to clean the painting in the future may remove elements of the painting instead.

Tip: Re-Shaping Synthetic Brushes

2011-10-24T10:35:00.002-06:00

You can restore most synthetic brushes with bent bristles by dipping the bristles in slightly cooled boiling water. The nylon fibers have "memory" and will tend to return to their original shape when heated. This does not work with natural hair brushes (such as, sable, mongoose, hog bristle, and so forth).

Just suspend the tip of the brush in hot water for a minute or two. Don't leave it in too long as you will loosen the glue that holds the hairs in the ferrule. Pull it out and reshape it with your fingers if needed. Then let it dry with the bristle end up. This should extend the life of all but your most abused synthetic brushes.

Here is a video created by Lisa Gloria showing how this is done.

Monet Journey

2011-10-24T10:08:00.000-06:00

For those that love Monet, there is a wonderful online exhibit called Monet hosted by the French Réunion des Musées Nationaux. It is an engaging, beautiful and innovative presentation of Monet's works. The art can be viewed in a traditional gallery but the Journey provides a view of Monet's works "through a unique digital experience." You will enjoy it!

Term: Contrast

2011-10-24T08:23:00.002-06:00

A principle of design, contrast refers to the arrangement of related elements that are different or conflicting in some way. The greater the difference between the elements the greater the contrast. Contrast is used to create visual interest, excitement and drama in artwork. For example, contrast is often created using complementary colors or extremely light and dark values in close proximity to each other. Artists can use contrast to direct the viewer's attention to and from particular points within a piece. This is possible because high contrast draws attention to an area, while low contrast does not.

Quote: Not A Perfect Balance But Not Very Much Out

2011-10-23T10:08:00.002-06:00

"There seems to be a strife between opposing forces at the basis of all things, a strife in which a perfect balance is never attained, or life would cease. The worlds are kept on their courses by such opposing forces, the perfect equilibrium never being found, and so the vitalising movement is kept up. States are held together on the same principle, no State seeming able to preserve a balance for long; new forces arise, the balance is upset, and the State totters until a new equilibrium has been found. It would seem, however, to be the aim of life to strive after balance, any violent deviation from which is accompanied by calamity."

"And in art we have the same play of opposing factors, straight lines and curves, light and dark, warm and cold colour oppose each other. Were the balance between them perfect, the result would be dull and dead. But if the balance, is very much out, the eye is disturbed and the effect too disquieting. It will naturally be in pictures that aim at repose that this balance will be most perfect. In more exciting subjects less will be necessary, but some amount should exist in every picture, no matter how turbulent its motive; as in good tragedy the horror of the situation is never allowed to overbalance the beauty of the treatment."

Harold Speed

Quote: Subtle Relations in October and November

2011-10-22T08:56:00.000-06:00

"I like it in late October and even November. We get some beautiful relations of color, and I’m for subtle relations. I don’t care for the stuff that shouts. With the bare trees, the ground, the sky, the hills, it makes a beautiful combination. It’s a far more exquisite use of color than you get with a fullness of color. I love the greens to look at, and I love short-sleeve weather, but not to paint. I don’t get any thrill out of it."

LeConte Stewart

Term: Size

2011-10-22T08:46:00.001-06:00

Size is an element of art that refers to variations in the scale or proportions of objects, lines or shapes. Size can be real or imagined. Real size refers to the physical dimensions of an object, while imagined size is implied by the relationships between objects in the same piece.

Proportion refers specifically to the correct depiction of size for all parts of a single shape or form. Proportion is a greater concern for realism and is often the focus when painting figures. Regardless, size and proportion can be used to enhance the balance and harmony of all artwork.

Size can also be used to draw attention to an object if the size is unexpected or exaggerated. Art that is intended to impress or humble is often done in a scale that dwarfs the viewer. For example, religious art is often large to suggest to the viewer the power or dominion of the subject.

Library: Painting in Oil

2011-10-21T08:05:00.001-06:00

Title: Painting in Oil: A Manual for Use of Students
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: Mary Louise McLaughlin
Media: Digital Book
Size: N/A
Availability: View Online
Location: Google Books
Synopsis:
This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online. It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.

Quote: Selling Art Is A Question Of Honesty

2011-10-21T07:46:00.000-06:00

"When a picture is sold, the matter becomes a question of honesty. The artist who sells a picture, knowing that it is painted with colors which will fade or otherwise change, is guilty of the same kind of dishonesty as that of the merchant who misrepresents the quality of his goods. If it be granted that it is both foolish and dishonest to neglect the proper consideration of this, to the painter, most important subject, the materials of his craft, it is certainly the part of wisdom for him to learn something of the nature of these materials. The subject is one not unattended with difficulties. Colors which are entirely and undoubtedly permanent, are after all comparatively rare. The discovery of a new one is hailed with delight by chemists, we can not, alas, say by the artistic fraternity, as artists are too generally indifferent to the question or permanence, caring only for brilliant effects in the present and regardless of any changes time may bring."

Mary Louise McLaughlin

Term: Balance

2011-10-20T09:22:00.003-06:00

As a principle of design, balance refers to arranging elements so that no one part of an image overpowers or seems heavier than another. Balance is a kind of visual equilibrium that relates to our physical sense of balance. An artist balances his or her artwork by positioning opposing shapes, values, and colors so that the final effect feels stable.

Balance in three dimensional art is easy to see because an unbalanced object will fall over. Balance in two dimensional art is similar in concept but we need additional terms to help describe it. For instance, two dimensional balance can be either symmetrical (sometimes called formal) or asymmetrical (or informal). A symmetrical balance is where elements look similar on either side of an imaginary line through the middle of a piece. Asymmetrical balance occurs when elements are placed unevenly but work together to achieve overall equilibrium. For example, to balance a heavy object in one area the artist might put several lighter objects in another area. It is also possible to place objects of equal weight but different mass on opposing sides of a piece (such as, a large mass of feathers balancing a small mass of stones).

Quote: I Create Symphonies And Harmonies

2011-10-20T07:27:00.002-06:00

"By the combination of lines and colors, under the pretext of some motif taken from nature, I create symphonies and harmonies that represent nothing absolutely real in the ordinary sense of the word but are intended to give rise to thoughts as music does."

Paul Gauguin

Library: Painting With Your Artist's Brain

2011-10-19T13:58:00.000-06:00

Title: Painting With Your Artist's Brain
Owner: None
Author: Carl Purcell
Media: Book (hardcover)
Size: 127 pages
Availability: Recommended to Buy
Location: N/A
Synopsis:
I have been very impressed by Carl Purcell. You may recall that he is a professor of art at Snow College in central Utah. This is one of the books he has published. It has a subtitle of "learn to paint what you see - not what you think you see."

It is important that we listen carefully to what Carl Purcell calls our intuitive "visual brain" in order to effectively communicate the artist's spirit in our paintings. His decidedly clear and easy-to-understand illustrations bring out the visual aspects of painting immediately, but bring more pleasure into the painting process. His bulleted lists, side bars, end-of-chapter summaries and instruction in between help you to understand the design process and how to use it to develop paintings that grab the eye and the heart as well. Artists will learn to boost their brainpower and exile the "enemy within". They'll learn to trust what they see, not what they think they see and paint with their visual brain!

I heartily recommend it to my fellow members of SGVA as a great artist's resource.

Term: Value

2011-10-19T12:03:00.001-06:00

Value is both an element of art and a property of color. As such, value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color. Value can be thought of as the strength or brightness of the light in a color. The word "tone" is sometimes used as a synonym for value but it has other meanings in art as well (see the definition for color).

Value is critical to all forms of artwork but it is particularly important in monochrome works (such as, black and white photography). It is used to give shape and form to individuals objects as well as visual interest and unity to the overall composition. The terms shadow, darkness, contrast and light are all references to the use of value in artwork.

A value scale is a simple drawing tool that helps artists see and draw values correctly. Value scales are charts that show the range of values from black to white or dark to light. Individual scales vary in the number of values shown, but all value scales depict a uniform gradation from one value to the next. A value that is located on the upper portion of the scale is known as being high key, and a value on the lower portion of the value scale is known as low key.

Tip: Elements of Art and Principles of Design

2011-10-19T09:20:00.002-06:00

It is hard to describe and talk about things that we see. It is even more difficult to articulate how those things are combined to make art. Luckily, there is a set of terms that have been defined just for this purpose. They are called the elements of art and the principles of design.

The elements can be thought of as the attributes of those things that we see. The principles describe how the elements should be combined to be aesthetically pleasing. Together the elements and principles form a basic language that is used in the visual arts. The purpose of this post is to introduce these terms and to provide ready access to the definition for each term.

Here is the list of elements. As you can see, they are unique components which are used to define a work of art; the elements describe the basic structures of art.

Line
Shape (or form)
Size (or scale and proportion)
Texture
Color
Value

Here is the list of principles. As stated above, the principles are the laws or guidelines that govern how elements should be combined. In other words, to have a good composition artists must consider the principles as they combine and arrange the elements. An artist that applies the principles correctly will create more interesting and engaging art; how well the elements follow the principles of design determines how successful a works of art will be.

Balance
Gradation
Repetition (or rhythm and pattern)
Contrast
Harmony
Dominance (or emphasis and focus)
Unity
Direction (or movement)

Library: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

2011-10-17T17:31:00.001-06:00

Title: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: Betty Edwards
Media: Digital Book
Size: N/A
Availability: View Online
Location: Google Books
Synopsis:
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is based on the premise that the left and right hemispheres of the brain process information in very different ways. While this theory has become somewhat outmoded, it is still a useful model to explain the way we function. The right-side concept is referred to continually throughout the book, which focuses extensively on the "how and why" behind the mental process of drawing, rather than simply demonstrating the techniques.

The first chapters of this book are largely devoted to explaining the left/right model, and explaining its relevance to drawing - or more importantly to SEEING. The stages of development in children's drawing are explored, and the impact of the persistence of the childish symbol-system discussed. The book includes many drawing exercises, including upside down drawing, blind contour and modified contour drawing. Edwards also takes an unconventional approach to perspective drawing. A chapter on portrait drawing covers some key problems that occur in portrait drawing,

This edition includes, along with various additional illustrations, and changes to some material through the book, an important note on the process of drawing: Edwards notes that some 6 months after the publication of the original book, in an "aha" moment in class, she realized that drawing was in fact a global skill, composed of separate, learnable skills that become synthesized into the single smooth and seamless process we call drawing. She identifies these components as five perceptions: edges, spaces, relationships, lights and shadows, and the perception of the whole (gestalt). Important and very useful ideas like this make it well worth reading.

Library: Colour Study

2011-10-17T10:47:00.000-06:00

Title: Colour Study: A brief introduction with sequential examples and commentary
Owner: Supplies Coordinator
Author: G. T. Thurmond (on behalf of Henry Hensche)
Media: Digital Book
Size: N/A
Availability: View Online
Location: SGVA Forms and Documents
Synopsis:
This is a writing by a former student of Henry Hensche, and someone who has devoted his entire adult life to the study of color. This article is about the beginning stages of Henry Hensche’s method or approach to colour study as well as some of his other ideas about colour composition in painting. There is also the attempt to disentangle Hensche from a great number of misconceptions. This is written as a tool to help the serious painter get started with this method. Being 193 pages, with color photos, it is truly a great resource for anyone wishing to explore this way of color study, and apply it to their own work.

Quote: You Cannot Make All Warm Colors With Just Warm Pigments

2011-10-17T10:28:00.001-06:00

"...you cannot make all the warm colours with just warm pigments and you can‟t make all the cool colours with just cool pigments. One must see the cool notes within the warm and the warm notes within the cool… The earth reflected in the sky and the sky reflected in the earth."

Henry Hensche

Quote: Painting Is The Art Of Seeing

2011-10-17T08:51:00.002-06:00

“Well, if you are interested in the art of painting, it’s not very difficult to comprehend, it is the art of seeing. And the way you see things is the way the painter creates the illusion of reality. What a painter does is simply make it his business to see more accurately and more precisely than the layman... Seeing is a process of having an image come on the retina. Then the mind analyses what comes out of the retina. It is the mind’s analysis, and the quality of that analysis that makes the difference between a good painting and a bad painting, or an erratic one.”

Henry Hensche

Term: Negative Space

2011-10-16T09:35:00.000-06:00

A term used to describe the space surrounding the subject and other objects in a painting or drawing. Negative spaces may be most evident when the space forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape.

Negative space is a compositional tool that encloses and shapes the objects to give them a sense of volume and form. Balancing the negative and positive spaces in a composition is considered by many to be a good practice. Effective use of negative spaces makes a composition more appealing because it gives the viewer a place to rest.

In this case, the word "negative" is not used in a derogatory sense as it describes a very useful design element. In Japanese art tradition, what we call negative space is referred to as ma. It is relevant in every Japanese art form of art. Ma is considered a particularly valuable type of space rather than being empty or insignificant. When properly used, negative spaces are just as important as the objects the spaces silhouette.

Quote: Negative Spaces Require The Same Degree Of Attention

2011-10-16T07:26:00.001-06:00

"Usually it takes years of training to convince students, in the way experienced artists are convinced, that the negative spaces, bounded by the format, require the same degree of attention and care that the positive forms require. Beginning students generally lavish all their attention on the objects, persons, or forms in their drawings, and then sort of 'fill in the background.' It may be hard to believe at this moment, but if care and attention are lavished on the negative spaces, the forms will take care of themselves."

Betty Edwards

Class: Painting with Layers Like the Masters

2011-10-14T15:55:00.001-06:00

PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE OF LOCATION!!!

Carol is back to teach an all-day workshop! The purpose of this class is to show students how to work in layers to build beautiful compositions like the Renaissance Masters. In this informative workshop each student will produce a picture similar to the one shown at the right. Carol will use a step-by-step approach that will help students leave with a completed piece of art.

Carol is an energetic awarding winning artist and owner of Merrill Academy of Fine Arts in Layton. She has been inspiring students for the past 13 years and is known for her ability to teach both classical and impressionist art. Her positive attitude and commitment to providing quality instruction is what makes her a sought after teacher.

Instructor: Carol E. Merrill
Difficulty: All Skill Levels
Media: Oil and Acrylics
Supply List:

Brush cleaner
Paper towels
Palette knife
Medium (Linseed Oil, Old Masters Maroger Medium, or Liquin)
12" X 16" or 16" X 20" canvas
BRUSHES:

Sable or soft bristle brushes work best.
Filbert any size
Round #2
Flat #6 and #8
Bring the brushes you have on hand.

COLORS:

Burnt Umber
Burnt Sienna
Yellow Ochre
Permanent Rose
Alizarin Crimson
Indian Yellow
Titanium White
Sap Green
Cadmium Orange
French Ultramarine Blue

Here is a series of images that show how the painting will be constructed in layers:

To enroll indicate whether you are an SGVA member by clicking on the arrow to the right of one of the "Membership" box below (this will show you the price you will be charged for the class), then click the "Pay Now" button. If the session is full you will told that the item is "sold out" and you will not be charged. If there is still room in the class, you will be prompted for the information needed to complete the transaction.

Enrollment is limited to the first 15 applicants. SGVA members may not enroll at the member rate unless they fully satisfied the conditions of membership. Incorrect enrollments will be returned after being charged a small handling fee.

Date: Saturday, November 19th
Time: 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Location: Geri's Studio, 3695 S 4975 W West Haven, Utah

Quote: Mistakes Are Fascinating Gifts

2011-10-14T11:09:00.003-06:00

"Mistakes are fascinating gifts, and what we do with them makes all the difference. It is hard to plan creative work, but when a mistake happens I am given a gift. When I respond to the mistake and make a new thing from it, I do not have to borrow other artist's ideas to be creative. It has emerged as my solution. On the other hand, when the mistake is an obvious failure, it means that I have to get to work, do research, experiment, or simply PRACTICE MORE. These are all positive outcomes... Creative people prize accidents and mistakes precisely because accidents move the mind to places it does not voluntarily go."

Marvin Percy Bartel

Term: Mud

2011-10-12T08:37:00.002-06:00

Mud or muddy is a term used to describe what happens to paint when too many pigments are combined. The result is a color that is no longer bright and pure but rather dull and desaturated. Mud is typically a gray color. That being said, the term only applies to grays that look drab or bland in a given composition. The muddy effects come more from poorly designed values and color temperatures than color mixing. For example, a gray might be considered muddy if it is surrounded by other similar grays or if it is used in unattractive ways, while the same gray may work perfectly well in an appropriate context. As Richard Schmid states:

"There are no 'beautiful' or 'ugly' colors. Muddy colors are simply mixtures that are the inappropriate relative temperature for the area in which they are placed."

Muddy may also be used to describe the unintended desaturation of color that occurs when mixing with a dirty brush or overworking wet-on-wet paint. Dead or dirty are other terms that are occasionally used to describe over-mixed colors.

Quote: A Painter Draws With His Eyes

2011-10-10T13:39:00.000-06:00

The Wood Pile - Chattanooga

"The painter draws with his eyes, not with his hands. Whatever he sees, if he sees it clear, he can put down. The putting of it down requires, perhaps, much care and labor, but no more muscular agility than it takes for him to write his name. Seeing clear is the important thing."

Maurice Grosser

Quote: Edit Reality To Make It Into A Painting

2011-10-09T08:06:00.001-06:00

"A painter should be loyal to the canvas. One should be more concerned with the painting and what it needs than with reality. One needs to edit, design and arrange reality to make it into a painting. It's more important to mix colors to create a beautiful harmony in the painting than it is to match exactly the local color of a shirt."

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco