Seeking Autumn Colors

"Rainbow Rooster" 8x10 oil on gessoboard--SOLD--Thank you!

Delicious autumn!

My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. George Eliot

Happy weekend everyone! Gorgeous early fall weather in Denver and having a wonderful time teaching two new painting classes in Denver at Blackridge ArtistsSchool (check out their fantastic "big names" workshop schedule) and Park Hill Art Club.

I also attended several art events this week which means I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at least 30 new artists! (Denver is an amazingly creative area!) Thank you again new and continuing students for your support and interest this fall!

Speaking of being "out and about" next Tues. morning on Sept. 22 I’ll be doing a demo at Blackridge of one of my favorite “layered” oil painting techniques which I employed in this colorful rooster daily painting today. That’s the “wet in wet” opaque pigments over the transparent block in. For more info about this demo please feel free to email me. I think I'll paint something with feathers...but we'll see!

This painting process may not sound that interesting on paper but it’s what creates the glowing color and often pleasant surprises.  It's a great match for florals and feathers! As many of you may know this is the approach used by artists such as Dreama Tolle Perry, Nancy Medina, Hedi  Moran, and Mary Maxam just to name a few. 

Thanks--Enjoy the rest of your weekend and all the deliciousness that is early autumn!

The Painting Knife of the Party

"Jazzy Crow" 8x01 oil on linen (for sale at Framed Image Gallery)

Happy Summer everyone! It's going to be exciting painting week. Today I'm getting ready for a three day plein air workshop in beautiful Evergreen, Colorado later this week with with landscape artist Dave Santillanes. It's going to be a challenge but I'm looking forward to it!

In the meantime I wanted to post this new painting and offer my thoughts on painting with a knife-- one of my favorite oil painting techniques. FYI, I consider a palette knife to be a mixing knife. But really, one could mix/paint with either and I often do. And artists seem to use the terms interchangeably.

The knife has been of my favorite painting tools for years. It works wonderfully (most of the time) for adding texture or thicker impasto paint layers in the final stages. And sometimes, as with my crow painting today, I paint the entire painting from start to finish with the knife. 

Even if you prefer using a  brush (which I mostly use as well) I think having some knife skills are very useful for oil painting. Painting knives, for example, can be used to quickly rework or scrape a section. This scraping often results in exciting sections of interesting broken color effects. Note that scraping over wet paint and scraping over dry paint render different results so be sure to try to both.

My favorite painting knives have two key features: An "soft grip" rubber handle (I do use wood handle knives but not as much) and a pointed “diamond shape” tip for control. I most often use the RGM knives Regarding size—just like brushes the bigger the canvas the bigger the knife size.

There are several oil painting books that feature knife painting as a key approach if you want to explore this technique: Susan Sarback's Capturing Radiant Color in Oil, Lois Griffel's Painting the Impressionist Landscape, and How to See Color and Paint It by Arthur Stern--which has fantastic painting exercises. 

Thanks for stopping by! Finally, I’m happy to share that this painting (along with 3 others) will be featured in an upcoming show in Denver at Framed Image Gallery. For more info, please visit my Events Page on my website.

Three Birds. Many Lessons.

Snowy Junco 8x10 oil on cotton canvas panel

One of my goals in early Jan was to start the year off by participating in Leslie Saeta’s painting challenge. But due to travel and other conflicts this month it was not to be. A big kudos though to all of you who did participate—I greatly missed the camaraderie and look forward to the next one. 

My return to the easel was challenging--For most of the month I had “polar vortex” bronchitis that just wouldn’t budge. The reality of being a “dedicated” artist is that you may sometimes paint in less than ideal conditions. When this happens, or you have limited time, I recommend keeping everything as simple as possible. 

Cheery Chickadee 8x8 oil on Raymar linen panel

Bird no. 1: Cheerful Chickadee

For me this meant a small (8x8 square), limited palette, and enjoyable subject matter. This cheerful chickadee is not bad for a quick study but I can tell I’m not 100%. (That’s a nice way of saying I was coughing so violently that the brush was hard to hold on to at times.) That being said I believe every painting provides us with valuable self-instruction.

Rosy Robin 8x10 oil on Ampersand Gesso panel

Bird no 2: High Key Robin

Moving on the next day for my robin painting, I chose a slightly larger (8x10 Ampersand gesso board) and somewhat more complicated high key value structure. You just don’t have the bold value contrast that can hold a painting together. So again with my robin painting a perfectly respectable study but I think I can improve on the composition, shape interest, edgework, etc.

Bird no. 3: Snowy Junco

In today's post you can see the junco has (in my opinion) more interesting shapes and paint quality ans well as better color harmony. It’s not a perfect bird painting by any means but I think it’s going in the right direction.  Best of all, I feel much better and am not starting February cold--no pun intended. Happy winter painting everyone!

P.S. I'm usually painting during foot ball season but but this Sunday as a proud Denverite I have to say Go Broncos!

Painting Around in Circles

Commission in progress 30x40 oil on canvas

Happy December everyone! This past weekend we had some nice sunny weather but tonight we’ve have an arctic cold front moving in.  As much as I’d like to get some holiday shopping done this frigid weather sounds ideal for putting finishing touches on this autumn inspired commission painting.

This is panel 2 of 3. Each “panel” is 30x40 and these have been a joy to work on—I’ve especially enjoy mixing the colors. Speaking of color, I decided to change up my color mixing routine (and when I say routine I mean like 20+ years!) for this series.

Quite simply (and intuitively) I switched to a larger circular palette. Technically I drew a large circle on a rectangular foam core board covered with plastic (paint drop cloth from Home Depot). You could also use a pizza pan or cut something into a large circle. I plan to have some foam core cut into a circle and use a large pizza box for the cover. This should work quite well.

I've used a circular palette before (the Quiller is one of my favorites for watercolor)  but like many artists for oils I’ve usually used the standard rectangle 12x16 plastic covered palette. Which is handy for pets, classes, etc. Even my small handheld palette for figure painting was a rectangle.

But I’ve found mixing in a circle even easier- I can see why it’s the preference for many artists. It feels very organic and natural. Plus, mixing color complements across the wheel is a snap. 

Since white is not one the color wheel, I’ve been putting the white sometimes in the middle and sometimes to the side. Both seem to work fine. So if you haven't painted in a circle give it a try and let me know what you think!

Before I go: Special thanks this time of year to my collectors and of course my students who continue to paint with me during a busy season.  Wishing you all a happy and colorful holiday season!