Painting in Perfect Harmony

First my thanks to both Colorado's Louisville Art Association (LAA) as well as the Brighton Cultural Arts Commission for asking me to have a workshop and give a talk this past week. Both groups were so welcoming! One of the best parts of my "job" is meeting new artists, sharing tips and my personal art experience. Thank you again!

LAA painters enjoying some exercises at my Intro to Daily Painting Workshop

One of the aspects of daily painting that I discussed last week was working with a limited palette so I thought I'd share that info here with you. For example, with all those wonderful and tempting paint colors at the art store why work with a limited oil paint palette?

Quick note: “Limited” is a relative term. To some, less than 20 tubes may feel restricted but in general it’s 7 pigments or less. Here's a fairly versatile limited palette I've seen other daily painters use: Ultra. Blue, Aliz. Crimson, Cad. Yellow Light+ White


10 Benefits of a Limited Painting Palette

1. Simplifies overall process of painting so you’ll likely paint more
2. Mixed secondary colors and earth colors (greens, violets, oranges, browns, blacks) will often look more natural and interesting than a tube green for example (Tip: Pre mix your secondaries before painting if you feel your colors are limited.)
3. Easier to achieve color harmonies (colors will naturally all relate to each other)
4. Tends to look more natural for well natural and organic subjects
5. Faster way to paint—less mixing choices means fewer decisions
6. You can give more attention to your shapes and values
7. Easier to get “cleaner” mixes (2 colors for example) if that’s what your after—you may be tempted to use “extra” colors that aren’t really necessary for your painting
8. You’ll “get to know “ your pigments much faster (juggling just 3 balls vs. 12)
9. You’ll likely start finding what colors you really need (for your style) and what you don’t
10. Much less paint to buy, store, carry, etc.

When would you want to add extra pigments?

• You need a specialty primary color such as “hot pink” Permanent Rose or Opera 
• Time constraint—Where "convenience” colors (viridian outdoors) are handy
• Your painting calls for lots of pure color notes and/or man made objects (lots of colored costumes for example)
• You need a variety of transparent as well as opaque pigments for a particular painting technique (glazing for example)
• You're stuck in a color formula rut for things like shadows, skies, etc.

If you love color like I do and want to learn more, I'm giving a mini workshop (color talk/demo) at Blackridge Artists School on Saturday, September 24.  You can find more info here.

All These Lovely Tokens

"Appeeling Orange" 6x8 oil on canvas panel--SOLD--Thank you!

By all these lovely tokens September days are here, 

With summer's best of weather And autumn's best of cheer. 

Helen Hunt Jackson

Happy September everyone! Little late in posting today for the “30 in 30” debut because I was at jury duty this AM (pretty good excuse right?) and then treated myself on a Tuesday to a delightful taco patio lunch with friends (it’s a gorgeous day!) but I’m back in the studio now. 

I love the back to school season! This month, I’m honored to be teaching 3 classes and taking at least 2 interesting workshops. I still have room in my Tuesday afternoon Colorful & Quick (Successful Daily Painting) class. Click here for more info. I’m also taking both an abstract workshop as well an oil painting workshop with artist Tim Horn. 

Tim Horn Landscape Painting

I’ve always been drawn to Californian paintings. That distinct glowing light always gives a strong but comforting déjà vu. So Tim’s work caught my eye right away. I feel very lucky Tim’s offering a workshop not far from my studio at the Blackridge Artist School.

As if September wasn’t busy enough (and again I couldn’t be more grateful for this) it also marks the beginning of Leslie Saeta's "30 in 30” painting challenge as many of you know. I’m sticking with color as my theme and posting an oil painting study of oranges (the color as well as the subject.)

As part of the challenge I'm also going to try to read an art book a day (OK maybe every few days). Today's book is LoriMcNee’s new book: Fine Art Tips. It features many contemporary painting masters (such as Denver’s own renowned Dan Sprick). If you like "step by step" painting approaches as well as some helpful business tips from Lori I’ll think you’ll enjoy this as well. Thanks everyone and to my fellow "30 in 30" artists have a great month of painting!

Found in Translation

Found in Translation--24 x 24 Mixed Media Collage on Gallery Wrap Canvas

Happy Friday everyone! Another busy spring working on several different pieces this week in the studio. First, in my Abstract Class on Monday with Homare Ikeda, I worked on a relatively large (36 x 36) acrylic and oil abstract I've tentatively titled Escapade--Below is a detail.

This week, I wanted to push toward a different palette and ended up using (as you can see) some warm yellows and oranges and then balancing those with some cooler neutralized blues and grays. And while I've used many circular symbols, as I often do, I really enjoyed searching for other interesting shapes such as figures. 

Yesterday turned up the jazz station and really enjoyed creating a big square collage on stretched canvas using Thai papers, vintage European postage stamps, and Jane Eyre in Chinese (which I found in a used bookstore). I'm calling this piece Found in Translation because of all the bits of different languages (there's French, Swedish, Russian, Greek, etc.) found on the envelopes and stamps.

Interestingly, in one of the envelopes, I found a torn part of an old typed letter that seems to be about a death, marriage, and some kind of immigration. I just wish I had the entire letter. Anyway, I had to use that in the piece. To apply and seal the collage materials I used a matte finish acrylic gel (in this case Liquitex brand).  To all my painters out there, collage is a great way to strengthen your composition skills.

Quick note to my students, thanks for sharing all your new spring projects with me--great work this week!
Finally thank you to Sarah for your high bid on my Help Japan Challenge watercolor painting on Daily Paintworks!  

Slice of Summer

 "Summer Slice" 

8x8 Oil on Linen Panel

Price: $40 + $5 shipping 

Hi All, first, I thought it was time for a refresh of my blog look and feel and while I personally like a dark rich look, I know they can be hard on the eyes so I'm trying out a lighter template.

I don't know about you, but it's about this time of year I start to get a little (a lot actually) panicky about summer's end lurking around the corner. With that in mind, I was looking around this morning for something to paint that would be a little "slice of summer" and the seedless baby watermelon seemed an obvious subject fit. Also, the watermelon is a great example of natures brilliant hue combination of a red/green complement that can be so exciting to paint.

As a foodie, I also think it's kind of cool that watermelons seem to be one of those polarizing foods/flavors that people seem to really like or dislike. For example, I love watermelon but cantaloupe or honeydew, while beautiful to look at, not so much with the flavor for me.

Also had a great time while painting today listening to all the helpful "studio secrets" on the Artists Helping Artists BlogTalkRadio show. It was interesting to discover that a few of my own "studio must haves" such as walnut oil and/or Murphy's Oil Soap for brush cleaning, bungee cord for paper towel roll on easel, the small canvas holder (which I blogged about recently), were other painters' favorites as well. But there were many new tips/tricks that I look forward to researching further such as "photo cubes" for taking pics of my art. 

Quick note, we have extra space available in our Monday Open Studio Class from 10A to 2P  in downtown Littleton so please let me know if you'd like to join or pass the word along to a fellow artist--oil, acrylic, and watercolor all welcome since our focus is color!