I was delighted this week to see some familiar faces in my Seascape Painting Workshops at both Depoe Bay and Gleneden Beach. At each I had a return student who took the workshop last season. I think they both appreciated that I had an all new painting for them to […]
Fine Art
14 posts
Looks like 2012 is off to a flying start! We have begun doing a new scene in my weekly Seascape Painting Workshops. To fit the winter season, this new scene features a stormy sea with lots of wave action, crashing foam and flying spray. It is extremely fun to paint […]
I’ve been painting a scene of Pirate’s Cove for nine weeks with the students in my Seascape Workshops. This has been a great painting for introductory students. I noticed this past week that we have been finishing earlier than usual. Perhaps I have hit my stride with this particular subject. […]
First of all, I don’t really like to call what I do in my workshops “teaching.” I consider myself a guide – I lead others by being the first one to head down a path with only a general idea of where we’re going. As I journey with the other […]
I used bamboo plywood and other natural materials in the design of this booth. The result was a warm, welcoming and engaging environment.
I started this jag a while back talking about how I use vibrant color in my artwork. I kinda jumped ahead to talk about photographing artwork and using image software to reproduce the color as accurately as possible. But how do you go about creating the vibrant colors in the […]
This post deals with a bit of a touchy subject in the art world. COMPUTERS and DIGITAL ENHANCEMENT. In these days of The Almighty Photoshop, digitally enhancing artwork is well within just about everyone’s capabilities. The true crux of the dilemma is a matter of intentions. What do you intend […]
Here’s the best way I’ve found to photograph your own art. First, start in a room where you can block out all daylight. Even if daylight isn’t shining directly on your painting, you’d be amazed at how much it bounces off of everything else in the room, which will contaminate […]
I am often asked how I get the colors in my paintings so vibrant. Although there are a number of different things working together, the first thing I’m going to start with is the last step in the process. Photographing the painting. If you don’t photograph your artwork properly, it […]
Some artists have a self-imposed belief that using certain tools is “cheating”. They have attempted to convince themselves that working from photographs, tracing an image, utilizing a photocopier or other computer device is somehow less valid than creating art using nothing more than a brush and a good intention. Bah! […]
Sometimes, artists can be their own worst enemies. I had a professor who used to say, “all painters need someone with a 2 by 4 standing behind them to let them know when they’re finished”. One way to avoid over-thinking and over-working a painting is to set a finite time […]
When working in a 2-dimensional art form such as drawing or painting, it’s easy to focus only on the image contained within the piece. One thing you as an aspiring artist can do to take your work to the next level is to broaden your thinking and consider the piece in […]
As a lover of color, when aspiring artists ask me for advice on how to take their work to the next level, I usually tell them to study the color wheel. Really study it. Of course it’s not a magic bullet, but I’m often surprised how many times I turn […]
I’ve decided to do a little series of abstracts. The first one is titled “Native Earth”. You can see it under the Fine Art tab on this website.