Old Masters

I shall continue my animal portrait lessons soon. I spent a week this summer learning more about how the Old Masters created paintings that are 500 years old and look as if they were painted yesterday. My techniques will definitely be adjusted.

Tip of the Day

Taking your paints and brush and a blank canvas and beginning a new painting of a subject that you have not painted before is like setting off on an adventure to someplace you have never been.

Response to a Commission

I got this email today. There is nothing better for an artist but that her passion is shared by someone else….

“This painting has moved me more than anything you have ever done, I am totally obsessed with it. I can’t take my eyes off of it.
I don’t even know how to thank you. I’m almost mesmerized. I knew you were good, but this is incredible.

Thank you so much”

Now I shall really be full of myself!

Tip of the Day

When life is requiring much more of your time than you would like and you are not producing as much art, think of it as a workshop. That especially applies to those of us whose work is inspired by our lives.

Tip of the Day

Resolution for 2010 – Paint something every day. Painting is like exercise or music. You need to keep it tuned up and in shape. For many of us who have full lives, our art can get buried beneath our other duties. Art feeds our soul. It is our duty to ourselves to nourish our souls. Go to your studio every day, even if only for an hour. Pick up your brush. Remind your mind and soul who you are.

Tip of the Day

When you have ‘artist block’, go to your studio or art area. Even if you don’t think you have time to work or have a project in mind. Tidy up, organize, be there and you will soon find you are working again.

Tip of the Day

Art is expression. Experience feeds expression. The more we experience, the more we have to express.

Tip of the Day

Focus In/ Focus Out. When you paint close, you lose track of the feeling of a painting but sometimes you need to know what the details are in order to get make the painting ring true. So go close when you must, but always step back and make sure you didn’t lose it People see your art from 4-8 feet away. Go look at your work from that distance often as you create it.

Tip of the Day

The answer is darks & lights. The questions are: How do you start, How do you finish, How do you get from start to finish? Always be looking for them.

Tip of the Day

Often artists become more impressionistic as they mature. Impressions formed from the richness of life experiences accumulate and they have more to say and need fewer strokes or words or shapes, to say it.