Bodegón by EF. Oil on canvas, 2019.
Self-portrait, Johan Gregor van der Schardt, 1573.
GUIDE TO MUSEUM COLLECTIONS WITH FREE HI-RES IMAGES
For inspiration and new ideas I like visiting online museums that offer hi-res images of their collections and are free to download. Amazing drawings, manuscripts, paintings, photographs and other art objects are being made available as more institutions digitize…
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Cliveden, 10x12, oil on canvas
THE ATMOSPHERIC REALISM OF PAUL DUSOLD
I’ve long admired the work of Philadelphia artist Paul DuSold. He’s a painter’s painter whose style of painting is richly informed by the bravura tradition. Each stroke of the paintbrush counts and each is decisive and descriptive. Little mushing or overworking the wonderful array of correctly observed color and light shapes going on here! I not only enjoy the brushwork but also appreciate the range…
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Dry Dock Boats, 20 x 24
GEORGE POST - MASTER OF DESIGN AND SIMPLICITY
in watercolor
San Francisco artist George Post may not be on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days but I have great appreciation for his work. He had the ability to make fresh simple statements with his brush while capturing the spirit of the California. While deceptively simple, his watercolors are masterfully composed and spontaneously painted with strong patterns of…
Read More8 x 10, oil on linen
SPIRIT OF THE SKETCH!
For the last couple of years I’ve had the pleasure of getting together with my paintin’ buddies on Monday night to work on my weekly portrait from life. Its become a kind of ritual that gets my week off to a good start…
Read More“ GO TO THE COUNTRY - THE MUSE IS IN THE WOODS “ Camille Corot
I was just going through some photos and realized what a nice time I had teaching the Plein-air Essentials workshop in June. It was a fun group and over the weekend we painted at Powell Butte and Mock’s Crest Viewpoint. The Butte has nice open vistas and Mock's Crest has a bowl-like depression that offers interesting topography and views of downtown and the Willamette. Everybody worked hard and had fun. We finished the weekend off in a really nice way with artist and musician Tara Kemp playing some original tunes for us. Bravo!
Read MoreEUAN UGLOW - Form, Color and Space
One of my favorite British painters is Euan Uglow ( 1932 - 2000 ). His work is painterly, precise and visually compelling. He worked from life almost exclusively and focused mostly on still-life, interiors and the figure. Uglow studied with William Coldstream at the Slade School of Art and is considered a contemporary of Lucien Freud.
There are many reasons I’m drawn to his work so l’ll start with the idea of color spot painting, an approach to seeing color by Charles Hawthorne. I find similarities in the way these two artists thought about color from…
Read MoreDRAWING HIDEAWAYS
Did you know there’s a Natural History Museum in Portland? Much to my surprise there is, at Portland State University! Fellow artist Patrick Dolan told me about it, so off I went with students in the Mentored Drawing Studio on a field trip!
What I find neat about drawing animals is that you not only learn about anatomy, they’re challenging to draw too! Organizing the complexity of a skeleton into it’s most basic forms and drawing it in a way that’s…
Read MorePHOTO-SURREALISM IN PORTLAND?
A modest yet impressive exhibit of photo-surrealism is on display at Blue Sky Gallery this month.
Artist J Swofford’s work is featured in a corner of the gallery reserved for up and coming Pacific Northwest artists called the Viewing Drawer. His prints are small, intimate and evoke another era.
I like the imagery, their hand-made feel and ambiguity going on in the process. Is it old-school collage? Of the digital realm or other photo/print process? Out of curiosity I looked up several meanings of surrealism and found:
a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.
Yes… well done J Swofford. To view more of this artist’s work visit: www.abnormalimage.com.
Pencil Logic: How to Sharpen a Pencil the Old School Way
Sometimes little things do indeed matter. : - )