My Barn Burned Down

Archive for the ‘Learning to Paint’ Category

Well, I’ve neglected my blog for long enough and wanted to prove that I AM, in fact painting still! Have been doing color mixing studies with the  Learn and Master Painting Course and I won’t post those but they are absolutely fascinating to DO. Had to then turn my attention to Christmas and luckily for me, my grandkids all want paintings! Well, one asked for one, one wondered to his Mom why he couldn’t get one, and the others were suggested by my daughters. Joanna had a great idea: each of her children owns a plush pet (no shedding, no pooping) that is their ‘comfort zone’; can’t sleep without ‘em. She thought, you know, one day these loyal dudes will be in the trash heap and wouldn’t it be great to have a painting of them to remember them by?  They don’t read my blog, so I’m sharing here where I am so far.

Leah owns Jaguar, a well worn floppy guy, and her favorite color is yellow, as is her bedroom, so here is Jaguar:

Little Garrett has Bear (now that I think of it, not sure that’s his name), which is a “blankie” and stuffed toy in one. A marvelous invention if your kids want an animal but love to feeeeeel the satin on a blanket:

Sorry for the glare from the flash. Will get a better photo during the day:

And in progress, Two BooBooBears. Have the background done and the bears are only blocked in. Here it sits on my easel with Bear – working on them both at the same time:

I also finished a ROCK DRUMMER painting for another grandchild and am partially finished with a ROCK GUITAR painting for the other.  I’ll post those when I can get them outside to photograph without flash. When those are done, I will pack up my acrylic paints and set up to work in oils. I have one ocean beach painting for the granddaughter who requested it and two dog portrait commissions to finish in the next month. So I am not slacking off!

Tweet This Post

Van Gogh letters

Came across a fabulous site today that allows us entry into the very personal observations and working life of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, through reading their correspondence and seeing their working sketches. The 120 letters are on exhibition, alongside the works he writes about,  at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam until January 3 next year but this site brings it to us.  I was very moved reading these letters and reminded of the fact that in his lifetime, Van Gogh only sold ONE painting!

The photo above is one example and you can read the full letter online.

That reminded of the quotation I read somewhere that “Art is painting, not painted.” The letters give such a strong example of artists doing the work for the love of the work, the love of the play of light and line and form, and the insistent urge that simply pushes its way out from within. In one of Paul’s letters to Vincent he mentions some sketches he’s working on of something he “glimpses” is important, and to come, but not here yet. I think most creatives will understand that deeply.

Enjoy the Van Gogh letters!

PS-Something I learned recently that I did not know: we always hear Vincent’s name pronounce Van GO. He decided to sign his paintings just Vincent because people (in the south of France) could not pronounce his name correctly. He was Dutch, so it sounds like Van Gough as in ‘cough’.

Tweet This Post

Buddy on his ATV

Got to play Grandma last night with four of my six grandchildren, ages 9,9,5 and 3. I went to the store and got Xmas ornaments to paint and we had a blast. The  3 year old dips the brush in every color without rinsing in between and ends up with a gorgeous muddy purple that he thinks is da bomb. So it is. Then he squeezed gloppy glitter glue on the Xmas Tree and announced, “It looks like an octopus!” And it did. He very firmly announced he wanted to hang THAT one in his room! Such unbridled creativity and joy in what was created was a thing to behold. The 5 year old is, in fact, extremely talented artistically and blew through five ornaments (well done) to everyone else’s one. She has absolutely no low self-esteem issues and her announcement was something along the lines of being the best artist of everyone there. The two nine year olds were thrilled to learn a new technique of transferring an image from a printout reference photo to the painting surface (scribbling graphite to the back and making a transfer) and then made some wonderful paintings in that free, “the photo doesn’t have this but I want a tree THERE”, creative spirit children possess. I learned that Jack wants to be an architect (!yay!) and toiled away at a very detailed painting of his grandparents’ home.  Brooke, also 9, ended up with a beautiful waterfall painting that had fabulous balance of lights and darks. Kids do that naturally somehow. Was great fun and in another life I think I would have enjoyed being an art teacher. After painting ornaments, I took a photo printout of one of their friends’ dogs, Buddy, on the ATV and did this photo in kids tempera paints on photocopy paper. It was very liberating to paint like a kid again and hope to have many more sessions of it.

Tweet This Post

For one year I have been on the internet ISO painting instruction. There is lots and lots of stuff available, lots of great free stuff, and lots more expensive (not to say not worth the money, just out of my budget).  I have picked up great tips on artists blogs, wished I had the time and money to go take some of the workshops offered, and even looked into local college courses — again, time and money. During the summer I was saving to purchase The Carder Method, based on some recommendations on some forums and one artist I respect talked about how it showed her how off her color mixing was. My wonderful step-mom gifted me with The Carder Method and I must say, it blew my mind. As I watched him mix the colors and match them using his special tool, I actually had something SHIFT in my mind and I could see the colors differently than before. I definitely think that is worth the $120 plus $15 for the color tool. I was really helped by his method.  However, it is based on setting up an elaborate still life, with special lighting, black everywhere else, and using oil paints with a medium that I would not be able to tolerate. The advantage is one pass painting, and a very smooth Old Masters look. So I am using much of what he taught but was still thinking, why isn’t there a course for the complete buffoon? The complete newbie where they assume you know absolutely nothing and walk you through how to paint in oils?

VOILA! You guessed it! In my stumbling and fumbling I found the Legacy Learning System and as it had JUST come out (late August) it was on sale and had a three payment plan, and I went for it.

The package arrived and whoever designed their packaging deserves a medal. The immediate impression was: Wow, class act! I hope the meal is as great as the presentation. I am on lesson 5 (of 26!) and I am now so impressed I could not wait to blog about it.  Gayle Levee is a marvelous teacher, takes her time, tells you every little step without making you feel stupid (now, wipe your brush, then pick up more paint). I would have been insulted at that level of detail of instruction had I not had my disastrous first experience with oils en plein air at Walney Pond! I did NOT wipe my brush before each stroke and guess what?! MUD.

Anyway, this post is for you out there who has said a gazillion times, “Oh I wish I could paint but I can’t”. You can. You just need training, and in the comfort of your own home, with no one WATCHING, it’s the BEST. The other really great thing they have thought of is to put together a kit of paints and tools so you don’t even have to enter into an art supply store and freak out when you see all the millions of things you know nothing about!

And the biggest, greatest secret I learned about (being super sensitive to solvents of any kind) is good old fashioned Baby Oil! It’s a secret. You’ll have to get the course to find out about it.

Tweet This Post

I am now taking commissions for pet portraits and have updated the page dedicated to this endeavor. I so love painting them and hope to do some cats and birds as well as dogs. I have five in the works right now and should be uploading them this weekend. My sister is a vet in Sierra Vista, AZ and will be giving out my postcards. It’s exciting! I have kept my prices low to begin and so I hope you’ll take advantage of me – the prices won’t change for the rest of 2009.   In my internet marketing course I have also finally learned how to activate certain “plug-ins” on this blog so that the search engines find me AND you get the opportunity to Twitter this, Digg this, whatever means you use to share. Isn’t the internet amazing? Back to the easel now….

Tweet This Post