2019 Painting Classes

 We covered a lot of territory this winter in the Painting Class:
we explored different under painting ideas, negative painting, and also things more concrete - like how to paint glass, metal and flowers.
The top 2 photos, painted from the same reference show one on a black under painting, the other on Magenta.  Changing up an under painting is an easy way to give a piece just a little bit different vibe.


The Pear and the Cardinal were both exercises in Negative painting. Notice the LARGE dark and light shapes in both pieces. This is where negative painting, or painting around shapes, creates detail by breaking up the shapes in a way that is often more sophisticated than layering paint on top of paint in a positive or additive way.
This is a technique used a lot by the best watercolor painters.


The bottom photo shows our study of glass
and things massed together using both positive and negative painting.
Flowers are great practice for painting things that are grouped,
and that have a lot of detail.
My goal is to create a sense of massing and detail with out actually painting that detail but by allowing it to appear in the eye of the viewer by using negative painting to break up the large and small shapes.
Click on any of the photos to view them larger.

Class Notes: Painting Birds

In the New Year, my class focused on painting birds.  Many of my class painters are birders and the subject has become a bit of a passion. As I write this - I am thinking of many painter friends who are serious bird painters - and I give them all respect.  I would never put my self in the "serious" category but I sure have had fun.
In class we have studied, practiced and painted what we are learning:  bird anatomy, how it affects movement in a given situation,  - but also honing painting skills of design, negative painting, simplifying shapes and directing the viewers eye.
After all, the painting IS the end goal and even perfect draftsmanship does not guarantee that.
The pieces shown here are class demos and the top one is actually painted over an old landscape of trees.  In the upside down version (at the bottom) you can clearly see the previous painting. I find it fascinating how the eye believes what it sees in context.
The second painting was an exercise in negative painting. We sketched in the Magpie first and then painted shapes in white, directly over the under painting, to created the illusion of branches and distance.