Location/Directions

Schedule of Classes

Resume

Oakdale Studio Artists

Portfolio

Art for Art's Sake

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Studio Space for Rent

Photos of Classes

 "Art for Art's Sake"


Bison, Altamira Cave, Spain

"Painting in Progress"  
a film by Gary Mercer


(Click if you do not have QuickTime)

 

Reading/List

The Cave Painters
Author: Gregory Curtis
Publisher: Anchor Books

I Was Vermeer
Author: Frank Wynne
Publisher: Bloomsbury

Color, A natural History of the Palette
Author: Victoria Finlay
Publisher: Random House

The Lost Painting
Author: Jonathan Harr
Publisher: Random House

A Giacometti Portrait
Author: James Lord
Publisher: Noonday

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
Author: Ross King
Publisher: Walker

Leonardo, Portrait of a Master
Author: Bruno Nardini
Publisher: Giunti

Quote/Poem/Mail


Zen philosopher Eugen Herrigel on making art:
"The hand that guides the brush has already caught and executed what floated before the mind at the same moment the mind began to form it, and, in the end, the pupil no longer knows which of the two, mind or hand, was responsible for the work"

Philip Guston wrote in 1966, describing his creative process:
"There are 20 crucial minutes in the evolution of each of my paintings. The closer I get to that time - those 20 minutes - the more intensely subjective I become,"

Max Beckmann:
There is something that repeats itself in all good art, that is artistic sensuousness, combind with artistic objectivity toward the things represented. If that is abandoned, one arrives involuntarily in the realm of handicraft.

 

Painting Curve

Diagram for Building a Stretcher Bar

A Painting Technique
                                                                                     

1) Gray Transparent Wash : thinned with 90% water or paint thinner
          Tip - use a very light gray, work with a rag, create an atmospheric effect.

2)  Rough Compositional Sketch: vine charcoal only - no detail.
           Tip - fill whole composition with large overlapping shapes.

 3) Wash in Color Areas: thin with 60%,50%,40%,30% water or paint thinner (progressively).
           Tip - use thin overlapping washes, allow color to run into each other.
           Tip - each progressive wash should be more colorful yet still transparent.

4) Redraw composition: vine charcoal only, no detail.        

**IMPORTANT**
(repeat steps 3 and 4 as many times as needed until underpainting is complete.)

5) Heavier Paint: more intense color, use only 10% water or paint thinner
          Tip - be selective with areas, allow some of the under painting to remain untouched.

6) Thicker Paint: "Dry Brush Technique" use o% water or pa int thinner.
         Tip - allow the underpainting to show through each brush stroke by dragging the brush like a feather.

7) Fine Tune: darken all the dark's, lighten all the light's, put in details.
         Tip - tighten up the painting, push the contrast.progressively.

"Figure in Progress"
(a 30 second film)

 


Cave of La Cullalvera in Ramales, (Santander), Spain

In Memory of Marie Billings