Let's Talk Art

Before beginning to sell his paintings and teach art, John worked numerous jobs inside and outside of the art industry. He was in advertising and graphic design, managed a poster shop, ran errands for a more successful artist, and bar tended in New York City. All of these afforded him great life experience, some interesting stories, and quite a few useful skills. However, his most memorable employment opportunity began by accident.

I love the outdoors. John Muir says “the clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness” and I concur. It is in the wilderness that I found my inspiration, where I was totally ‘in spirit’.  I would receive healing and cleansing by nature. I decided to commit one day a week, a Friday, to plein air paint. I thought, “how hard could that be?” It turned out to be the most humbling experience I had ever had artistically and emotionally. It continues to be the most challenging thing to adapt to and learn, and as a result, the most rewarding.

Ultimately, as I studied more and more, I was unknowingly thrust away from a traditional atelier mentality of painting things one way.  Rather than thinking there was a best way for doing everything, I sought out the best way to approach each individual situation.  I wanted to be able to paint something successfully in 20 minutes or 200 hours; to paint sunsets or baroquely lit models; to have glass-like paint films, or those broken and loose.

Painting outdoors sharpens an artist’s ability to adapt to change while holding on to an aesthetic vision. Whenever I’m teaching a portrait or figure class or workshop I tell my students to embrace the micro-moves the model makes. People can get frustrated as a model naturally settles into a pose. Muscles relax, expression shifts, even the inhale and exhale can change the posture and appearance of a pose; but all those little adjustments add life to a drawing or painting. It adds breath to the canvas.

Memory plays an important role in my process. I don’t have the exact quote, but I read that Thomas Cole believed his memory filtered out all unnecessary clutter from a scene, leaving only the essential information that actually made an impact on him at the moment of inspiration. I’ve found this to be true, and with practice over time, relying on my memory has strengthened my observation skills, improving my painting efficiency by leaps and bounds.

Most students I encounter seem to come to my courses with an interest in learning “Indirect Painting” techniques as per the 17th Century; for emulation of painters like Van Dyck, Rubens, Velazquez, Ribera, Rembrandt and even dipping back into the 16th century a bit for Caravaggio. The principal reason in practicing Indirect Painting is that it precipitates painting effects which are principally fleshy in nature, and of the flesh.

Light and shadow is the way we can see and make sense of things, so an understanding of the mechanics of light and shadow is paramount.  The shapes created by them are probably the most useful, yet the most easily-overlooked way to infuse your images with emotion and psychological depth.

It usually starts with a walk outside. I'll see a shadow or a color or shape and begin to imagine how that could be developed into a painting. Although my paintings are representational, I always start with abstract elements.

The colors, values and edges should all support the main theme of the painting. Good landscape painting has to be more than just rendering what you are seeing. You must find a way to incorporate your own sense of individual excitement about what’s going on before you and what it is doing to your senses.

Painting all about movement, it is, capturing or creating the movement, try to draw the dance and the dancer not.  The responsibility of the draughtsman to make the drawing come alive beyond mere representation, is it.  Empathy with the movement in the pose and translate it in a manner that the viewer feels it, one has to have.

It all started when I was a little girl, I would save injured birds and nurse them back to health. Sometimes, I would try to catch the birds that flocked to our yard.  Out of frustration, I finally decided to capture the birds on paper with a pencil. I have been drawing and painting birds and nature ever since! In fact, today you can see birds in most of my still life and nature paintings.

I find many painters struggle with drawing and correct proportions.  One becomes so excited to put color down that we forget painting is really just drawing... with paint. Proper training can overcome this, and I can attest that slowing down and allowing yourself time to really SEE and understand the subject in front of you can have incredible affect.

Draw, draw and draw... it is all about drawing. Drawing is a skill necessary for painting in the representational style, whether it is impressionist or classical.  After drawing comes painting.  It is very important to paint from life first, then use photographs in addition if you really need to.  I know it is not always possible to paint from life, however, only painting from photos will eventually hamper your ability to become really excellent.

When at the age of 13  I switched from watercolor to oil, I found it to be an enormous challenge and even felt that my drawings were much stronger than my paintings. When I shared these concerns with my professor, he said not to worry about this and just "keep drawing and the painting skill will come". Many years passed by since then and the longer it goes the more I'm convinced in my realization of the wisdom of his words. 

One of the most important, and recent, lessons I have learned is the awareness of opaque and transparent paint to describe the sense of light on form.  I recall standing in front of a Cecilia Beaux painting and seeing an area of the painting that was describing a woman’s sleeve.  The use of transparent and opaque paint in that area was so effective and dimensional that I felt as if I could stick my hand into the painting and it would actually have dimension.

I’ve never NOT thought of myself as an artist. Even when I was building a career as a health care executive, I took life drawing open studios over my lunch hours at the nearby Phoenix Art Museum, and instead of taking a trip to a tropical location during my vacations, I took art workshops.