Intermediate Oils - June and July 2017
We kicked off Intermediate Oils in late June. Karen set up still life scenes in 3 different spots around the classroom. I chose this one ...
What I love about Karen's set ups is that she shows you, guides you to find beauty in every day objects. It also teaches you how to "see" subjects, find interesting angles, colors, shapes.
The objective of the class was to look at the set up and crop, zero in on something about the set up that snags our attention - something you want to paint. So I cropped in a little closer ...
And then, even closer!
At the time I had NO IDEA how to paint this scrubby, but I wanted to figure it out.
Karen began with a quick demo ...
And then we got down to work.
Things began on the right note, but once I started to paint that scrubby, things got super mushy.
I eventually scraped away most of the paint on the scrubby and started over. Karen preaches that we should not be afraid of the "dark" and that you can go from dark to light, but you cannot go from light to dark. For some reason, I struggled with this, which I understand is common with new painters. Now I understand that you paint the big blob of scrubby in a super dark color - bluish black. Then you add your lights and textures on top.
This is a basic lesson that I learned the hard way. But most importantly, I learned from my mistake and every time I'm in this situation, I remember this damn scrubby :)
GRAPES - Week 2
I saw Georgia O'Keeffe's still life painting of grapes and fell in love. File this under - looks so easy, but it's not!
The bowl and background were easy, but I could not get these grapes right to save my life. Karen to the rescue! She explained that as long as I got one or two grapes right, the viewer's eye would automatically fill in the rest of the blanks.
But I couldn't even get one grape right! She ended up giving me step by step instructions - as in, pick up that brush, put it in that pile of paint and make that kind of stroke. And within seconds, I had gotten one grape right. Sometimes you can lead a horse to water, and I guess sometimes you have to actually take his head in your hands and dunk his mouth in the water :)
The amazing part, though, is that once she helped me with that one grape, the rest fell into place.
I also learned the importance of periodically stepping away from your painting and viewing it from 5 feet away or 10 feet away. What looks super weird up close, looks gorgeous from a few feet away. It's magic. At least it feels like magic to me.
It was around this time that I began painting a lot more often between classes. Malcolm Gladwell says you need 10,000 hours, right?
The other key motivator was studying Wayne Thiebaud and seeing how he applied crazy colors to ordinary objects. Karen is a big fan of Thiebaud and helped me understand why she respects him so much. I'd seen his works but never really stopped to look at the details, and the details are key.
One image that caught my eye was his painting of sardines in a tin. Sardines are, in my opinion, some of the foulest smelling and tasting critters on earth (my husband loves them), and here they are, sitting in a tin, looking a.ma.zing.
Determined to nail it, I spent a few hours in our home studio, giving this my best shot. You can see in Thiebaud's work above that there is color underneath that light blue background, so I started with a base coat of orange acrylic as my underpainting.
But once you step back a bit, you realize, that magic has happened on your canvas.
This was one of the first times that I painted at home and did not get "stuck" or make a mistake I couldn't fix. Huge confidence booster!!!
What I love about Karen's set ups is that she shows you, guides you to find beauty in every day objects. It also teaches you how to "see" subjects, find interesting angles, colors, shapes.
The objective of the class was to look at the set up and crop, zero in on something about the set up that snags our attention - something you want to paint. So I cropped in a little closer ...
And then, even closer!
At the time I had NO IDEA how to paint this scrubby, but I wanted to figure it out.
Karen began with a quick demo ...
And then we got down to work.
Things began on the right note, but once I started to paint that scrubby, things got super mushy.
I eventually scraped away most of the paint on the scrubby and started over. Karen preaches that we should not be afraid of the "dark" and that you can go from dark to light, but you cannot go from light to dark. For some reason, I struggled with this, which I understand is common with new painters. Now I understand that you paint the big blob of scrubby in a super dark color - bluish black. Then you add your lights and textures on top.
This is a basic lesson that I learned the hard way. But most importantly, I learned from my mistake and every time I'm in this situation, I remember this damn scrubby :)
GRAPES - Week 2
The bowl and background were easy, but I could not get these grapes right to save my life. Karen to the rescue! She explained that as long as I got one or two grapes right, the viewer's eye would automatically fill in the rest of the blanks.
But I couldn't even get one grape right! She ended up giving me step by step instructions - as in, pick up that brush, put it in that pile of paint and make that kind of stroke. And within seconds, I had gotten one grape right. Sometimes you can lead a horse to water, and I guess sometimes you have to actually take his head in your hands and dunk his mouth in the water :)
The amazing part, though, is that once she helped me with that one grape, the rest fell into place.
I also learned the importance of periodically stepping away from your painting and viewing it from 5 feet away or 10 feet away. What looks super weird up close, looks gorgeous from a few feet away. It's magic. At least it feels like magic to me.
It was around this time that I began painting a lot more often between classes. Malcolm Gladwell says you need 10,000 hours, right?
The other key motivator was studying Wayne Thiebaud and seeing how he applied crazy colors to ordinary objects. Karen is a big fan of Thiebaud and helped me understand why she respects him so much. I'd seen his works but never really stopped to look at the details, and the details are key.
One image that caught my eye was his painting of sardines in a tin. Sardines are, in my opinion, some of the foulest smelling and tasting critters on earth (my husband loves them), and here they are, sitting in a tin, looking a.ma.zing.
Determined to nail it, I spent a few hours in our home studio, giving this my best shot. You can see in Thiebaud's work above that there is color underneath that light blue background, so I started with a base coat of orange acrylic as my underpainting.
Then I cranked out the fish, dipping my brush into all kinds of crazy colors that might seem crazy up close ...
But once you step back a bit, you realize, that magic has happened on your canvas.
This was one of the first times that I painted at home and did not get "stuck" or make a mistake I couldn't fix. Huge confidence booster!!!
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