The Art League of Alexandria, Va

July 12, 2014



 I titled this blog The Art League.  I am trying to decide which class to take there in the Fall.  My goal has been to improve my paintings of children, but overall just improving has always been my goal.  Here is a link the catalog if you are interested. 


The Art League Catalog

When I lived there it was so convenient to take classes from The Art League and there were so many outstanding teachers.  One semester I even took three classes.  Now that I live about an hour away, it is more difficult to drive to Northern Virginia from Fredericksburg. 

I've included notes from some of those classes in past blogs.  One blog was about Robert Johnson (if you use the search button you can find that post).  I took his workshops because I admired his paintings of flowers so much and have been painting some flowers from my garden lately.  Following what I learned from him here is  series of photos that loosely show the steps he uses. 

 

Loose placement of flowers and shadows

 Worked on front flower, continue to work all over canvas

Applied background

 

Decided to use carpet in foreground.  The vase looked better in earlier demo, might go back and rework the vase. 

By the way Robert Johnson has great demos on his website.  http://www.robertjohnsonart.com/Robert_A._Johnson_Art/Demonstrations.html

His book On Becoming a Painter is worth getting, too.  You can purchase it from his website.  I've almost worn out this book which I got autographed when I took the workshop.  I guess I'm a "groupie", at least one who greatly admires this artist's work. 

 

 

Inspiration from other Artists

June 16, 2014

I had the chance to listen to "Artist Helping Artists" this weekend.  An artist named Bill Davidson was interviewed who was very inspirational, but also gave some very practical advice.  I'll include a link to the show.  His blog is even more inspirational.  All this makes me want to take one of his workshops.  So far there are two workshops on my wish list:  Nancy Franke and Bill Davidson.  (There are many more now that I think about it).

http://billdavidsonstudios.blogspot.com/

This quote was in one of my sketchbooks and a good reminder.  I think it is from Richard Schmid.

"Talent is hard work sustained over a long period of time"    This is from memory so it may be a little different, but the message is there. 

Ready for another workshop.

I probably should take one in watercolor.  I keep playing around with it, but don't show much improvement. 

http://artistshelpingartistsblog.blogspot.com/    (Link to radio show)

Getting ready for a workshop with Diane Tesler

March 13, 2014

  This weekend LibertyTown Arts Workshop is hosting a workshop with Diane Tesler from the Art League in Alexandria, VA.  Usually I spend a day or day getting my materials organized and ready to go and that's all.  This time I am going to spend time doing some studies so that I have good choices of subjects ready to paint.  Since I'm doing the Fredericksburg series I'm getting photos together and working out compositions. 

Yesterday, I did some drawings and studies.  I was happy with my last study until I saw the post on DPW.  It looked so flat and I saw some drawing errors, all of which I tried to correct this morning.  If I had used my checklist I would have caught the errors before posting.  I need to post my checklist, but usually when something goes wrong it is either a drawing error or a value problem.  The "flat" look tends to be lack of temperature changes.  Now that I think about it, the painting looked better in the early stages.  Adding too much detail hurt my painting.  So maybe I will do another one. 

STUDIES:

Still looking for good photos from my array of thousands of disorganized ones and hoping to get more through email.  (entries for this month's give-away)

This photo I used was sent to me as an entry into my Fredericksburg series.  Thank you to you for sending it. 

I'll put the notes from my class here on my blog next week.  Between today and Saturday I'll be working on more ideas for the class. 

Review of workshop with Robert Johnson  ( Please make comments about whether this is helpful)

I took this workshop about 6 years ago in Richmond at the Brazier Gallery.  I had purchased Robert Johnson's book a number of years before that and to my surprise found a workhop sort of nearby.  I don't know if he still teaches at the Art League in Alexandria, Va, but he has an amazing website that includes demonstrations and photos of his work. If you ever have the chance, take his workshop.



You can see from his work why I was thrilled to take one of his classes.  I'll include some of the set-up photos and highlights from my notes.


I refer to this book often.  I had this one autographed, too







 

Notes: 

-  have concept of where the eye will move
- start with a design (10% of time goes to design stage)
-start with wash of transparent oxide red and cobalt blue or UB - work out problems at this early stage
-create depth by overlapping items
-Background is done with big brush, very dark and use medium, done loosely, then wipe out lights with paper towel (he uses viva)

-next did leaves with viridian and terra rosa, big dark shapes, no detail

We were doing rose paintings, after this general start, his direction was to "nail" a rose.  At this point every brush stroke counts, but still done in loose fashion thinking of shapes and values.

use background to carve out shapes

background done with vertical brushstrokes, keeps eye from catching lights and prevents glare in painting, used a neutral mix of cobalt blue, terra rosa, and yellow ochre

paints light with very thick paint


*(weakest part always sticks out, ptg rises to weakest point)  - the most frequent weak point is usually in the drawing;

-used warm for reflected light on vase

be aware of what's happening  at end of brush

Polarity - strength of painting is juxtaposing opposites

greenery - don't paint every detail - paint only a few leaves to perfection

push values (he said this many times)

think of objects in terms of planes

painting rug - don't be a slave to detail, scraped off excess paint to show weave of canvas

emphasis on drawing  - learn to draw without thinking, recommended book by Beverly Hale

think of objects as abstract shapes

emphasized use of soft and hard edges,

reflective surfaces - edges disappear- lose shape as go around

use best stroke at the moment to capture what your are seeing, the more economical the stroke, the more exciting it will be for the viewer


If you can't take a workshop, I would recommend buying any one of his DVD's.  One I have is very comprehensive and takes you through every step of the paintings. 

Tomorrow I will include more photos of the set-ups.  I need to find them from among the disorganized array of thousands of photos. 

 

 

(This is Robert Johnson's palette)

My painting from the class. 

 

 

Workshop Info - Joe Anna Arnett ( an outstanding teacher)  She has a facebook page that shows many of her stunningly beautiful paintings. 

 

I am still painting everyday, but put most of those on Daily Paintworks. 

 

 

Painting  of mine done last year.  This is an Anna Belle Hydrangea, the petals are small than the one we are used to seeing, but I was keeping Joe Anna's voice in my head about having a shadow side, under-mixing color, neutral background.......

 

 

This helps me, too.  Re-reading my notes and selecting the most important points is a good exercise on its own.  I'll just hope it is helpful to someone else out there in blogland. 

I put most of my photos from the class on yesterday's post.  I still can't find the photo of the watermelon set-up.  That was my favorite from the class. 

I am just including highlights and tidbits of information.  The things I have to keep reminding myself to follow. 

 - The eye is fascinated by variety

-Painting and palette should be in the same light

-start with big brush

-center of interest does not have to be just one thing

-use thumbnails,  don't start too tight, almost do drawing at end

-cast shadow is only thing we have to show gravity,   consistency of tempertature is needed because it shows it lived in the same light

-undermix paint

-USE LOTS OF PAINT

irregularity is interesting

-add local color to shadows

-distance steals value, things disappear with distance

-crisp edges come forward

-people like to look at impasto, eye goes there first, eye will go to contrast

-establish darkest dark and lightest light

LOTS MORE - JUST HITTING THE HIGHLIGHTS


Photos from my next workshop with Robert Johnson.  I have been so lucky to take classes from these wonderful teachers. 

 

 

Both painted after that workhop.  Next blog I'll show work from class and photos of set-ups. 

 

It's impossible not to develop your own style

 A question I used to have is how to develop your own style in your paintings,  but in classes and workshops that I've taken, the teachers always answered pretty much the same way saying it is impossible not to have your own style.  

My own theory is that your choices of instruction and studying other artists plays into that process.  I've noticed when deciding what class or workshop to take,  I usually look at the paintings of the teacher.  It's obvious, but i would never take a class from someone whose paintings I didn't like.  

I've been looking back at my own choices of classes and how they have influenced me.  In the end, I think you use a little of what you like from every class you take and before you know it you have your own style.  Maybe that is obvious, too.  

When I first started to paint and didn't even know about workshops, I was looking through an art magazine and noticed that a class was offered by the author of my favorite book at the time.  It seemed amazing to me how I could actually take a class from someone so accomplished.  There it was in the magazine.  I got online, signed my husband and me for the class and we attended the class in South Carolina, a great experience from a wonderful teacher.

To show you what I groupie I was, here is a photo of the teachers book that I had autographed.  In my next blog I'll tell you more about that workshop and other workshops that I have taken.    

Paintings that I did during and right after that class: