Today's Assignment

Last night and this morning in my beginning oil painting class at the School of Light and Color we painted melons.......
This class had a chance to practice their angles and proportions in the sketch and then learned some about the light on a dark surface. Also it was a good lesson in changing values in light and shadow within the red of the melons and also the rind.
I'm so blessed to have these students!

Coming Soon.....

I'm excited about the next few weeks because I have some fun trips planned. First is the Napa Art Festival tomorrow. I love to go and view the wonderful artwork and pay a visit to some artist friends. All my favorites will be there. I also love Yountville and it makes me hungry just to think about it. (Bistro Jeanty, yum!)
http://www.napavalleyartfestival.com/

Next I'm going to the Weekend with the Masters event in September. I was happy to learn that it was going to be in Northern California this year. It was started 3 years ago by American Artist Magazine. I'm not attending the whole conference but signed up to go with my friend to see a lecture and participate in a workshop with C.W.Mundy and then go to a demonstration with Quang Ho. Can't wait. Follow the link below to read about all the artists and workshops that will be happening.


American Artist’s third annual Weekend With the Masters Workshop & Conference will take place September 7-10 at the Portola Hotel & Spa, in Monterey, California.

Now in its third year, Weekend With the Masters has gained an international reputation as the leading art education event. It continues to draw top masters from around the world to teach workshops, offer demonstrations, lead lectures, and participate in discussions about the renaissance we're experiencing in representational art.

Atrium in Portola Hotel & Spa

Students travel from around the world to have access to this once-in-a-lifetime educational opportunity, to learn from and interact with some of today's top practitioners, and to connect with fellow artists. The artists leave the conference feeling inspired and energized, and full of new thoughts, philosophies, and approaches to representational painting. Monterey, California has historically been considered an artist's paradise, and nearby Point Lobos has been deemed "the most beautiful meeting of land and sea in the world." This inspiring destination will be the perfect backdrop for the exchange of ideas, information, and insight that will once again take place between master and student. The Portola Hotel & Spa will be the primary location for this event, with opportunities to paint en plein air at inspiring locations frequented by area artists for centuries.

http://www.cvent.com/events/american-artist-s-weekend-with-the-masters-workshop-conference-2011/custom-22-2dfaba13d9cb4a64949a8733d429a603.aspx?Refid=wwm110629#Quang

Finally, I get to take another 3 day workshop with Ovanes Berberian in Carmel at the end of September. I was there last year for his plein air workshop but this year he will be teaching the still life at his Carmel studio. Also included is a personal tour of his show at the Amsterdam Gallery in Carmel.

Life is Good!

Learning to See Shapes

This week at the School of Light and Color beginning classes my Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning class started a painting of "shapes". As beginners we don't yet see these shapes as well as seasoned painters. We want to paint flowers and stems and vases and table cloths. In order to help our brains to learn to see in a new way it helps to paint upside down. We need to teach our eyes and brains to see VALUE SHAPES. To do this we had to paint from a photograph that I took the week before.

We started this week with the under-painting and block in phase of the painting. I started to get the dark's in first using transparent paint. Next week we will continue this project and we can see how it all works out. It is usually pretty surprising to turn the finished piece right side up and see that it really works!
Because it is a beginning class many of the students who come in have never before picked up a brush - or at least not since high school. I like the way the class has begun to take on a life of it's own and what has turned out to work the best is for me to begin a painting demonstration while explaining the process as I go. I leave it open for questions. I'll get to a certain point, let's say I might start with the toning of the canvas and then do the underpainting. At this point I will usually stop and allow the class to catch up to this point. Not everybody works at exactly the same pace but I will wait until most of the class has caught up with my demo piece and then paint the next phase of the painting which is the block in. It helps to break it down into steps.
Next week I'll post the finished piece - if it is finished. If not I'll post what we have done so far. Also next week I'm encouraging the class to bring in a painting or two for a classroom critique.

Sweet Tooth?

Sweet Tooth? 

click here to bid

Study in Compliments

 

click here to bid 

I've just joined a wonderful website called Daily Paintworks. Click the link to check out the first two paintings I have added to the auction. You have seen them before but now they are open for bidding. The starting bid on these are set at a very good price. I will post additional paintings from time to time.

http://dailypaintworks.com/original-fine-art-auctions

Sunflowers Finish.....

Sunflowers by Randy Blasquez
Oil on Linen  16x20"

Sunflowers II  by Randy Blasquez
Oil on Linen    16x20"

I made just a few adjustments on the sunflower paintings from last week. I used a photo reference because my poor sunflowers didn't make it. Because they were painted from life I was able to throw in the few finishing touches without loosing the fresh feel. At least that is what I hope.
I started painting still life paintings when I started to teach at the Capital Art Center in Sacramento because I didn't want my beginnger students at the time to get stuck copying from photos. It's now been about four years and I've learned to love the whole process. Painting still lifes from life is a great way to grow as a painter. By mastering the still life you will be ready to paint anything!

Sunflowers and more Sunflowers....

Yesterday and Tuesday were teaching days for me. I had some sunflowers that I bought last week and they we still looking good so we painted them. I started a new intermediate class downtown at the Capital Art Center. This will be only twice a month. Anyway these are the result of that class and then the class at the School of Light and Color Tuesday night. They are quick demonstrations but they are close to finish. I feel pretty good about the loose quality. A few adjustments tomorrow and then I'll post the result.

Using the "Viewfinder"

Still Life Study   by Randy Blasquez   10x12"    Oil on Linen Panel    $350

Painting from life, inside or outside requires first deciding on the boundary or size of your canvas. My favorite shortcut to this is to use a viewfinder. Think of looking through a camera to see your subject. My favorite one on the market is called the "View Catcher", and was invented by artist, Patti Andre'.
The View Catcher will adjust to the size your require with a simple slide of the handle. I like to do two or better, three thumbnail sketches of my subject in different sizes before I decide on my composition. This way I know I have conjured up some creative ideas - a sampling of shapes, values and borders.
The way it works is that it will block out the area around your subject while you adjust the distance from your eyes. Move it until you find a pleasing composition. It will allow you to zoom way in and crop for a dramatic composition or pull back and away to allow more into it.
For more information go to www.viewcatcher.com

A Week With Ovanes Berberian - continued

I kept notes from the workshop and I wanted to post them. It's just not the same as being there! But what Ovanes instructed us to do is something I didn't want to forget. Most importantly though, I came home started painting - with difficulty - to get more comfortable with using more paint.
Ovanes uses tons of paint on his paintings. When he demonstrated on my canvas, I began to understand just how much paint he loads onto his brush. But before he begins painting, he uses linseed oil to loosen the paint to make sure it is all the same consistency. He calls it "juicy paint".

Shipwrecked by Ovanes Berberian

Peonies by Ovanes Berberian

Ovanes Berberian notes….

Being an Artist~

Lose your sleep over this!

Have a mentor.

If you find your mentor you will know it.

Go to Museums and sketch what you love, then go home and paint a piece of it.

You’ve got to be a sensitive person.

You’ve got to have results.

Classic painting never dies.

Theodore Lucas was one of Ovanes's mentors.

The hungrier your get the better it tastes.

So be hungry – don’t get satisfied by other things.

On painting ~

Steps to a better painting,

Draw

Wash

Redraw

Paint

Clean Everything

Flat Large Shapes

Simplify

One Value when washing, not so dark to start.

When you use dark, scrape to keep dark = no texture.

Use a wash with beautiful color using pure pigment or tone your canvas with a wash of pthalo blue and paynes gray (1/4 to ¾)

You can also use a warmer wash.

For your wash use turpentine and Damar varnish, about ½ and ½.

Look for the “key” when you do your wash.

When you do your wash every square inch should be clean….even your grays.

Do not mix your family colors in your wash, only pure pigment in the same “family”

Design~

Design is number one- If you don’t have a beautiful design don’t bother to paint it.

Value is most important.

RGH paint is very good.

Begin with flat shapes and two values for each object.

Middle key paintings- Overcast days make you paint in middle key.

Sunny days- You paint light and shadow.

Remember the light source, the sky color.

You must feel it.

Lilac flower – use burnt umber with a touch of Alizarin in your wash for the warm shadow of the flower.

If you learn to see it then you can paint it.

Use temperature to turn the vase.

Better to stop before you ruin it.

Do quick studies, small- 6x8 and 8x10.

Tone your boards and staple them on a board, go out and paint.

The shadow is effected by the blue in the sky.

No Fear- Be brave and make mistakes.

The name of the business is frustration.

Correct Temperature = Good Harmony

IMAGINE

Paint beautiful shapes with beautiful outlines.

Paint flat and blend.

Don’t be timid.

What matters is what is happening on the canvas, don’t copy everything you see but make the painting work.

Design your light pattern.

Build on your darks.

Paint the flat large shapes. Use your palette knife to lay in Large Flat Shapes – it helps you get the dark rich value – then Scrape Lightly.

Blend to soften your edges.

Use brush control.

Simplify

When you start with the washes, not so dark to start.

Medium key to start.

When you start with a palette knife start with dark then scrape it, no texture yet.

In the finish use only two values, and finish with a highlight, that is all.

No detail for the first year.

Stay flat then get warm and cool.

In the daylight don’t forget your cool colors.

The best areas are simplified.

Get the contrast and color in the colors.

It takes a lifetime to get color.

Start with composition.

Balance light with shadow on the table top.

Painting Inside~

Put your lights in the foreground when you set up your still life.

Also some lights at the top to make the middle (table) come forward.

Have tones to 8 at most for flowers and lilacs.

Hold back on your lights.

Be very selective with your final brush strokes.

Blend up and down.

Try going two values lighter on your palette using whites.

(or) Start with raw colors for your wash.

Make white your thinnest paint, very lose.

Black makes true nature colors, try starting with black and white, then add color

After you design your painting go away and come back, look again.

Don’t forget to push the background back.

A Week With Ovanes Berberian

I first met Ovanes Berberian in the summer of 2006. He is a good friend and mentor of Brigitte Curt whom I have known and studied with for several years. She and her husband Jim had spent many hours working with him through the years.
Before this I discovered his work and was in love with it so when they suggested to their classes that they should join them in Idaho for a couple of weeks I jumped on board. It was an amazing experience that changed me. It also was overwhelming and the weeks were intense. I hated my paintings, and felt like a baby learning to walk. Jim and Brigitte told me this going in, but they also told me that what I would hear and see at the workshop would continue to guide my painting for many years to come.
Last November I posted about my trip to Pacific Grove for a weekend of plein air painting with Ovanes. He was much more verbal in his teaching and my brain somehow was able to comprehend it better this time, so I decided to go back to Idaho.
Idaho is beautiful. The vast countryside and skies were begging for me to paint them. However we stayed in Ovanes's yard for a week of plein air painting of these amazing floral arrangements. If I could have I would have stayed another week or two. I was just getting started.
I returned last night from the twelve hour drive. My artist buddy Renee and I took two days and it wasn't all that bad. We decided it was better to drive so we could pack our supplies and it was the right thing to do. I'm ready to do it again!

Anyway, I wanted to post during the week but I couldn't get an Internet connection. The little motel we stayed in, the  South Fork Inn, did have it, but it was down for several days. I want to tell you about my week while it is still fresh in my mind.
The most important realization for me was what I learned about Ovanes. He was so passionate about sharing his love for making art with us it really touched me in a way I don't think I can describe. But somehow I felt that we share that passion. Only he has been able to disconnect from our crazy business that is such a part of our lives. I am right in the middle of it.
Just being in Idaho and away from the computer and the daily obligations of life gave me a taste of what it takes to really be in touch with creating art. It is something close to worshipping our God. I have never before been able to slow down long enough to understand this. I have read about it. I understand it and believe it, but today I get the connection. A wonderful book about this walk with God through creating art is written by a Pastor at my church, "Imagine That" by Manuel Luz.
http://manuelluz.wordpress.com/book/

I'll post more photos and my experience that last week very soon!

Color Mixing &Value Workshop This Week

These past couple of weeks we have been learning about color and value in the beginning oil painting classes at the School of Light and Color.

I was surprised and delighted that these students were more than willing to use their class time to make charts. I have a wonderful group of students both on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday mornings at the school. These students want to do the work in order to learn. I know it's tough to come into a class as a beginner, especially when we feel that everybody else knows more than we do. But if you can take that risk  and show up, you find out that we are all students, and eventually we figure out that it is a lifetime journey and not a quick study. I love it when one of the gals or guys fall in love with the process, and after getting through the initial stunning fact that it isn't as easy as they thought, become willing to take on the challenge. It is so exciting to see that look on their faces as they light up with an "Aha" moment. 

Anyway, back to the exercises. We drew some one inch squares and put the complements on either side. It is surprising what you can learn by doing simple exercises like mixing complementary colors to make beautiful grays. We mixed the a little of one complement into the other, then a little more, then half and half. It was also interesting to begin to mix white into these mixes where the beautiful grays began to emerge.

We talked about the importance of using grays in your painting, and that it is also important to use value to state a predominant - middle and little value design in your paintings.

Then we made value charts using color, first using black and white to light and darken, and the other using analogous (colors next to our main color on the color wheel) colors to keep as much chroma (rich color) in our mixes as possible.

We talked how to use value changes to turn a form and how value and color are dependent on what you are comparing it to. We squinted to see our values.

After that we made a value scale in black and white, then found paint colors from the tube and matched the value on the scale. After using tube color, we used mixes and found the value using the same scale.

I believe these exercises are invaluable....because we actually learn from DOING. It's all fine to read about this stuff in the art books and magazines, but we will miss the connection if you don't actually do the work. Also, we will learn more from making mistakes than if we don't make mistakes. So we were freed up to make them!

My hope is that when these students are painting their next painting they will reach for a color/value on the palette, and not just think in color alone. They will begin to see value and color all around them. It is not easy but I'm hoping that they will begin to group smaller shapes into larger value shapes, and then begin to design a painting using these concepts. It will take time, and we can only learn so much at a time, so sometime in the next 6 months we probably do this all over again.

Ah! Finally A New Post.....

Life has been busy. All good though. I am hoping you have had a good Spring and that the month of May has been good for you. I just heard about the horrible tornado's this past weekend and am horrified. Life does give us some curve balls. It makes me realize the blessings in my life are only temporary and that suffering is part of life as well. I am going to live the best I can for today and appreciate my blessings.
I've been working on my still lives, not ready to post yet. It has been the challenge of the year for me that feels at times like the challenge of a lifetime! I have been working to stretch and grow as an artist with my set ups, color combinations and patterns. It has been very difficult to get what I want to into my work, but I am keeping at it.
Meanwhile I've been busy with family, and my youngest will be graduating from High School on Friday. So, we do what we can do don't we? I can't paint continually and I'm hoping a little break will help with my struggles.
I've posted a study and demo from a recent class. We will be going back to color mixing in a couple of weeks and then I'm off the study with Ovanes Berberian in Idaho for a week. More still lives. More flowers. Fun......

Facebook Post from Dan McCaw A painting should say as much about the artist as the subject he or she is painting. I exaggerated and simplified.... I will try anything that will help better express my own voice, for me its all about the search. You should never paint a truth that is not your own, the journey is to find your own truth. It exists within all of us, the model is only our excuse to search for it

beginning  by Randy Blasquez

I love today's post from one of my favorite artists....  Dan McCaw
We are all on this journey, to find our own truth in paint. I love this!
I want to express my truth. Oh how much easier said than done. This is where I am in my own journey. In the beginning, I was a copy cat. I painted mostly from photos, or should I say I copied from them. I did not learn from this much in the way of good art, but more in the way of how NOT to paint. This was a good lesson.
Now I teach what I want to learn. To SEE the truth and express that truth to the best of our ability. I wish it didn't take so long to get that into my brush.....

Another Study

Still Life Paradise

Lately, been working on some still life studies at the studio. I've never really gone to the trouble to set up elaborate table scenes, so it is a new  experience that I am enjoying very much. For now I am going for exciting color combinations with good light direction and design. I know it is time to be outside painting plein air, finally, but I have had some health issues to deal with, and a request for some still life paintings. So, it all works out.

I will be going to the Horten Iris Farm again this year for one day if I can. Some friends are coming along. I always enjoy painting the irises. I will have some in my own garden here soon as well. I planted some bulbs from Horton a couple years ago and they are growing like crazy. More for my still life set ups.......

I just finished a commission piece of Lake Tahoe for my friends Pat and Diane. My lesson for today is to do your studies first, and the large piece goes so much more smoothly!

I am going to get to work now, so I can post some still life studies for you..........

Dreama's Daily Paintings and Writings: "Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This"

Dreama's Daily Paintings and Writings: "Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This"

Windy Day at Point Lobos

I've always wanted to paint this area. I love the cliffs and the shapes of the trees. This is just a fun little piece I painted a few weeks back. 6 x 6"

This piece has been donated to help the victims of the disaster in Japan. Go to:
http://dailypaintworks.com/Challenge    to learn more about this program. It was a wonderful idea put together by David Marine and Keiko Tanabe.

Remembering Sergei Bongart

This is a replica I painted as a demo in one of my art classes at the School of Light and Color. I wasn't so sure about having the class copy a painting from a master using a photograph at first, but it has done wonders to loosen everybody up and has helped us to understand how to apply paint to the canvas. Many beginners want to "lick" the canvas with their brush until there is no paint left.
I'm looking forward to our next project - maybe some of this will stick.
Below are some of the pieces from our class on Tuesday night. The above painting was from the Wednesday class.

They all did a truly amazing job on these. Very exciting!

Pacific Grove Pics

I have missed you! Been busy traveling and getting organized for this year with shows, workshops, and lot's more. Life has been good. I am hoping to have a workshop in Pacific Grove later this year, so I HAD to make a trip and pick out some spots. It rained for two days, but finally, sunshine. Then this past weekend my family and I made another trip to San Francisco and toured the Academy of Art University for the second time, getting ready for my daughter to be a student in the future. My son and his wife and my granddaughter also went and it was wonderful to share time with all of them. My son is also an artist and his wife in the business, so we had fun with the tour.

I will put out a newsletter soon with the events that are coming up. Soon I will post a little more about Sergei Bongart. In my art classes at the School of Light and Color, we are painting a copy of a Sergei still life painting. I forgot to get pictures last week, but wanted to share our progress. All the students are doing wonderfully! It has been another eye opener for all of us. I noticed how much it has helped to "loosen up" some of the students brush strokes and that is huge!

I will post some pictures later this week but for now just wanted to share some beautiful sunset photos of Pacific Grove, enjoy......