A Word About Workshops

Painting In Process from Today

14 x11 

Yvette's Kitchen in larger format

I'll continue on this piece, it doesn't have the feel that I want yet.. but had some fun with it today.

A WORD ABOUT WORKSHOPS

This coming June, um, I mean in a couple of weeks, I'll be teaching my first Plein Air Workshop overseas..
I've been working on my lesson plans for the group, and it's a great group! This has me thinking about what it  
takes to get the most from a workshop..
I should know, I've taught a few and taken a few! I've never had a bad experience, but I've learned a few things about what not to do.
Let's take the student's attitude for instance..
I've seen the most success from students who come to the workshop well prepared..
This means physically, but more important I think is the mental attitude. You need to know how to have the attitude of a student. Show up like you are going to step out of your comfort zone and really try something new. Allow yourself to fully immerse into the workshop and to trust the process. Don't worry about outcome! Do concern yourself with having fun, playing with paint and letting go of fear. Trust me, this will allow for an amazing transition and lots of growth....

Do NOT:

• compare yourself with the other students
• try to paint for anyone but yourself
• stress about the outcome
• hold your breath
• rush the process
• fall into old habits
• expect to take home a masterpiece

DO:

• allow yourself to fail (the fastest way to learn)
• take the risk and load the brush
• relax into the process and stay in the moment
• look at the beauty in front of you, and be grateful
• experiment with the technique the instructor has laid out for you
• slow down and breath!
• trust the process
• consider your biggest obstacle and make it a goal to focus on overcoming it

Trying to Get Back in the Studio...

This painting has been sitting around for a while. I need to get back in the studio! I have just a couple of adjustments to make, but didn't want to wait any longer to post...
Been busy with a local show and the reception was last night. Now that is over and I am faced with getting ready for my trip beginning on June 3rd to France to teach a two week workshop at Montfaucon.
More on this later in the week, but I wanted to get this up on the blog..
I'd love your feedback on this one.

Time for a Redo!

"Time for a Redo"

by Randy Blasquez

Today I didn't quite know where to start. I just finished up a large piece for a show, after working on a few others for a different show and meeting a deadline before that.. It has been that way lately. So, today when I was thinking about where to start with a new series for one of the galleries I ended up in the storage area (my second bedroom that has been taken over by old paintings), and as I went through some old forgotten starts and unhappy endings, I decided it might be a good idea to just start painting and playing around to get the creative juices flowing as they say.
This was a demo from class about 3 years ago. We painted out on the sidewalk in Plein Air. I had it framed for a while and then put it away, thinking it wasn't going anywhere and I had lost any interest in doing something with it. So, I had some fun with it, darkened the shadow side and adding more light to the light side. The pears I didn't really touch. Ah! I don't know, it might get some more outta me but maybe not. The pears are a little too defined against the lost flowers, and I haven't decided if that's okay or not.
If I do make any changes, I'll add it to the post later today.....
If you just need to get going, start with an old piece that got left behind. See what you can do. It might spark some new ideas or it might turn out to be a masterpiece!

Harbor Glow at the Wharf

"Harbor Glow at the Wharf"

Oil on Linen   9 x 12"

$875

I painted this little piece when I got back form the conference. I just loved walking along the Wharf in the evening in Monterrey where the lights just glowed with the boats all lit up. 

Ronna and I enjoyed dinner on the Pier a couple of times and neither one of us ever get tired of seafood. Let's just say, we ate very well. Yum! The sun would set late, about 7:30 and this was the magic hour when you could observe the beautiful lights at sea. I loved the way the distant shore lit up in a soft glow. 

I think I am in love with this part of California!

More From the Plein Air Convention

It has taken me some time to get back to this but I really want to share some of the thoughts that a couple of my favorite speakers talked about.

Joseph Paquet spoke on Creativity and Authenticity

This was painted at Catalina Island. His work is inspiring to say the least. He was the opening speaker and this is what I can share from my broken and scattered notes:

*Paint with a heart coming from Humility and Gratitude.

*Work on your skills. A true master is a perpetual student. Consider your weakest skill set and your strongest skill set and bring them together.

*When coming from a place of discipline - it is an external motivation. Internal motivation comes from the desire to SAY SOMETHING. Another thing entirely.

*Go into the deepest places of your heart. "Test the deeps".

*Avoid general themes. Instead paint with a loving, quite, humble sincerity.

*Find the Grand Canyon in your own backyard. Don't constantly look "outside", it requires LOVE and DESIRE. Why doesn't that love come across when you look at a painting? Because it wasn't put into the painting! The artist was pleasing the gallery or trying to sell a painting. *** When you witness a piece of art you feel what was put into it. You can make art or make a product! The two are very different....

*If you don't trust yourself you will continually doubt yourself. It will take a bite out of your soul.

*Do something that's meaningful to you - and don't sway from that. Otherwise something is wrong.

*Tell the world what you LOVE. Express YOUR OPINION. Be courageous!

Good Stuff!

Scott Christensen painted a demo and talked about Establishing Your Ideas:

Scott was equally inspiring, although he didn't talk as much. He started a painting from a study. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it.

*Be unsympathetic, demanding and critical with what you produce.

*Develop your own eye.

*Ask yourself "what do you like?"

*Values, spacing, variety, line and shape. Spacing is everything.

*Look at other paintings and ask yourself, "why is this good?"

*Study paintings that are good in both color and black and white.

*Establish the key, don't try to finish everything, but manage the whole.

*Ask yourself, "what is the value and then the chroma?"

Here are a few more photos from the area..

May I Share With You...

Some photos from yesterday's paint out:

 This is Alexey Steele. An amazing artist from Russia who studied in the Russian Tradition.

 On the left is Kathleen Dunphy.

 Alexey again.....

 Peggy Kroll Roberts was tucked in between some cars along the highway to keep out of the wind.

A new favorite artist, Lori Putman from the Midwest....

After the paint out Ronna and I stopped on our way back to Monterey from Pacific Grove to admire and take some photos of the iceplant that blooms every April... I'm thinking workshop in April next year?

Day Four at the Plein Air Convention

The week has been incredible here in Monterey at the Plein Air Convention. This morning I'm watching two wonderful painters. Timothy Tien is painting boats while Zhaoming Wu is painting a beautiful figure. This afternoon I'll be out on the Pier painting boats. Hoping to post it later.

I've added Tim's boat painting in progress and Zhaoming's figure painting in the middle process. They only have an hour and a half to paint. Tim is talking about how he uses "opposites" to create interest.

Plein Air Convention in Monterey this week...

Vines and Roses
Oil on Linen   24 x 24"

Finished a new one this weekend. Taking it to Gallerie Amsterdam in Carmel. This is painted from of photo of the Languedoc Region in Southern France where I will be taking 9 students this coming June for two weeks of painting...

But back to Monterey. I am going with my friend Ronna to the Plein Air Convention from Wednesday through Sunday. It should be really amazing. Read up below. Hopefully I will be able to send some photos and a post your way sometime this week or soon upon my return..

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE PLEIN AIR CONVENTION

Edgar Payne Exercise

I studied with Jim Smyth and Brigitte Curt at the California Academy of Painters in Palo Alto California for a number of years. These are two wonderful teachers who changed my life.
Go to their website for the school to see their work and class schedule. http://www.classart.org/classes.html
They also offer a workshop in Provence every year.
Brigitte suggests this wonderful exercise for learning to see and compose the landscape using the Edgar Payne "Composition of Outdoor Painting" book. Click here for the exercise details.
It will be worth your while. If you want to learn to paint in "plein air", or study to figure, it's worth the trip to the Bay Area to paint with them.

This was a nice surprise.....

"Yvette's Kitchen", was selected as part of the FAV15% (jury's favorite 15% of the entries) in the February 2013 BoldBrush Painting competition.  (sold)

 "Waiting For You", was selected as part of the FAV15% (jury's favorite 15% of the entries) in the January 2013 BoldBrush Painting competition. (available)

Finally Done, Texting at the Grove

Texting at the Grove
Oil on Linen
28 x 24 x 1.5

What's on the Easel

14x11"

This piece is not quite finished. It has been sitting around the studio for months, something I started last year.

I took the photo while in Southern California visiting my niece Kimberly in LA. We went to "The Grove". Everybody had a cell phone in their hands.. I decided I wanted to paint this and call it, "Texting at The Grove".

I've decided to go ahead with the piece and paint a larger version. I wanted to work out the problems with the smaller piece before I finish up the larger one.

28 x 24"

When painting something this large you really want to have the issues resolved as much as you can before the start, and in this case, before the finish. I glazed in a transparent wash and have been building layers of color. My plan is to go with thicker paint in the lights, while keeping the transparent qualities of the darks. 

I'll let you know how it goes and post the finish..

This is a picture of my working studio, with a new painting on the easel. This is the start, again transparent washes as the underpainting. Next will come the heavier paint passages. I have worked out the initial design and value plan, only I will add a lot more light into the flowers. I want to keep the background in shadow. I took the reference photo for this piece at the Ovanes workshop in June a couple of years back. What's important to  me in this piece is keeping the light quality to read "outdoors".

Morning at the Flower Farm
Oil on Linen Panel   8 x 6"

California Art Club, the Sacramento Chapter hosted a paint out at the Flower Farm in Loomis. I don't get to many of these, but I need the practice and the day was so beautiful! The flowers weren't blooming yet so I want to go back in a couple of weeks. This is a place we pass by on our way up to Tahoe and I have always wanted to stop. It is very nice and they are advocates of artists..

To learn more about the California Art Club click here, and to check out the Flower Farm here.

Circle of Love
Oil on Canvas   8 x 8"
Inquire about this piece...

It's already Oscar time! This year started out well and is only getting better but wow is going fast.

The workshop that I'll be teaching in Southern France is coming together well and I am blessed to have an amazing group coming along. The tour guides that I've been working with are pretty wonderful and taking care of all the details at Montfaucon Tours. The flight tickets have been purchased and the hotel reservations in Paris are done. I have to say that the planning before the trip is just as fun as the trip itself! Well, almost.

I've been busy with some commission work and today I bought fresh flowers for the floral that I'm starting tomorrow. Gotta get some paintings done for my gallery in Carmel, Gallerie Amsterdam. 

Yesterday I finished this little piece that I started as a demo in one of my classes.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/randy-blasquez/circle-of-love/124399

Foundations of Design

FOUNDATIONS OF DESIGN 

By Randy Blasquez

The design will determine whether or not your painting will succeed.  This is why I believe that design in the most important element in any painting. We will look at how to design using thumbnail sketches and by identifying big patterns.

There are two main elements to consider. One is the focal point and the other is the dark and light pattern within your painting.

FOCAL POINT

The main focus in a painting is usually found at the focal point. This is the “anchor” in your composition. This is where the viewers eye goes, and in a well designed painting, will return to again and again.

What makes a focal point work? You don’t want another area in your painting to distract from the focal point. Therefore, as the designer you will need to take steps to insure that your central focal point will be more eye catching than anything else in your painting.

You will want to momentarily lure the viewer’s eye to other areas of the painting, but you must always lead them back to the focal point. I loved the way C.W. Mundy said it when I was in his workshop a couple of years ago. “You are the leader of the band, and you get to decide who plays the lead”.

WAYS TO THE FOCAL POINT

Value

Use your lightest light directly next to your darkest dark to bring the eye to the focal area.

Color

By using contrasting color, bright chromatic and dull color, or color temperature vibrations you may bring the eye to the central focus.

Edges

By using sharper edges at the focal point is another way to bring the eye directly to your focal point.

*It is always a good idea to place your focal point in the golden area.

 DARK/LIGHT PATTERN

Another important aspect of composition is the dark and light contrast that will be the foundation of your design.

The dark and light pattern in a design is an arrangement that will create a lyrical quality of beauty in your painting. This is something that the student will learn to see and appreciate over time, but it is well worth the effort to learn.

This concept started to become clear to me while studying the idea of using a notan sketch to design a painting using a thumbnail drawing.  I think I first heard the word notan while reading through some Barry John Raybould material through the Virtual Art Academy.  The only other artist that I know to use this word to describe dark/light pattern is Peggy Kroll Roberts.

Barry John Raybould puts it this way, “Notan is the harmonious arrangement of the dark and light masses in a picture”.

THE ONE RULE OF COMPOSITION

When I took a workshop with Carol Marine many years ago she mentioned a book that I was already familiar with. “The Simple Secret to Better Painting” How to immediately Improve Your Work with the One Rule of Composition”, by Greg Albert.

What artist could resist that title? It was very good, and I took away from it the following:

Never make any two intervals the same in your painting. So when I design a painting I always look for differences of space. This will make your painting feel more dynamic.

Space must be divided un-equally.

Shapes must be different in size and dimension.

No two areas in your painting should be equal in distance or length.

Create variety by looking for the big differences in the size of your subjects within your painting.

Vary the amount of value to make sure one of them is dominant. Carol Marine says to make three values unevenly divided by using the dominant value, the secondary value and the “smidge”. Your eye will tend to go toward the smidge.

Use a variety of brush strokes and texture. Some areas should be transparent, others opaque, some thin and others thick. You get the idea.

Vary your use of color temperature. Put warm and cool together in such a way as to create vibration and intensity.

Use color compliments and split compliments in the same manner as the values of a lot, a little, and a smidge.

Some reading material to help you understand more about Compositon:

Composition

Understanding Line, Notan and Color by Arthur Wesley Dow

Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne

Carlson Guide to Landscape Painting by John E. Carlson

Peggy Kroll Roberts Limited Brush Stroke Exercise

Learning to create surface quality with Paint!

Peggy Kroll Roberts teaches a wonderful little exercise to help you learn to use your brush and use it well!

I shared this with my classes last week and we had some really fun eye opening experiences. I encourage you to try it.

*How to get more paint on the canvas….

*How to keep from overworking the canvas….

LIMITED STROKE – COUNT YOUR STROKES

1.       Premix the colors and values that you will be using.

2.       Use large brushes, #8

3.       Tone your canvas.

4.       Sketch a simple composition with line, loosely.

5.       Count strokes by marking it on the side of your canvas. Limit to 30 or 40 max.

6.       Turn your brush without lifting from the canvas to get more paint from the brush.

7.       Remember you are painting each shape with a color and value that relates to the next shape.

Thank you Peggy!

Pretty in Pink

Pretty in Pink
Oil on Linen  12 x 9"
$825  framed

I have to admit after the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge I had a little catching up to do. Not to mention I was feeling somewhat stressed and overwhelmed because I had put some commission pieces that needed to get done on hold. I  was planning on working on them, but time got away. So, this past week I have begun to paint the large pieces that will be going to our local UC Davis Medical Center in the Spring.

I had to paint some small color studies to find my designs for the pieces and then I started with the first big one last weekend. 

Meanwhile I'm taking some new pieces to the Patris Studio and Gallery to kick off Second Saturday this weekend. One of the pieces is "Pretty in Pink". Follow the link to her blog to see all the happenings there!

Day Thirty - Last Day!

Late Day on the Water
Oil on Cradle Board   12 x 6"

I wanted to paint something different for my last of "all things French". I took this from a photo from the Southern Coast of France. Next June we will spend a couple of days in a little fishing village called Coullioure. We will paint there one day and spend the next day touring the village. I can't wait to paint the fishing boats.