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......

new one just started, from Pacific Grove....

This is a large one, 30 x 40 I think. I am enjoying the use of color and am somewhat letting the design come along as I go. I have so many pics from my trip to Pacific Grove last November to study with Ovanes Berberian. He really stressed the use of "juicy color". That doesn't mean that he didn't use grays. I think the use of grays in his work is his genius. This day was overcast, but with some clearing later in the morning. I wanted to start with plenty of color though, and then decide how much to leave in. I still have some major decisions to make here, one being how much light to bring into it. That is the challenge with the cloudy weather. The rocks on the right had some light on them, so I will try to keep the water beyond them nice and rich in color. The rocks on the left are darker, so the water beyond will be lighter. At least that is my thinking right now.
I took the picture because I needed to break away from it for a while, and see it from another viewpoint. Most of the time when I take a photograph at first glance I will see glaring problem. It is the same concept as using a mirror. Just taking a break works well too.
I'm excited to take another trip with a friend of mine next weekend to paint in this area again plein air. I fell in love with the Pacific Grove. It is a little sleepy town near Monterey with an amazing coastline walking distance from the little hotels in the area. Much less expensive than Carmel, but close enough to drop in for some gallery visits and shopping. I'll come back with some painting studies for some more larger pieces. I just got some new 36 x 48 inch canvases so here goes!
Have a nice Valentine's Day weekend.....

still working on this one...

final after some friendly suggestions...

View from Aurel, Provence

This painting was kinda fun. An exercise in atmospheric perspective to be sure, but I couldn't get away with using a lot of cool colors while doing it. I'm not sure it is really done yet. Do you see anything that would help me finish it up? A lot of the time I take photos so I can see the problems with a painting. I'd appreciate your suggestions. I need to finish it up and get it to a show in about a week....

Frank Ordaz Studio & Gallery in Auburn CA

 

Ordaz Gallery 

530-906-0716
843 Lincoln Way
Auburn Ca 95603

I've recently added a few pieces to Ordaz Gallery -a great little gallery with a lot of Frank's beautiful works and a few other artists as well. I'll have my artwork there for a couple of months and there is plenty more to see and enjoy in the gallery as well as the little town of Auburn. Read more about Frank below and stop by and enjoy!

 

Auburn Journal 2010
by Michael Kirby
 
“I enjoy people. If you’re going to be good at portraits, you have to like people,” said artist Frank Ordaz.
Ordaz recently moved into a studio space he shares with Mike Maydak on Lincoln Way. He is a friendly and easygoing guy, quirky, talkative and engaging.
He is excited by the energy of the Downtown scene, and not just the art, but the people and businesses.
Having spent the last few years working out of a studio in his home in Auburn doing mostly commissioned work, Ordaz is jazzed about being out in town.
He is a fine art portrait painter and illustrator. Working in oils, Ordaz has the talent to capture a subject’s personality in his work and shares time, talking with every person he paints, waiting for the hint, the secret that is always revealed in time that exposes their inner person, that vulnerability and insight into his subject that Ordaz wants to capture.
The 53 year-old Ordaz was raised in East Los Angeles by creative and hard-working parents and admits that as a child art was a retreat for him.
He often spent many hours in his room to avoid the harshness of his neighborhood’s environment.
“I was small and skinny and someone was always messing with me. With my art I could create my own world, I could control it. It was safe and beautiful,” he said.
From age 10 Ordaz studied with famed California master artist Theodore Lukits, a renowned art instructor.
Ordaz attended the University of Southern California on an art scholarship. After two years he then transferred to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena to study illustration.
Upon graduation in 1980 Ordaz was highly recommended for a job with Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), working for filmmaker George Lucas in Northern California. There Ordaz did background matte paintings for specialized movie production effects and worked on films like “ET”, “The Wrath of Khan”, “Return of the Jedi” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, rubbing shoulders with well-known actors, musicians, directors and working with a talented production staff.
Ordaz even had a small bit part in Indiana Jones. He won an Emmy for his work as part of a team of artists working on the 1985 television movie, “Ewok — The Battle of Endor.”
Leaving movie work, and self-employed, his award-winning paintings and illustrations have been used in a line of Christian books, professional sports posters, specialty greeting cards and even a line of jigsaw puzzles.
Ordaz produced a painting that the George W. Bush White House used for their Easter egg hunt. Ordaz’s painting was used on the invitations, official program, posters and tickets for the annual event. Ordaz and his family were invited to the egg hunt, met and spent time with the first family.
He is currently involved in a portrait project for the U.S. Air Force, and teaching painting classes for children and adults along with painting portraits for clients out of his new studio Downtown.
“I feel this is what I’m supposed to be doing now, and where I’m supposed to be,” Ordaz said. Ordaz lives in Auburn with his wife and family.

 Ordaz Gallery opened in 2010 by artist Frank Ordaz. He has a very informative and entertaining blog at http://frankordaz.blogspot.com 

On the Easel this week & Irwine Greenberg Art Quotes

I started a couple of new paintings yesterday and got the basic block in finished. Now it is time to add atmosphere and color. I will post my progress when I get back to them later in the week.



A while back Robert Genn posted these quotes from Irwin Greenberg. Good Stuff....
Read them and be challenged!

Irwin Greenberg Art Quotes

1. Paint every day.
2. Paint until you feel physical strain- take a break and then paint some more.
3. Suggest.
4. When at an impasse, look at the work of masters.
5. Buy the best materials you can afford.
6. Let your enthusiasm show.
7. Find the way to support yourself.
8. Be your own toughest critic.
9. Develop a sense of humor about yourself
10. Develop the habit of work. Start early every day. When you take a break, don’t eat. Instead, drink a glass of water.
11. Don’t settle for yourself at your mediocre level
12. Don’t allow yourself to be crushed by failure. Rembrandt had failures. Success grows from failure.
13. Be a brother (or sister) to all struggling artists.
14. Keep it simple.
15. Know your art equipment and take care of it.
16. Have a set of materials ready wherever you go.
17. Always be on time for work, class and appointments.
18. Meet deadlines. Be better than your word.
19. Find a mate who is really a mate.
20. Don’t be envious of anyone who is more talented than you. Be the best you can be.
21. Prizes are nice, but the real competition is with your performance yesterday.
22. Give yourself room to fail and fight like hell to achieve.
23. Go to sleep thinking about what you’re going to do first thing tomorrow.
24. Analyze the work of great painters. Study how they emphasize and subordinate.
25. Find out the fewest material things you need to live.
26. Remember: Michelangelo was once a helpless baby. Great works are the result of heroic struggle.
27. There are no worthwhile tricks in art; find the answer.
28. Throw yourself into each painting heart and soul.
29. Commit yourself to a life in art.
30. No struggle, no progress.
31. Do rather than don’t.
32. Don’t say “I haven’t the time.” You have as much time everyday as the great masters.
33. Read. Be conversant with the great ideas.
34. No matter what you do for a living, nurture your art.
35. Ask. Be hungry to learn.
36. You are always the student in a one-person art school. You are also the teacher of that class.
37. Find the artists who are on your wavelength and constantly increase that list.
38. Take pride in your work.
39. Take pride in yourself.
40. No one is a better authority on your feelings than you are.
41. When painting, always keep in mind what your picture is about.
42. Be organized.
43. When you’re in trouble, study the lives of those who’ve done great things.
44. “Poor me” is no help at all.
45. Look for what you can learn from the great painters, not what’s wrong with them.
46. Look. Really look.
47. Overcome errors in observing by exaggerating the opposite.
48. Critics are painters who flunked out.
49. Stay away from put-down artists.
50. If you’re at a lost for what to do next, do a self-portrait.
51. Never say “I can’t.” It closes the door to potential development.
52. Be ingenious. Howard Pyle got his start in illustrating by illustrating his own stories.
53. All doors open to a hard push.
54. If art is hard, it’s because you’re struggling to go beyond what you know you can do.
55. Draw everywhere and all the time. An artist is a sketchbook with a person attached.
56. There is art in any endeavor done well.
57. If you’ve been able to put a personal response into your work, others will feel it and they will be your audience.
58. Money is OK, but it isn’t what life is about.
59. Spend less than you earn.
60. Be modest; be self-critical, but aim for the highest.
61. Don’t hoard your knowledge, share it.
62. Try things against your grain to find out just what your grain really is.
63. Inspiration doesn’t come when you are idle. It comes when you have steeped yourself in work.
64. Habit is more powerful than will. If you get in the habit of painting every day, nothing will keep you from painting.
65. There are three ways to learn art: Study life, people and nature. Study the great painters. Paint.
66. Remember, Rembrandt wasn’t perfect. He had to fight mediocrity.
67. Don’t call yourself an artist. Let others name you that. “Artist” is a title of great weight.
68. Be humble; learn from everybody.
69. Paintings that you work hardest at are the ones you learn the most from, and are often your favorites.
70. Read values relatively. Find the lightest light and compare all other light values to it. Do the same with the darks.
71. Grit and guts are the magic ingredients to your success.
72. Let your picture welcome the viewer.
73. Add new painters to your list of favorites all the time.
74. Study artists who are dealing with the same problems that you’re trying to solve.
75. Have a positive mind-set when showing your work to galleries.
76. Don’t look for gimmicks to give your work style. You might be stuck with them for life. Or, worse yet, you might have to change your “style” every few years.
77. If what you have to say is from your deepest feelings, you’ll find an audience that responds.
78. Try to end a day’s work on a picture knowing how to proceed the next day.
79. Don’t envy others success. Be generous-spirited and congratulate whole-heatedly.
80. Your own standards have to be higher and more scrupulous than those of critics.
81. Pyle said, “Throw your heart into a picture and jump in after it.”
82. Vermeer found a life’s work in the corner of a room.
83. Rembrandt is always clear about what is most important in a picture.
84. If, after study, the work of an artist remains obscure, the fault may not be yours.
85. Critics don’t matter. Who cares about Michelangelo’s critics?
86. Structure your day so you have time for painting, reading, exercising and resting.
87. Aim high, beyond your capacity.
88. Try not to finish too fast.
89. Take the theory of the “last inch” holds that as you approach the end of a painting, you must gather all your resources for the finish.
90. Build your painting solidly, working from big planes to small.
91. See the planes of light as shapes, the planes of shadows as shapes. Squint your eyes and find the big, fluent shapes.
92. Notice how, in a portrait, Rembrandt reduces the modeling of clothes to the essentials, emphasizing the head and the hands.
93. For all his artistic skills, what’s most important about Rembrandt is his deep compassion.
94. To emphasize something means that the other parts of a picture must be muted.
95. When painting outdoors, sit on your hands and look before starting.
96. Composing a picture, do many thumbnails, rejecting the obvious ones.
97. Study how Rembrandt creates flow of tone.
98. If you teach, teach the individual. Find out when he or she is having trouble and help at that point.
99. Painting is a practical art, using real materials -- paints, brushes, canvas, paper. Part of the practicality of it is earning a living in art.
100. Finally, don’t be an art snob. Most painters I know teach, do illustrations, or work in an art-related field. Survival is the game.