lagoarthurstudio 6/3/14 lagoarthurstudio 6/3/14

Technique Tuesday: Dirty Brush Holder

I came across this Technique Tuesday "hack" recently when I discovered the amazing alla prima portraits of Felicia Forte on Instagram. A student of hers brought her a bag of dried beans one day and suggested that she use them to hold her dirty brushes in place while painting. I saw that post and said "Eureka!", most probably out loud, and then ran upstairs to my pantry where I had stored many bags of dried black beans (a must in any Cuban American kitchen). I chose to use an old but cherished mug which features a ghosted image of my Mom and son as my new dirty brush container. My Mom was the one who taught me how to make black beans the traditional way--so it seems only fitting.

lagoarthurstudio 3/7/14 lagoarthurstudio 3/7/14

Impasto Logs 6: Pure Awesomeness

I have been anxiously awaiting the latest installment of David Cheifetz's awesome painting podcast. It is one of my absolute favorites to listen to when I'm in the studio. Not too long ago I went on a bender and heard ALL of them while painting and was left wanting more. So I was really happy today to discover that he had published a new one, #6 in the series, on the subject of composition which was a topic he covered in great depth at the recent workshop I took with him. Imagine my surprise then when I heard him mention my name, in particular the copious notes & blog post I wrote about his workshop. I was literally grinning from ear to ear when I heard it and somehow managed to keep a paintbrush moving in my hand. Thanks so much for the shout out, David! You totally made my day!

To listen to David Cheifetz's wonderful podcast, please click on the Impasto Logs logo above.

lagoarthurstudio 2/11/14 lagoarthurstudio 2/11/14

Technique Tuesday: David Cheifetz Workshop Notes

David Cheifetz's knife painting demo from our workshop.

"Paint with paint"

The mantra most frequently uttered by the masterful David Cheifetz at the 3 day painting workshop I recently participated in was simply, "Paint with paint". And David really meant it. In his demos his brush or palette knife was always fully loaded with a glob of yummy paint every single time he touched his canvas. We quickly discovered that he wanted each of us to do the same.

It was such a frequent utterance that fellow painter J Lyndon Douglas cheekily observed, "Amazing that paintings are made with paint. I think what I have been producing until now could be called smudgings." After laughing and probably snorting at his statement, I realized that J was really on to something. To see the amount of paint David Cheifetz skillfully uses while painting is a true revelation. Anything less just looks flat & lifeless in comparison. It has me very much rethinking how much paint I use in my own paintings, or smudgings as J would say.

Here are my personal notes from the workshop to share with you all. Many of these concepts were new to me. Enjoy!:

-Emphasize the values in your primary subject and dilute them everywhere else. You want your darkest dark and your lightest light on your primary subject.

-When setting up a still life, contrast secondary objects by picking darker subjects against the light of your primary subject. Always think dark vs. light.

-Think groupings. Don't scatter your subjects too much so or else they will compete against each other.

-"I always go for fear in a painting. If you are uncomfortable about something in your painting that is a good thing, it pushes you. Try to have at least one thing in each painting that makes you feel that way."

-Before you start a painting get a clear mental picture of what you want to paint. Sit, stare at it. Imagine it completely in your head the composition, area of focus, values and edges. Then begin to paint, and only then.

-Think surface/fabric. Do the folds add to your area of focus? If not take them out. Simplify.

-Make sure the light is directed on your primary subject.

-Example: When painting a ball of yarn, subdue any strings that leave the main form (skein). It should not compete with the ball of yarn itself.

-Example: Killing an apple (secondary object). Subdue it by not rendering it as well, more flat. Subdue chroma, value, everything.

-Your set up (composition) is just a tool for your narrative. Don't feel chained to it if it is not right.

-Cheifetz prefers to paint small. Mostly 9 x 12, 8 x 10 or 11 x 14.

-He sets his palette up from transparent colors to opaque. His colors include (but not in order): ivory black, phthalo blue, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, cadmium orange, burnt umber, raw umber, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, cadmium lemon and titanium white.

-You want your lights to be painted in mostly opaque colors because they attract the most light rays visually.

-Begin your under drawing by getting in the abstract shape of the shadows.

-Indicates the table line. Positions objects within the composition by making vertical and horizontal marks.

-He prefers compositions that are eye level. They elevate ordinary objects by bringing it to a "human scale".

-He prefers to paint on a dry panel (no oiling in).

-Use enough medium to be able to draw. Prefers Gamblin's Megilp.

-A tip on drawing straight vertical lines by hand: Make micro adjustments back and forth as you lay down the line. The overall impression will be a straight line.

-Jumps right into massing the objects & shadows (like an open grissaile). He immediately moves into his lights with color (direct painting) working first on the highlight of his main subject and moving out from there.

The early stage of David Cheifetz's knife painting demo.

-Put one or two generous strokes of paint before changing colors. PAINT WITH PAINT!

-Paint your backgrounds as lovingly as your objects.

-Lays his color down with filberts in long tiles.

-When painting a portrait, pick your area of focus and then let everything else melt out.

-Begin your painting with your subject and end it there.

I want to personally thank our host for the workshop, artist Tricia Ratliff of Agile Arts Atelier for conceiving this workshop and inviting me to participate. And thanks above all to David Cheifetz for his exceptional instruction and the individual attention he gave to each of us. I'd like to also add that David hosts his own awesome podcasts called The Impasto Logs that are all about painting and are especially wonderful to listen to when painting, or smudging.

lagoarthurstudio 1/14/14 lagoarthurstudio 1/14/14

Technique Tuesday: Cleaning Up Your Act {and Brushes}

Last week I brought you Teresa Fischer's tip to clean your brushes with walnut oil. And because I had begun to hear similar things from other artists and because even Rosemary herself of Rosemary & Co. recommends cleaning your brushes with oil, I had decided to try it for myself. Then last Friday at my weekly class with Rob Liberace, my art cohort Carter Corbin brought in this product called Jack's Linseed Studio Soap and offered to let me try it. When I looked at the bottle I instantly remembered that I had a little sample of it waiting for me at home that I had never opened. So thanks to Carter, I then did something I never do after workshops & classes, I actually cleaned my brushes. It was such an amazing experience with this product! It is all natural, made simply of linseed oil & soap. And like conditioner on hair, my brushes eagerly soaked it in. I am proud to say I have officially reformed my ways and now clean my bushes everyday with a combination of Teresa's technique (wiping the color off with oil in between uses) and then using Jack's Linseed Studio Soap at the end of the day to thoroughly clean them. Goodbye stinky, toxic OMS! Turns out I never really needed you after all.

I want to thank Teresa & Carter for opening my eyes to this new Technique Tip and also Susan Gallagher O'Neill for serendipitously picking me up a large bottle recently at our local art store. I have the best art friends!

lagoarthurstudio 1/6/14 lagoarthurstudio 1/6/14

Technique Tuesday: Teresa Fischer's "Go To" Brushes and Brush Cleaning Method

"Peculiar Pachyderm". Oil on panel. Artist, Teresa N. Fischer.

One look at Teresa N. Fischer's paintings and you know you are seeing something revolutionary in the field of still life painting. Her theatrical and witty compositions are often clever observations of childhood experiences, inferred by the juxtaposition of antique toys and other still life objects. One has only to look at her painting "Peculiar Pachyderm", one of my all time favorites and a finalist in The Artist Magazine's 30th Annual Art Competition, to feel and see the magic in her work.

Teresa is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design where she met her husband, the illustrator Scott M. Fischer. She is an award winning member of both the Oil Painters of America and the International Guild of Realism and has been a finalist many times over in the Art Renewal Center's, International Salon.

I had the immense luck of meeting Teresa several years ago and instantly found a nurturing and supportive friend who was willing to share her experiences with me, have studio chats via Skype and even meet for dinner on the occasion she's in town for one of her openings at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.

In keeping with Teresa's generous spirit, she is actually sharing twoTechnique Tuesday tips with us today! Hooray! Here is the first:

"These are my two favorite brushes that I use. Robert Simmons white sable series 721 one strokes (a long bristled flat) and series 750 script (a longer bristle liner round).

I don't use a lot of small round brushes for my fine detail work. For me I find them difficult to use. They either don't keep their points which can be frustrating or hold enough paint. With the 750 script I can pull a very clean thin line, and the point gets really thin which allows me to do very tiny details. In this one brush I have a greater choice over the thickness of those details or their size.

Of the series 721 one strokes (flats), again I prefer the longer bristles. I like the spring of them. Shown in the picture (above) is the 1/4", my other favorite size is the 1/2". This is my work horse brush. I lay almost my entire underpainting with these two sizes. I can block in bigger areas and turn it on edge and drag a very nice clean line. I find that very versatile. If I get too caught up and tight, I grab the one stroke and start blocking and chiseling the form. It feels more like I am sculpting with paint.

The other thing I do is I rarely use turp to rinse my brushes. During a painting day I use walnut oil to rinse my brushes. Mainly to try to be healthier and my brushes seem to like it. At the end of the night, I give them a rinse in turp or OMS, them wash them using either Masters brush cleaner or even Palmolive dish soap. Because the walnut oil is a little more expensive I don't want any to go to waste , so I utilize the two jar system. After the oil settles, the oil and sludge separate.

I then carefully pour the clean oil off into a empty jar. I clean out the sludge that is left with a napkin and the end of a brush handle to swirl it around with. And as you can see, my favorite jars to use in the studio is salsa jars."

Thank you Teresa for sharing both these wonderful tips and your amazing art work with us today!

Teresa's painting, "Carrot - O" was recently featured at the 15th Anniversary Show at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacremento, CA. Here is a link to her really informative blog post detailing its creation. Enjoy!

lagoarthurstudio 12/3/13 lagoarthurstudio 12/3/13

Technique Tuesday: Podcasts

One of the best weapons in my arsenal to fend off insanity while working on lengthy commissions is to listen to podcasts. Let's admit it now, those details in a painting that are so pretty to look at are sometimes a pain to paint. Podcasts can help you get through it. Here's a list of links to my current favs. Check them out, you may find one or two that are new to you. You can find most of them on iTunes or by going directly to their site and subscribing to them. Lastly, I should mention that I only pick podcasts that are around an hour long. I don't want to waste my time hitting play often.

1. National Gallery of Art Lectures on art history, artists and exhibits at the National Gallery of Art.

2. NPR: TED Radio Hour The inspiring Ted Talks but curated around a theme which lasts one hour.

3. WAMU-FM: WAMU: The Diane Rehm Show Topical interviews on politics and culture.

4. NPR Programs Fresh Air More topical interviews on politics and culture.

5. Impasto Logs with David Cheifetz Painter David Cheifetz shares his take on the practice of painting.

6. Sidebar Nation Highly entertaining interviews and discussions about everything in the comic & animation worlds. Past interviews have included James Gurney and William Wray.

7. Artists Helping Artists Discussions surrounding art marketing, boosting your sales and on-line presence.

8. Art Share Fantasy world artists/Illustrators and writers share the tales of Cons and the industry in general. Humorous panel of hosts.

9. Hush- Topeka and Shawnee Co Libraries A great podcast showcasing writers and genres of literature introduced by entertaining librarians.

10. Artist Mentors On-line A good pod cast on painting that has some heavy hitters for interviews including Jeffrey Watts, CW Mundy, Tony Pro and Rose Frantzen. However the hosts remind me a little (OK, a lot) of this cult classic SNL sketch.

Do you have a favorite podcast you'd like to share? Please leave the link as a comment. Thanks!

lagoarthurstudio 11/26/13 lagoarthurstudio 11/26/13

Technique Tuesday: A Tip from Elizabeth Floyd

"Persimmons on a Wooden Crate" by artist, Elizabeth Floyd. Oil on canvas. 2013. Available at Principle Gallery, Alexandria VA.

My wonderful friend & painter, Elizabeth Floyd is the talented artist behind the "Bountiful Observations" series of floral still lifes and the creator of the beautiful persimmon painting above. She also writes a really awesome creative lifestyle blog which you can subscribe to here. Her lovely paintings will be included in the Small Works 2013 show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria VA in December. Elizabeth has graciously agreed to share this Technique Tuesday tip with all of us today:

"My tip that I find invaluable is that I like to use spice jars that have a metal lid when mixing my batches of medium. I have found that these spice jars are the best because it is always better to mix small batches of medium and the threading of the metal lids are some of the best available. Baby food jars do not work well over the long haul because the lids do not have quality threads and deteriorate over time."

Thank you Liz for allowing me to feature your tip today! This is one that I for sure will start incorporating into my studio routine.

And to all of you in the States, especially to our service men & women abroad--may you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

lagoarthurstudio 10/30/13 lagoarthurstudio 10/30/13

Jonathan Linton's "White Test"

Today is Wednesday and for the second week in a row I have forgotten to do a "Technique Tuesday" post. In my defense I actually just have a lot excuses. My son has been home for 3 days with a fever, my husband is home in between contracts, I have not had coffee for 48 hours and I have a major commission due which I hope to share shortly. All the above issues = comatose brain cells.

But I do have one extraordinary technique tip to share with you today. My good friend and mentor, Jonathan Linton created years ago a "White Test" where he systematically tested various oil painting whites (and whites mixed with black) and then left the entire test in a window for 2 years to see what happened to them and help figure out which was the truest white over time. Think of it as an art nerd's Survivor Island.

For a complete list of the whites Jonathan used check out his original post from 2010 (above) which has been featured on other blogs including Gurney's Journey and most recently on Muddy Colors. Then see if you can figure out which white is the great survivor--and be sure to use that knowledge in your paintings going forward.

lagoarthurstudio 10/8/13 lagoarthurstudio 10/8/13

Technique Tuesday: C - Thru Rulers

Some fancy artists out there will use calipers to help them make adjustments to their work. You don't get fancy around here, just useful and sometimes cheap. This trick of mine falls into both categories. I use those cheap and abundant clear rulers you can pick up anywhere to measure both my subject and my paintings when they get out of whack proportionally. That is to say if I am working at life size. Normally I have a really strong sense of proportion when I am drawing or painting, but I don't always "nail it". That's when I pull out my trusty little ruler. It is such a useful tip that I keep one of them always nearby with my brushes while I am painting.

A note of caution: if you are painting from a model, they usually prefer for you to ask permission to measure them. Just saying.

lagoarthurstudio 7/18/13 lagoarthurstudio 7/18/13

This Studio Tip is Being Brought to You Today by the Letter "F"

As in the letter "F" for filching, because I can't take credit for this wonderful studio tip. The bragging rights to this goes to my talented artist friend Gavin Gardner (wuz up, Gavin?). Gavin announced on Facebook a while back that he started using these little condiment containers you find at fast food restaurants to store his paint mixes in. And I thought upon reading that, "Brilliant!". So I stored that little nugget in the back of my head like a squirrel hiding nuts for Winter. And recently when I was having lunch with my son at Moe's and getting his requested servings of salsa, my eyes froze upon the image of a tower of condiment containers and the proverbial light bulb went off in my head. I grabbed a bunch of them while chuckling delightedly under my breath in a sinister evil villain laugh and brought them home with us. I did not get around to using one until tonight but man was it worth the wait--in a kind of life changing way. I am pretty sure this will become a permanent part of my studio repertoire.

Thanks Gavin!