Workshop Wednesday: Kathleen Speranza
“Yellow Cluster”, Oil on panel. 11” x 11”. Artist, Kathleen Speranza.
There are few floral painters today who can conjure up the sublime in their paintings, Kathleen Speranza is definitely among the best of them. There is a palatable, moody atmosphere in her paintings which envelopes her still life subjects. This atmosphere simultaneously ensconces and reveals the delicate forms of her subjects, often English roses. And since I have been in search of the sublime recently in my own work, I jumped at the opportunity to study with her when she came to the Art League in Alexandria VA this past summer.
She will be returning to the area to teach a private sold out workshop in Purcellville VA in early December 2019. If you are interested in getting on a wait list should a slot open up, please contact me directly.
The following notes and photos I took myself so that I could continue to study on my own. Hopefully they will inspire you to spark a little moody magic in your paintings.
Day One/June 11, 2019:
ON THE SUBJECT OF ROSES:
-Kathleen has been working with the subject of roses for the past 4-5 years. She is still working on unlocking the secrets of subtly.
-”The growth habit is more beautiful in a garden rose”. A living plant twists and spirals into form. In nature this is called “Equiangular Spirals” or in design it is known as “Dynamic Symmetry”. Other terms for this are the Golden Mean and the Fibonacci Spiral.
-When she does work from florist roses (long stemmed), three of her favorites are “Juliet”, “Patience” and “White O’Hara'‘, all from David Austin. She recommends purchasing the cut flowers from Florabundance.com, an on-line retailer of flowers.
-When working from the rose she thinks of it as occupying space, and the background around it as space as well.
-She often composes her arrangements with a tiny vase so that flowers spread out - not tall and narrow. Also loves using just the floral frogs to allow for “more air”.
Kathleen Speranza’s charcoal drawing on Fabriano Ingres laid paper.
ON THE SUBJECT OF DRAWING:
-She does drawings constantly. Her drawings help her to “think” about her compositions.
-She uses her prepatory drawings to help her edit her vision for the painting. Kathleen has discovered that if she works directly from the roses when painting that she often ends up painting everything and losing the essence of subtly and restraint.
-When working with charcoal she prefers Nitram and will lay down the charcoal & then lifts the light. “The light is everything”.
-She will also draw with graphite.
-Prefers Fabriano Ingres laid paper. Tip: Place a thick pad of paper behind the Ingres paper when drawing.
-She draws and paints in natural light. Natural light is ambient - it envelopes the subject.
-She thinks in term of “light to dark” and “dark to light” when setting up her still lifes and also when drawing/painting.
-”Feel the gesture, the curvilinear marks”. Create compound curves w/straight edges.
-”You can’t get momentum if you hold the pencil like you are writing - that kind of detail comes later in the drawing”.
-”Make an ugly drawing first - structural, a boxy block in”.
-Lays down several lines with each angle - “feels'“ her way through. Makes cross hatches to indicate the end of a petal. Angled dashes that break the edge.
-”The edge tells you everything about the interior. They are hugely important”.
-”Veils in” the overall shadow.
-Recommends watching Sadie Valerie’s video on shading a sphere.
-”The viewer will see your experience- not your goal. Slow down and enjoy every detail”.
-”The background creates your edges.”
-“Laid paper slows down your darks - allows for the marks to breathe. Much more interesting that way”.
-”The more shapes you put down the more variation in tone you will have”.
-”The whole thing is straight lines. Take extra care around strong contrasts. Make sure each petal is where it should be exactly at this stage of the drawing.
-”if you go into details too soon you will make it too complex. This is not what you want. You want to simplify and go for subtly”.
-Use a grey scale with 9 steps and work toward those values in your drawing.
Kathleen’s paint mixing demo using the Munsell Color System to dial in on the exact value, hue & chroma of the rose petal above.
INTRO ON THE MUNSELL COLOR SYSTEM:
-Comes out of the French Academic system.
-Hue + Value + Chroma = Subtly
-It is based on 9 value color chart.
-Kathleen creates a mixture she calls “blumber”. 2/3 ivory black + 1/3 raw umber. She then adds white to this mixture to achieve the correct value and finally adds a color hue to arrive at the final value and color of whatever she is painting.
-Always add dark to your white. If you go the other way you will use too much white. Conserve your white.
-The student Munsell book contains 60 colors.
-Practice the color system by doing master copies. Use Google Art Project for references of the highest resolution.
-Be aware that the influence of black in the Munsell color system makes everything you mix a little greenish.
-It is a good idea to tube your paint in advance (blumber + white to achieve the 9 values in a value chart).
Underpainting block in
DAY TWO/June 12, 2019:
NOTES ON PAINTING DURING HER DEMO:
-Kathleen set up a split compliment for her demo composition. Yellow & grey.
-”Color is relative- edge to edge”.
“The classic still life is light to dark, or dark to light”.
“Look for structure, large mass & contrast”.
-”I have to believe the space I am making. Sometimes I get it right away. Other times I have to sand it, mash things around first”.
-Quotes Flannery O’Connor, “I don’t know what I think until I read what I write”. Feels the same way about her work.
-Uses a colored sheet, studio wall or box as her background.
-Degreases panel first with gamsol on a brush.
-Starts the underpainting with yellow ocher and plans to work in values 1 - 5 with a little darker for the leaves.
-Her set up has a nice horizontal arc so she is creating her composition horizontally on her panel.
-Does not start with “darkest dark” works in mid tones first.
-Starts her under-paintings with a floppy brush. For this demo a large comber.
-Masses in background with fluffy brush. Leaving object as negative space within.
-“You are making a space, not an object”.
-“Don’t think roses, think midtones, large shapes etc”.
-Consider light, height and spread of plant when composing.
-Wipes out as needed.
“The one thing your eyes can hold is light. So we are after that one thing our eyes can truly hold. Think about that for a minute”.
-”You have to look at the whole thing or you won’t make a space”.
-“It is much better to do a “raw underpainting”—meaning not too developed because otherwise I won’t want to cover it.”
-“If I put an edge there it will pull everything forward. I want to delay those decisions until later”.
-”If I am struggling with a painting I will overlay a grid on it to look for the path of composition. But I don’t start out rigidly with the grid”.
-”I work around an object until I understand how something is unfolding”.
-”Keep the edges soft”.
“Save your best drawing for the end of a painting. Delayed gratification”.
“Think about the paint and not about what you are painting. You have to trust that you can paint your way out of anything”.
Underpainting with background lay in.
Establishing the darkest green shapes of the painting.
NOTES ON PAINTING WITH COLOR:
-The understanding of color is all about relationships.
-The color of roses is deepest always in the center or in the creases (unless it is red). The color compounds by the overlapping of each petal. In other words the petals are all actually the same color but they appear darker as they overlap.
-She uses just a simple yellow & black mixture for her leaves & stems. Try black + yellow ocher, black + lemon yellow, black + cad yellow med and black with indian yellow.
-For blue greens try; lemon yellow + ultramarine blue, cad yellow med + cobalt blue, or cad yellow med + cobalt blue + ultramarine blue.
-Think “dark, blueish green”. Think in 3 descriptive terms when mixing, it will help.
-When people paint flowers they tend to use too much chroma.
-Sargent is known to have said “Use fewer colors & more values”.
-Kathleen uses the following colors from Marvin Mattelson’s flesh palette (with whom she has studied) , terra rosa, indian red and yellow ocher to use when painting roses.
-”Here’s a tip for painting clouds and skys. Start at the top of the painting with ultramarine blue and as you get closer to painting the earth, switch to cobalt blue then cerulean blue and finally manganese blue. The color of the earth affects the air around it - so it becomes greener as it gets closer to the ground.”
Kathleen’s demo at the end of Day One.
FINAL MUSINGS:
-”If you copy from a photograph you are not making space”.
-Do not paint all the edges the same, it will not have a life force. It will turn out flat.
-“Hedge the whole painting with edges that are “open” so that when you harden an edge it leads the eye immediately”.
-When working, Kathleen often pushes the subject “out” and then paints the background “in” towards the subject. She then works that edge. {Sargent is said to have also worked this way}.
“Get rid of the word background. It doesn’t exist. Everything is relative in color. Color exists edge to edge.”
“Do not make pictures.
Make experiences.”
Workshop Wednesday; Casey Childs' Painting Oil Portraits From Life
When I take my copious notes during workshops I have a system of highlighting certain passages by assigning a number of stars to them or by calling some things out as "money tips" (my terminology for thoughts that truly add value to your painting). When I looked over my notes for Casey Childs' painting workshop, I found stars and comments littered through out the pages. What I am giving you here is some of the best advice to painting that I have heard, at least that is the way it struck me. Part of Casey's genius as an instructor is that he is a really good communicator and can easily explain both his working process and (more importantly) his thought process in ways that students can digest.
The following notes I took during Casey's Painting Oil Portraits From Life Workshop in October of 2017 at Francie's Studio in Purcellville VA:
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-Casey believes it is good for your painting to work on charcoal drawings in between, because it forces you to work on values.
-Working with a limited palette is also good if you are having problems with color.
-It is well documented that Sargent used lots of paint. You should too!
-Casey uses a palette of 3 reds, 3 blues and 3 yellows. Ivory Black, Flake White (lead white -does not use titanium white). Genuine Naples Yellow Light (Vasari), Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Transparent Red Oxide, Cad Yellow, Cad Red Light, Alizarin, Ultramarine Violet, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Viridian, Bice (Vasari), Ultramarine Blue, [Writer's note: may not be transcribed as a complete list of his palette nor in the correct order].
-Casey believes in pushing primaries together to make subtle grays. He finds & mixes color accordingly.
-Makes his own panels with gatorboard and linen canvas that he glues together using Beva Glue Film. He hand irons it together.
-When beginning a new painting he lines up the canvas at eye level.
-Starts with a thin wash of neutral color. A red + a blue + black.
-If anything is too warm he hits it with the complementary color. He is always thinking what he needs to adjust.
-Then he begins to wipe (with a blue paper shop towel) out shapes which immediately makes him think only in regards to lights & darks.
-Raw Sienna + Alizarin + Blue for the under-drawing. Today he is pushing the mixture towards warm because of the models red hair.
-"Get the shapes to relate to each other and you can start to get a sense of likeness without even drawing."
--"This simple block in approach is so important - spend the most time on that. You can't fix poor drawing with colors or edges."
-"Try and be a perfectionist. If you are tackling portraiture you have to be."
-Maintain the relationships of light & dark. Meaning, keep the values in the general same range.
-Starts working with color by jumping into the darks (Aliz + black).
-Observing where else you can use a specific color is a good way of harmonizing a painting.
-"Think of the biggest brush you can use for something then go one brush bigger. You get better marks that way."
-Uses the following mixture as his initial flesh tones; Ultra Violet + Lead White + Cad Red Lite + Yellow Ochre + Bice.
-Lays in color swatches to test value.
-"I'm slowing down. Just looking at big shapes."
--He purposefully dulls down the flesh color so he can sneak in more primaries, pushing the greys into one chroma or another.
-Casey observes on the model a blueish tint in between the shadow & the light (known as "the last light") and paints it that way. He uses subtle color to turn form. It is one of the cornerstones of his painting.
"I am trying to build the eye without building the eye (by building the large shapes). I put in my shadows, then suggest a color and then another value change. All those little notes come together & build the eye."
-"The areas that are not necessary I blur out or leave intentionally out of focus. With eyes for instance, I take my time & detail them well and in focus."
-"I often draw something by drawing the things AROUND it."
-"People often make the value of the crease near the nose way too dark".
"You can hold more paint in a bristle brush than you can with a soft hair brush so I often switch brushes to lay in more detail."
-"As I lay down piles of paint, I utilize them in creating new colors-- it helps harmonize the whole painting." Grabbing from the "mother puddle" to create new tones.
-When working on larger paintings he often starts the under drawing in charcoal and then works in a similar way to his demo, working general to specific. He works ALL the figures up at the same time. This allows him to bring areas into fuller focus and leave other areas more finished which gives more life to a painting.
-"Notice that I haven't really drawn the eyes or nose. I've been concentrating on the big shapes but because I have done that it suggests the other parts."
-Highly recommends Harold Speed's Painting Book.
-"Sneak up around the eye. Find the eye socket first then suggest the eye --only then do you add eyelashes."
-Thinks darkest dark, lightest light. The highlight on the eye is the purest white. All other lights are local color.
-Always maintain the relationship between shadows and lights.
-Local face color usually appears in the following "banded" manner (based on the amount of blood seen under the skin)---Forehead: Yellow, Nose: Red and Jaw: Green.
-Around the eye sockets things lean more blue.
ON REFINEMENT
-"Lead your viewer to the areas you want to stand out by how much refinement you do to that area. Think Rembrandt. Closer to the light has more detail. You can focus on a couple of features and bring them to refinement--but be choosy."
-He prefers filberts in bristle rather than flats.
-Makes corrections first (color, drawing etc.) when choosing what areas to start back into.
-"I paint like I am a millionaire (meaning use paint like cost is not a concern)."
-Color has a tendency to cool as it goes into shadow (last light) although on fleshy areas like cheeks & nose it can be warmer.
-"When painting the iris I am going to make that whole circle dark & then place the color on top. It is more pleasing that way."
-Likes using Trekkel Brush Restorer for keeping the shape of his brushes.
-Likes to paint with the corner of larger flat brushes.
"I think in terms of time when painting, especially in front of the model. For instance I will say to myself "spend 20 mins on that eye and then 20 mins on the other eye."
-Eyebrows--make lighter initially and then darker as it turns.
-Paints the darker circle of the pupil and then places the highlight on top.
-Don't paint a hard edge around the pupil.
-Load up the brush and add the lead white highlight to the eye, but be careful & delicate when placing! For this application he uses a Rosemary 279 flat 0 though he would have preferred a 2 or 3.
-In general key the nostrils lighter.
-"Refinement of value is all you need to turn the form on the nose."
-"It is important to work in value strings so that you can go up and down in value as needed." Incidentally, his value strings are not grouped by color so different colors merge together according to value to create his value strings.
-"Value is more important than color. If the color is close that's good but what is important is the value."
-He built his eye (with this particular model) using the value of the neck shadow and then simply adds more strokes of value on top, either lighter or darker, to build form as needed.
ON HAIR
-Lays in a middle value then will paint the darks & lights over that. Using a #6 brush or bigger. #10 for laying in the initial color. Used a palette knife on the shoulder to scrape back a little.
"Squint and paint the passages of light over the hair. Paint hair in one session because it will change."
I will end this post with one of his best tips so far: "Start everything with the middle tone value & then paint lights or darks into that (air, jewelry, features etc). And paint back to forward, always thinking about things in terms of depth."
Casey will be returning to Francie's Studio to teach another Oil workshop this April. He is honestly one of the best instructors I have studied with. I would highly recommend him to all of you and there are still spots available in this workshop. If interested, please email me at lagoarthur_studio@yahoo.com for more details.
Workshop Wednesday: Casey Childs' Charcoal Portrait from Life
The following are my personal notes that I took at Casey Childs charcoal workshop last Fall. Altogether I have taken 4 workshops with Casey. With each opportunity to study with him, I truly feel myself growing as an artist. And as a rather frequent workshop attendee--I can tell you that is a rare thing.
Normally I am happy if I can walk away with one or two new aspects of technique or approach in my painting after a workshop. Rarely do you attend a workshop where the instructor literally changes the way you THINK. And that my dear artistic friends, is really where improvements happen. We could talk all day about what brushes to buy and what paint to use but what truly matters is what you are thinking in that complex brain of yours that drives the brush in your hand. Seek enlightenment and your painting will automatically get better.
Casey himself is a friendly, laid back and humble kind of guy. He does not carry airs---he does not need to. His work speaks for itself. Casey is a regular finalist in the Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition. He is a sought after portrait and gallery artist and is represented by Principle Gallery, Haynes Gallery, Meyer Gallery and Illume Gallery.
Without further prologue, here are my notes from two relatively recent workshops I took with Casey at Francie's Studio, a private and intimate work space in Purcellville VA. I will divide up these notes between two blog posts that I will release over the next two Wednesdays as part of my "Workshop Wednesday" series. This particular blog post will concentrate on Casey Childs' Charcoal Portrait Drawing From Life Workshop. The second post will be on his Painting Oil Portraits From Life Workshop.
Charcoal Portrait Drawing From Life Workshop
-Casey says he draws and paints in the same way. He thinks the same things when he approaches both drawing and painting.
-He begins by taping two pieces of willow charcoal together to simulate a long handled brush. He uses a razor blade to sharpen it to a "big long needle point."
-Measures in the traditional way with his arm extended and straight taking comparative measurements, not sight size.
-Uses a brush to gently knock off or soften "area ridges" made from the charcoal line.
-Casey personally believes in using just a little bit of white chalk as an accent in his charcoal drawings. He says to look at the drawings of Fechin and you will see the same restraint.
-Prefers Canson Mi Teintes paper (in Pearl) and uses the smooth side (the side normally with the sticker).
-Be vertical with your easel and keep line of sight (eye level) right at the middle of your paper.
-Use your whole arm when starting out. Place "tick" marks to define the outer dimensions of your subject. Top & bottom, right and left etc.
-Shoot for life size of your subject or just under.
-Outline shapes. Think flat, think proportions.
-He uses the side of his charcoal too so he doesn't break the point.
-"Charcoal is similar to painting in that if you lay too much down initially you can't easily work with it."
-Often uses hard charcoal as a "stump" to push around and refine things more.
-He feels free to leave unintended marks -- "because it could add interest later on."
-He does use some lines as contour.
-Prefers to break up his drawing workshop over two days in this manner: Day 1 focus on shapes and drawing, Day 2 Finish & details.
-From the initial 2D block-in he begins to look at large forms first, turning form, thinking planes & light transitions but just on the larger forms. "Only once you have resolved that do you move on to resolving smaller forms and details."
-"The key to likeness is proportion. It is not hard to get a likeness if your drawing is correct."
-Casey uses calipers to measure proportions more accurately. He looks for areas where the vertical and horizontal are in proportion. Always measure horizontally & vertically.
-After a while trust your eyes if you have spent considerable time measuring.
-Hard charcoal is used to fill in the value (i.e. the gaps left in the paper from the initial med. charcoal pass).
-Uses soft charcoal to gradate flesh tones.
-"In the painting you can get value relationships much quicker. You must work at it in charcoal."
-Uses his mahl stick on the second day (details).
-Doesn't blend with his finger at all or stump. Doesn't like the look of smudges. Uses a piece of hard charcoal as his stump.
-He is most interested with getting his big forms right (turning forehead, shape of eyes etc. ...)
-Uses the hard charcoal to get the turning of the mid-tones.
-Recommends thinking of Andrew Loomis' "head in a box" when turning facial planes. "Helps you to think in a more structural way".
-Casey avoids working in a "window shading" kind of way (where one fully renders an area before moving on to the next) so that he doesn't get distracted. "You must be aware of the whole form."
"Form is edges. What makes an edge soft? Is it the light/shadow? Its all about relationships and how they relate."
-He takes it very slow when modeling the surface. Slow and deliberate drawing built upon observation.
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Casey will be teaching his 5th workshop at Francie's Studio April 14th-16th, 2018 and there are slots still available. As an instructor I could not recommend him more highly. If interested please contact me directly at lagoarthur_studio@yahoo.com for more information.
On a personal note I want to thank Casey for his generosity in sharing all that he knows with his students, and in particular with me. :) Thank you so much Casey!
