Suzanne Lago Arthur 8/16/20 Suzanne Lago Arthur 8/16/20

Painting & Living During a Pandemic

I keep hearing in the news, especially among sports news outlets that this pandemic year will go down as the “*” asterisk year. But in my mind I have been thinking about it as the “Abandoned Year”. The year that all of us had to drastically alter our lives to protect ourselves and our communities from the unspeakable. Living through a Pandemic such as Covid-19 makes it easier to preoccupy ourselves with the “now” and not necessarily in the good sense. We think more in terms of what we are missing out on in our daily lives.

But for me it helps to look back on history and see how our ancestors handled similar crises. Another passion of mine is genealogy. And genealogists know that if they encounter a death of loved one during the years of 1918 and 1919, it was most likely due to the so called “Spanish Flu” (unfairly attributed to the Spanish who were the only ones cataloging the deaths due to Influenza during WW1 because they were neutral in the War). Such a revelation in one’s family tree is not as uncommon as one would think. It got me thinking about how as an artist I can express my own grief over this period in a body of work and such soul searching led m to ask, “What kind of work was made as a result of the Spanish Influenza?”. It turns out there is quite a bit.

As difficult as it is to see and read about how people are suffering today and how they suffered in 1918, I know from personal experience that a health crisis can often awaken you to your higher purpose. Today is the 2nd anniversary of my surgery to remove a very large benign brain tumor which you can read more about here. Luckily I am well past that now and so when I look upon these images of Pandemics, I see much more than suffering. I see perseverance and transformation.

The paintings shown in the introduction are by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The larger one is his self portrait painted while he himself had the Spanish Flu in 1919. Notice how gaunt he is, what he is wearing and the bed in the background - suggesting that this is most likely how he spent most of his days. I personally love the palette of this painting and its thinned out color wash application. The smaller image painted in the same year is his self portrait after his recovery.

The artist most closely associated with the Spanish Flu was the Austrian Egon Schiele. In 1918 Schiele was at the top of his art career (he appears above in this 1918 self portrait with his young family). Tragically, he would first lose his mentor, the artist Gustav Klimt and then his beloved wife and their unborn child to this pandemic (she was 6 months pregnant in this painting). Schiele himself perished from the disease only 3 days later at the tragic age of 28, on October 31, 1918.

The following drawings are both documentations and heart breaking portraits of his wife Edith Schiele and Gustav Klimt. The former drawn while she was dying, the latter drawn posthumously.

At this point you may be asking what could possibly be the transformative moment that came after the Spanish Influenza? Here is the moment where I can finally give you a little encouragement - it was none other than the “Roaring 20’s”, a period of tremendous growth and widespread prosperity in North America, Western Europe & Australia. That my friends is our silver lining. We can get through this difficult period and be better for it as a society because we have done it before.

Join me next week as I continue exploring this theme of “Painting and Living During a Pandemic”. I will share with you what I have been up to since we all went into lockdown in March.

Thanks for the visit. Stay healthy & happy!

-Suzanne

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 9/30/13 lagoarthurstudio 9/30/13

Technique Tuesday: Drawing Revelations with Dan Thompson

In August I attended yet another workshop with Dan Thompson. 2 actually, back to back. Both of them on drawing. I see Dan as a cosmic guide on my life long journey as an artist. He leaves little bread crumbs of wisdom to follow on the path to improvement. Most recently he left me with two life changing concepts. The first is the revelation of what "closed" and "open" drawings are. Closed drawings are those with specific contours. They are precise, drawn from the outside in and do not allow much room for alterations. Open drawings are the opposite. They are built from the inside out. They are more mass than contour, they are flexible. They are forgiving. I had never heard these terms before, perhaps because I did not attend a particularly traditional art school. Hearing these terms allowed me to understand my own frustrations with my drawing--most noticeably a tendency for strong contours. To think that I could simply reverse engineer my drawing technique to get at the quality I want in my work was literally mind blowing! And the last revelation I received from Dan's workshop was to approach each effort in drawing and painting as if making a "proposal". If you get it wrong, so what! Just alter your proposal. Brilliant right? And it totally takes the pressure off.

lagoarthurstudio 12/28/12 lagoarthurstudio 12/28/12

Workshop Wednesday: Robert Liberace's "The Classic Portrait from Pencil to Watercolor"

Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending yet another of Robert Liberace's fabulous workshops at the Art League in Alexandria VA, this one on drawing & painting portraits (watercolor). Every time I find myself in one of Liberace's classes, I am made aware of how much there is to learn about this thing we call "art". Specifically for me I am interested in learning how Liberace makes his work look so elegant and at the same time so dynamic. Every stroke has its purpose and I am working towards accomplishing that same thing (er... at least attempting to).

Here are the notes and photos I took from the workshop (click on the photos to enlarge). It is my honest wish dear reader, that something in the post will resonate with you (and with me) and we'll walk away as better artists or at least more enlightened ones. And how could we not when we are privy to the inner thoughts of a modern day master?

Day One, Drawing the Portrait:

Tools:

Mechanical pencils, bic
Works mostly in HB, uses harder or softer pencils occasionally to achieve his values
Anything beyond 2B gets too dark in his opinion
Nibs
Watercolor
Ink

Notes:

Follow the (Charles) Bargue idea
Strong light & shadow
Liberace loves TwinRocker paper, Canson "Mi Tientes" too
Looks at Ingres for fabric
Treat every detail of the picture like a portrait
Likes to paint in watercolor on a smaller scale like Fortuny
Box out your shadows, map them out then slowly add midtones
Ingres faces are almost decorative--like and engraving but with "spots of action"
Really study Ingres--get a good book on Ingres' drawings!
Make shapes that are so clear & obvious, terminator shading
Add pentimenti flying through there
Tieopolo liked to add "marks of 3" in his drawings, very Venetian technique. Sargent employed this as well
Looser shadow & animated but still differentiation of light & dark
(Tiepolo) Begins with charcoal before ink
Simple mass of shadow
Fortuny used black, umber & sienna in his watercolors, shadow always finding form
Zorn used monochromatic watercolor with opaque white on top for emphasis & highlight
If you ever need to steady your drawing or watercolor readdress area with a contour line
You can add a little water to a brush and dilute an area of a graphite drawing (works the same way as in a watercolor), good for evening tones or for contours

Day Two, The Portrait in Watercolor:

Notes:

Begins sketching in pencil, then jumps into watercolor
Quick assessment of light/shadow
Will often begin by doing a quick "Tiepolo" style study with one tone, maybe throw in an accent
Loosely sketch in pencil, then adds a gestural contour in watercolor
Adds mass & shadow
Try not to be too specific with lines, be more suggestive--"it is what gives that romantic feeling"
"Your job is to find out where the light is ending, the more you break that up the harder your job becomes"
"Melt" the detail into your shadows if you aren't so sure where they begin
Connect half tones to the shadow & "feather" it out
"It is really all about editing what you see"

Day Three, The Portrait in Watercolor:

Palette:

Burnt Sienna,
Black,
Chinese or permanent white,
Cadmium Yellow Light (or similar bright yellow),
Cadmium Red ( or similar bright red),
Ultramarine Blue.

Optional Palette:

Alizarin Crimson,
Manganese Violet,
Cerulean Blue,
Pthalo Blue,
Viridian Green,
Pthalo or Hookers Green.

Notes:

When sketching his gesture he holds his pencil at the end
Puts in markers (enveloping)
Blocks in his "axis lines"
Liberally throws crimson wash over the whole face & "melts" it out
Drops in yellow & violet for the beard
Throws in black for the uniform
Shadow on face, a warm green made of black & yellow & sienna
On the nob of the nose uses a little extra red
Drops in extra water for the fold of the eyes--orbital fold
Draws eye, ties it in to the shadow then carefully marks the lower lid with it
Goes back and forth between different temperatures
Will add half tones in when there is not a lot of shadow to delineate form
Thinks in planes, color & temperature all the time
Ties a lot of the elements of the eye together to simplify
Soften edges
Loves TwinRocker heavy text, light art weight, calligraphy cream paper
On halftones he is careful not to leave heavy block ins
"I don't want to plan things too much. Sometimes watercolorists work to tightly--allow spontaneity"
Moves in with smaller brushes
Will use watercolor & a bristle brush to scumble areas
Puts color in shadows
Will refine edges on strokes he doesn't like so that is will dry as a mass that he can paint on later
Really "feathers" a lot of these edges out
Likes to see a lot of shape & pattern to a form like Sorolla & Fortuny
Will erase at the end with a "perfect pencil" (eraser pencil with brush at the end) & then uses a white charcoal pencil to add highlights with
Chinese white paint is used at the end over dry white paint when needed (alla Zorn)

Hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours. Wishing you much artistic growth and success in the New Year!

lagoarthurstudio 11/13/12 lagoarthurstudio 11/13/12

2012 "Expressions" Portrait Competition Finalists

Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending the opening for the 2012 "Expressions" portrait competition at Artspace Herndon. This is my second year as a finalist and I can proudly tell you that the caliber of this year's show is exceptional. The jurors, artist Tricia Cherrington Ratliff and Caron Broadway Moody, of Broadway Gallery did a wonderful job pairing down the 107 submissions into a show of 25 portraits showcasing a strong display of technical achievements. Of those 25, Judge Kurt Schwarz had the difficult task of selecting the winners and after much admitted deliberation, awarded 1st place honors to Mark Giaimo, "Portrait of Marlis" (oil), 2nd place honors to Lorena Selim, "Waiting for Mr. Right" (oil) and 3rd place honors to Gavin Glakas, "Decisions (My Wife Jasmine)" (oil). Two Honorable Mentions went out to Suzanne Vigil, "La Rue" (colored pencil) and Ron Primm, "Dray" (oil).

Below are just a sample of the paintings on display, including one of my own (click on the images to enlarge them). The exhibit will be up through December 9th. Click here for directions and a link to the Artspace Herndon Website. If you live in the DMV it is a show not to be missed!

lagoarthurstudio 11/12/12 lagoarthurstudio 11/12/12

Who's the Man? Jeremy Mann!

Last Friday I attended the opening of Jeremy Mann's "The Realness" show at the Principle Gallery in Old Town Alexandria mostly due to his hype as American Artist Magazine's, "25 Artists of Tomorrow". And you know what I found out? He more than lives up to it!

Mann is what I would call a "painter's painter". His paintings completely seduce you with his play on textures, predominantly tertiary color harmony and lost & found edges, all while maintaining a strong level of realism. He is known for working with non traditional tools such a squeegees and brayers (that last one I wrestled out of him) as well as his brushes. Mann admitted to me that he likes to use which ever tool will achieve the most ambiguous mark as in "how the hell did he do that?" Personally I find his work extremely inspiring because getting more "painterly" with my technique is exactly what I am gunning for now. You can be sure I have already placed a couple of brayers in my Amazon shopping cart. I am sure Mann would be thrilled to know this.

I managed to take several detail photos of his paintings to share his brilliance with you (click on the photos to enlarge them). What I did not manage to do was write down any of the titles. Luckily the Principle Gallery's website provides all those great little details! Want to see more of The Realness show than what I am showing you here? Then check out their link at http://www.principlegallery.com/artistView.new.pl?artist=155

"After the Storm". 48" x 48". Oil on Panel. Artist, Jeremy Mann.

"Still Moments in Teal". 21" x 21". Oil on Panel. Artist, Jeremy Mann.

And to see more of Mann's amazing work visit his website @ http://www.redrabbit7.com/

lagoarthurstudio 10/16/12 lagoarthurstudio 10/16/12

Jonathan Linton's "Art Group"

The life of a professional artist is often an eremitic existence. We toil away by ourselves in our studios without human contact (except for the frequent face book checking--ok, maybe that part is just me) and often regret that we don't have another set of eyes to look upon the evolution of our paintings. Jonathan Linton, award winning portrait painter, children's book illustrator and co-founder of the Horizons Art School in Ashburn, VA has a brilliant solution to that problem and calls it--the "Art group". Jonathan is opening up his studio space at the Horizons Art School for a select group of artists to get together every Tuesday to paint, discuss art, share technical expertise and critique each other's work for a nominal weekly fee. I am beyond thrilled to have been asked to join the group and look forward to working more closely with Jonathan, an artist I truly admire.

Below is a candid snap shot taken just this morning from our first painting session together. All of us had a blast working on our individual projects and talking "shop". Personally, I think Jonathan looks rather fetching in his bow tie, don't you?

Interested in joining? Jonathan has a few slots available. Check out the Horizons Art School web site for more details and contact information. One word of caution--since I am one of the first members of the group I have elected myself responsible for the hazing of new recruits. I hope you like painting in togas. Muahahahahaha.

http://www.horizonsartschool.com/

And for a look at Jonathan Linton's work please click below.

http://www.jonathanlinton.com/

lagoarthurstudio 8/30/12 lagoarthurstudio 8/30/12

Good Artists Evolve into GREAT Artists {If they work hard enough for it}

I have been doing this whole art career thing for a little while now, albeit it a little off and on due to the joys of parenthood. And I have learned a couple of things over that time and here is one of them: Greatness does not instantly manifest itself in an artist--an artist has to WORK AT IT. Now this is not something that the top dogs in the art world might admit to. I would imagine that they would prefer that we all see them as some kind of Greek god who sprung perfectly formed out of the elbow of their mothers. But I have proof that what I say is in fact true! Allow me to present to you 3 artists of immense fame & talent who once, not too long ago, were making not as great art. Exhibit A: Daniel Sprick{ b. 1953 }

Sprick has to be one of my most favorite living artists. His oil paintings exude a sense of place, time & mood unlike anyone else except for perhaps Claudio Bravo (who sometime Sprick's work reminds me of). Below is an example of the work we have come to love and recognize him by.

And here is an older painting of his recently sold on Ebay for $2,995.00.

There are 16 years that separate the creation of these two paintings. Although the older work is relatively "good" in execution and has some nice variety in its brush strokes and edges, it is a rather ordinary painting and certainly not at all in the same league as its modern day counterpart. I would not have linked these two paintings as having been created by the same great artist. Do you see what I am getting at here? Gives the rest of us hope, doesn't it?

Exhibit B: Lucien Freud {1922 - 2011}

Lucien Freud is an artist who comes to mind immediately when I think of the evolution of a great artist. His work was always very psychologically charged (the apple here did not fall far from his Grandfather's tree, Sigmund Freud) but there is most definitely a crudeness to his earlier work which was very much nurtured by what was happening back then in modern painting. However, he did eventually evolve into a highly realistic artist with great technical ability who worked until the very day he died at 88 years of age. Below is a typical example of the work he became known for.

And here is a painting from early on in his career.

Again, there is a 38 year difference between these two paintings and just look at how different they are from each other. One is extremely flat and the other extremely convincing in its realistic rendering. Now I think that Freud could have been satisfied with with his early style as it is most definitely engaging (looks a lot like an Alex Katz here to me), however he chose to evolve in his artwork and what he evolved into is something truly remarkable with highly realized skills in painting a subject from life. Not an easy thing to do, believe me!

Exhibit C: Salvador Dali {1904 - 1989}

This summer I went to visit the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg FL and I was floored when I noticed the technical gap between Dali's earliest work and the work in the prime of his career. The tour guide made sure to point out to us that day how exceptional his work was back then and how within it you could see the "seeds of his greatness". I could not have disagreed with her more! I found his early work to be very average in both the traditional techniques in which he studied and his experimentation with modern styles. And it was this enlightening discovery which gave me the idea for this post and has encouraged me along the way. Below is a painting that I saw in person at the museum which was created when he was already well established. It blew my socks in wonder over its highly technical rendering.

And here is one of his early works when he was still trying to figure out his style & direction. I think I could find something similar in a local yard sale.

My take away message from this post is this: Do not allow yourself to be discouraged from achieving great things in both your work and your career. You only have to put in the hard work and persevere over time to achieve it. Now that doesn't sound so unattainable, does it? So what are you waiting for? Go get your buns back in the studio!

lagoarthurstudio 8/22/12 lagoarthurstudio 8/22/12

Artist Mentors On-Line, Blog Talk Radio

I recently stumbled across this really informative Blog Talk Radio show called Artist Mentors On-Line that I have been listening to in my studio. They have had a great line up of artist interviews leading up to the Weekend with the Masters Art Conference in San Diego including Jeffrey Watts, Juliette Aristedes and Tony Pro. However, I can't get that SNL "Schweddy Balls" sketch out of my head when I am listening to it. Anyone else having that problem or is it just me?

Check out this recent episode of AMO featuring the amazing Jeffrey Watts: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artistmentorsonliine/2012/07/25/jeffrey-watts-weekend-with-the-masters-series-interview

And to see the infamous SNL "Schweddy Balls" sketch I am referring to, simply click on the photo above.

lagoarthurstudio 8/19/12 lagoarthurstudio 8/19/12

Women Painting Women "Face Off"--Taking Names and Kicking A$$!

"Veni, Vidi, Vici" was the apparent motto for Mia Bergeron, Rachel Constantine, Cindy Procious & Terry Stickland this past Friday night when they came to town to show off their mad painting skills during the Women Painting Women "Face Off" at the Principle Gallery. The WPW ladies were set up in the middle of the gallery and painted from the same model with periodic breaks from 6:30 - 9:00 PM. I'd like to tell you that I took copious notes to share with you about their alla prima technique but that would be a lie as I spent most of the time two fisted, juggling my camera and glass of wine. And in complete disclosure, me and my homie arrived half an hour late so we didn't get to see their initial block-ins. But I can tell you that by the time we arrived they all already had really strong starts on their paintings and it only got better from there on out.

On a personal note I want to thank Mia, Rachel, Cindy, Terry, Alex & Diane for a great GNO (as well as my homies Dana, Tricia & Liz)! And thanks to Michelle, Clint & Meghan at the Principle Gallery who really know how to throw an awesome opening.

Here are some pictures I took from that night. If any of them are blurry, blame it on the yummy chardonnay.

lagoarthurstudio 8/12/12 lagoarthurstudio 8/12/12

Neal, Whyte & Lindstrom: "The Various Paths to Success"

Step into my time machine back to the date May 27th, 2012 when I attended a panel discussion by artistic luminaries, Michael Shane Neal, Mary Whyte and Bart Lindstrom at the 2012 Art of the Portrait Conference in Philly. I take a lot of notes during classes, workshops and conferences. Some of them never surface again, and some like these lucky notes born under the right astrological sign, actually make it into a blog post. You might not always get the latest breaking news here (try CNN for that) but if you are seeking a blog about painting & technique served with a little witty banter on the side--then you have come to the right place! Now please sit still while I adjust the flux capacitor on this thing. This is what makes time travel possible: the flux capacitor! First, you turn the time circuits on. This one tells you where you're going. This one tells you where you are. This one tells you where you were. You input your destination time on this keypad. Say you want to see the signing of the Declaration of Independence [Jul. 4, 1776] or witness the birth of Christ [Dec. 25, 0000]. For this trip we'll be traveling way back in time, er 3 months back to May 27th, 2012 so you can experience this panel discussion in person. Hold on!

Mary Whyte: On Promoting Work & Income

You must have a web site, an on-line presence.
Put up only your best work.
Make sure to have contact info up front; phone, email etc.
Make a "take away" brochure that holds dates, relevant publications featuring your work.
Press-how can you get more of it? Donate a portrait of a community person.
Make a contact everyday--reconnect with old contacts. Contact your "wish list" of people you want to buy your work.

Bart Lindstrom:

Keep a log of who are your collectors.
Create relationships with these people. Remember them, remember details about them. You become "their" artist!
Courtship, friendship--it is the same idea with your collectors.
Donate portraits to private schools. Entry level products that they can upgrade to something else you offer. Why private schools? Because these parents have the resources.
Keep your work current on your website. Always be culling (removing). Better to show a consistent painting style & have less.
Make it easy for people to find you.

Michael Shane Neal:

Attend high-end private school football games and throw up your cards during touchdowns!
Get out of your studio. Get people to know you & understand your work. Make sure what you write about your work is concise & frequent.
Diversity is important. Paint everything, every subject. It opens up your clientele!
Stay positive! Develop a support structure.
Don't undervalue good old-fashioned hard work. It will make up for a lot of shortfalls.
When you get in the studio strive to improve as an artist every single day.
The business side is important but more important is becoming a better artist. You must do both.
Google people out there who are retiring and introduce your work to them.
You can even set a "Google alert" for people retiring from specific fields i.e. Universities.

Bart Lindstrom:

Make yourself enjoyable to be with. 1). Learn how to make an exquisite product. 2). Show it to as many people as possible.
Agencies need an amazing example of your work & then photographs of consistent work. They are looking for someone who is easy to work with.
Take the initiative (with agencies), get their email & send them your best images. You have to make these relationships.
Learn how to do demos and do them often.

Michael Shane Neal:

Get a list of everybody that is there at your art events & contact them personally.
Consider speaking--create a 20 min power point presentation showing your images & studio shots. Talk to your audience about your work and your images.

Mary Whyte

Will host small dinner parties in galleries & then give a small tour of her work.

Michael Shane Neal:

Spend some time teaching. You will always find people who know less than you do. It helps to build name recognition.

Mary Whyte

Has a manager and an assistant. Her husband makes her frames & he has his own frame making assistant.

Michael Shane Neal:

Began by doing everything himself. After 10 or 12 years he paid an intern to work for him.

Bart Lindstrom:

Trade your art for services. Stop excessive spending so you have more time in the studio (less bills to pay)
When you talk about your work to someone else allow for a "moment of reflection" ( to bloom). Allow your message to sink in as they are viewing it.

Michael Shane Neal:

Be quiet when people are looking at your work. Let them absorb it. Kinstler calls it the "deafening silence". Get comfortable with it.

And one last thing Marty, I'm sure that in 2020, plutonium is available in every corner drugstore, but in 2012, it's a little hard to come by so I am afraid you are stuck in Philly. Sorry. But look on the bright side-at least you will have time to really see the relocated Barnes collection!

lagoarthurstudio 8/9/12 lagoarthurstudio 8/9/12

Workshop Wednesday: Robert Liberace's "Velázquez to Sorolla", Days 4 & 5

Liberace_SorollaDemo_Day5 — Liberace’s Sorolla Demo start.

Some of my best pictures from Rob Liberace's recent Velázquez to Sorolla Workshop come from Days 4 & 5. So you are in for a real treat here! Sorolla often painted his subjects outside from direct observation, following the effect of light on his models as they enjoyed a day at the beach or a picnic in the grass. Rob's palette below really showcases those atmospheric qualities.

Thalo Blue and Green
Cad Yellow, Orange, Red and Rose
Ultramarine Violet
Viridian
Lead White
Umber
Stand Medium (Linseed oil)

Liberace_SorollaDemo_Day4_Detail — Liberace’s Sorolla demo detail.

Here are the notes I took during Days 4 & 5:

Lay down your colors so they have good body and mass to them.
Whites are warm, warmed by the sun.
Shadows cool.
Always have a definite end to your light.
Cast shadows will not receive a whole lot of reflections.
Quick & strong strokes--don't blend. You will only "muddy" it.
"Blast in" lights.
Blue in core shadows, gold in reflected light (in shadows) are a classic Sorolla treatment. Use White + Orange for gold.
Realist painting requires "hump, ridge, terminator, core".
Make sure your highlights are applied with small brushes if you are working on small scale.
You should be able to cut (theoretically speaking) pure color out of a Sorolla painting. He did not use much blending.
Cad Red, Cad Yellow, touch of Cad Rose + White is the recipe for the Sorolla flesh tone.
Masses in big planes first and then breaks up that base color with light & shadow.
"Each time the model poses pick one area to bring to a full alla prima finish. Then move on to another area when he/she poses again."

LagoArthur_Sorolla_Day4Painting — My painting inspired by Sorolla on Day 4.

lagoarthurstudio 8/8/12 lagoarthurstudio 8/8/12

Workshop Wednesday: Robert Liberace’s "Velázquez to Sorolla", Day 3

On the third day of his Velázquez to Sorolla Workshop, Rob Liberace covered the working methods of Fortuny (Mariano Fortuny Marsal) 1838-1874. He painted the full figure (as seen above) to take advantage of the wonderful costumes the models were wearing. This for me was one of the most exciting aspects of the workshop. How often do you get to paint a guy in swash buckling boots like the ones the model is wearing? Um, not often enough.

Rob's Fortuny palette consisted of many of the paints used for his Velázquez palette with the addition of Flemish White, Cadmium Red, Yellow and Orange and Alizarin (which back then would have been fugitive).

Here are my notes taken from that day:

In the 1870s new colors were beginning to appear like chrome yellow & cadmiums so artists began to see more color in the transitions of light. Greens & purples in the shadows, lemon in the highlights.
Fortuny did not use white in his underpaintings--essentially taking out a step & then jumped into his color.
Begins with a gestural drawing in Umber over a Sienna wash to wet the canvas.
Don't smooth or polish over the anatomy of your paintings. It makes them look like mannequins.
"The few curves that I put in are purely decorative. Draw in angles."
Angle, angle, angle. Find the shape of things, the "high ground".
Try to find the "high points" or directions in the fabric.
Applies paint on the face thickly on the large planes of light & thins it carefully around the features.
"My brush is a pencil, not a brush. If I think of it like that I can get a better handle on the detail."
"On the lips don't draw severe lines. Use color to dapple & disintegrate the line. Fortuny did this a lot. Watteau too."
"Everything I do I want my surfaces to look really good".

Here is the first painting I was happy with at the workshop. Felt like I made an alla prima break thru with it.

And for a little more info on Fortuny, check out this link to Armand Cabrera's Art and Influence blog.

lagoarthurstudio 8/7/12 lagoarthurstudio 8/7/12

Workshop Wednesday: Robert Liberace's "Velázquez to Sorolla", Days 1 & 2

Today wrapped up the 5th day of Rob Liberace's Velázquez to Sorolla workshop and I count myself extremely fortunate to have been one of the attendees. I have taken several of Rob's classes locally here at the Art League in Alexandria VA, but this is my first workshop experience and I have to say I am now a big fan of them! Having 5 consecutive 6-hour days with Rob's excellent instruction helped me to really discover some bad habits that I fall back on in my alla prima painting. There is something about the directness of alla prima. The speed at which you need to commit to your decisions--that really allows you to see the flaws in your work. So what are my flaws when it comes to alla prima? Well for one I have a tendency to round out everything in my gesture and use a strong contour line. I have 2 theories for why I do this. 1). I am a reincarnated WPA artist. 2). My alma matter should have beat it the sh*t out of me while I was back in school. Instead I was actually encouraged to follow it as it was viewed as part of my "unique style" and "identity". Well dear readers, do you know what is the quickest way to kill realism in your alla prima? Adding curves!! Hence you can understand my frustration and my desire to break this dirty little habit. Luckily for me, Rob Liberace literally has all the answers and being in his workshop this past week lit the proverbial "eureka" light bulb above my head. Hallelujah!

The following is the historically accurate palette he used for the Velázquez part of his workshop. Most of the paint is from Natural Pigments, Da Vinci and Daniel Smith:

Vine Black
Iron Oxide paints (Umbers & Siennas)
Yellow Ocher
True Naples Yellow made from lead
Vermillion
Madder Lake (for purple) or Carmine Red
Lapis Lazuli
Cobalt Smalt
"Sleeping Beauty" Turquoise (Daniel Smith)
Earth Green
Malachite
Medium-Linseed + lead (Maroger medium)
Calcite Powder
Leaded Glass Powder
Wax

And here are some of the copious notes I took during his workshop. I hope you find them as enlightening as I did:

Try not to use the word "hard", think "firm" or "soft" when thinking about edges
Fuse like values, an elegant painterly device
Use "feathery" edges where distinct facets of light intersect
Begins by putting in little "tick marks" to lay in composition & proportions, quick gestural drawing
Make sure you stay very sharp and angular when laying down your figure
Contours and shadows have "highs & lows" that the paint must forcibly lead too
You must amplify the color notes hinting in your subject
Paints on denim, cotton, linen, cotton & silk herringbone fabric he finds in the fabric store
He is fastidious about his surfaces and will size his fabrics first before applying coats of gesso. The right surface is essential in the overall success of a painting!
Spreads calcite, umber & oil on his canvas before beginning (in Velázquez manner) to give a little "cushion" for his paint
Uses bristle filberts in the initial painting stages
Uses shadow masses to help delineate form, chiaroscuro. Academic stuff, lots of planes. Hatches in the shadow.
Puts in the nasal line and "sweeps" across it to blend it in with the face
Step one is monochromatic underpainting
He is sure to extend his lines and exaggerate gesture for a better composition
Uses a wedge of paper towel to cut in lights in his underpainting
Often employs the back of his brush handle to break up paint ridges and "erase"
Goes for the big masses first when laying down paint and spreads it out
Get your anatomy down in the underpainting
Big mass of value, one light source, bigger brush
"Zipper like" approach to edges of value to get a more volumetric feel
Every stroke is "crumbly, jiggly & wiggly"
Know where the "hump" of a form is so that you can decide how obvious to make it--softer or firmer
Use the opposite color temps in your glazes, on a warm ground use cool etc.
On day 2 he will reactivate the shadows by adding umber to them but no color, also a little black as needed
Begins glazing over his underpainting by applying a thin amount of wax & green glaze to the face to help knock back the warm temp and give him something to paint into
Turns his brush to make it not such an "obvious mark" (holds brush at the end & perpendicular to the canvas)
Takes hard edges & relaxes them by feathering across them
Will add a little color to his shadows as long as there is no white (use a clean brush!)
"You see a lot of scumbly broken strokes in Spanish painting"
On painting hair, "follow the light as it jumps from one strand to another"
Velázquez was extremely aware of the topography of his forms and is subtle. Does not blend but feathers & hatches his edges instead
If an edge becomes too soft he will re-establish it, always making corrections, a back & forth of edge handling

lagoarthurstudio 7/19/12 lagoarthurstudio 7/19/12

Portraits and "Derecho-geddon

What do portraits and "Derecho-geddon" (the severe storm system that ravaged a path from Chicago to the East Coast on June 29th) have in common? Nothing! Except that I drew this portrait as a thank you for the wonderful hospitality shown to us by good friends during the many days that we were without power. I want to officially thank Don & Arlene for our little "stay-cation", and especially for Don's killer Daiquiris. Your portrait is on its way.

Painting & Living During a Pandemic: Part 1