A Little Red Goes a Long Way!
July 30, 2009
George Bellows
This is one of my all time favorite paintings. It’s at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Fl. It’s a smaller painting, 14 x 17, if I remember correctly. It is typical Bellows. Thick, rich brushstrokes on top of thin, washy looking passages. It’s loosely handled and artfully simplified. It’s a classic case of “what can I do without”. And, as you can see, he did without plenty.
Not as typical of Bellows is the tonal quality of the picture. I get cold just looking at it. What little warm color there is exists in the middle ground. The background, almost entirely cool green grays, acts as a wonderful neutral foil for the smattering of warms. That’s what I love about it. Seen in person some of those colors are so neutral it’s hard to tell what color they are.
Check out that small stroke of bright red in the middle of the painting, right in front of the ship. I’m not really sure what it is, maybe some cargo on the wharf. That note makes the painting. I wish Bellows were around today so I could ask him about it.
Did he put it there because it brings out the green quality of the grays? That could be. Emile Gruppe, in his book Gruppe on Painting, says that without red we would not recognize green. His point was that color opposites are necessary. One is less meaningful without the other.
Or did he put it there because red “sells”? (I wonder if Bellows had trouble selling paintings at this point, I don’t know.) An artist friend of mine, who participates in a lot of Florida paint outs , makes it a point to put some bright red near the center of every painting. He believes it is often the difference between selling and not selling. If his theory is valid, I would surmise that it’s because most landscapes have a lot of green in them. Adding the red sets up a vibration that makes those greens look richer.
1st Ave S., St. Pete
Try it! Put some bright red in an otherwise dull picture and see if that doesn’t spruce it up.
Loomis-An Excellent Resource for Developing Artists
July 21, 2009
Not surprisingly there are labels given to artists that describe their state of development, their place on the totem pole. There are student artists, emerging artists, artists to watch, and master artists to name a few. I suppose, or least I hope, that out of all the different labels given to artists, the one I will never outgrow is developing artist. I never want to stop learning, growing and accumulating knowledge. Discovery and new understanding are central to the adventure of being an artist. With understanding and practice we reach new plateaus, without one or the other progress is slower. Finding a new book, or in most cases an old one, is like unearthing a precious gem. One such precious gem that I am quickly wearing out the pages of is Andrew Loomis’ Creative Illustration.
Loomis (1892-1959) was born in New York but spent most of his adult life in Chicago working as an illustrator. He authored six (6) books which continue to influence realist artists today. Loomis’ family owns the rights to his books but has not expressed any intention to republish them. Used copies of the books seem readily available online and most of them are expensive. For instance, Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis, starts around $125. Creative Illustration, however, is another story. This highly sought after title routinely goes for prices starting at $180 on up. I have seen it priced as high as $950. Another, well written, highly prized Loomis title, Eye of the Painter, is also difficult to find and pricey when you do.
So in tough economic times what’s a starving artist to do? Take heart there are viable alternatives. There are a couple of places online where the books can be downloaded for free. Click here for one and here for another. Download the pdf to your computer or a disk. I downloaded to a disk which I took to a local printer. He printed Creative Illustration and bound it for me for less than $50. This way I don’t have to sit at a computer or laptop to read it. I can enjoy it the old fashion way. (With a flashlight in bed!)
Creative Illustration really is a great book. Although directed toward illustrators there is nothing in the book which would be dispensable for fine artists. Loomis sets forth the truths of visual representation couched in a basis for approach called “The Form Principle”. Then the function of such concepts as Line, Tone, Color are explained as they pertain to the form principle. But he doesn’t stop there. Loomis also goes in depth offering techniques for developing ideas, practice and study.
It’s my intention to use the next few articles to highlight this formidable and definitive text as I read through it.
Wordpress for Artists
July 15, 2009
Caleb and Toulouse
Recently I have received several inquiries about my website. I am using WordPress. However I don’t know enough about it to adequately answer questions. I decided to seek out information from a reliable source. I went to see the person who set the site up for me, Caleb, at Seven North Web & Graphics in St. Petersburg, Florida. Here is the Q & A that resulted:
Me: Caleb, tell the artists who might be reading this a little about yourself.
Caleb: I’ve been a self supporting artist for 20 years. I’ve been using WordPress since it’s beta in 2002.
Me: What do you do here at Seven North? Put together websites for all kinds of businesses and individuals?
Caleb: I do graphic arts including web design and social media consulting for all types of businesses and individuals.
Me: Including artists?
Caleb: Yes, it all started with artists. Actually I treat artists as small businesses. I also treat small businesses as artists. The needs and principles are all the same whether it’s a construction contractor, restaurateur or an artist.
Me: You mentioned WordPress. What is that?
Caleb: Originally it was blogging software but due to growth it is more aptly called a C.M.S. (content management system). It’s open source and it’s free!
Me: Open source? What is that?
Caleb: Open source means the code is open for inspection and modification by anyone. Each project, such as Wordpress, is maintained by a community of users.
Me: What is a WordPress Theme?
Caleb: A WordPress Theme is a way to change the way a blog looks, it’s mostly cosmetic. It’s the php front end for a MySQL database.
Me: Like a template?
Caleb: Yes, the correct terminology is “theme” but for all intensive purposes the words are interchangeable.
Me: Why do you recommend WordPress to your clients?
Caleb: It is self-hosted.
Me: Why be self-hosted
Caleb: So you’ll have your own domain. And so you’ll have complete freedom to do or say whatever you want. There is no censorship which is great for artists. This way your weblog can be the hub of your social media universe.
Me: So that’s really the modern infrastructure for self-promotion isn’t it?
Caleb: Absolutely, all media outlets are using the same web info and the same search techniques as you are. Just by being there you can become a resource, be mentioned and get noticed. So you want to be prominently listed in search engines. That art is called S.E.O. (search engine optimization).
Me: So how can one achieve high S.E.O. rankings?
Caleb: Google loves fresh content daily. Google loves incoming links from authoritative sources. Google loves weblogs.
Me: So what do I need to do to move up in the rankings?
Caleb: Provide fresh content daily which includes, in natural language, the key search terms which are relevant to your site. Also get people with established web pages to link to you.
Me: How do I do that?
Caleb: Call them up and ask them. Follow other blogs and comment frequently and intelligently.
Me: Can artists do more than blog with WordPress?
Caleb: Yes, there are numerous plug-ins for managing galleries.
Me: What about E-commerce?
Caleb: Yes, you can have a shopping cart and the whole nine yards but you’d be better off using a storefront for that.
So there you have it. The low down on Wordpress and why you should look into it. I hope that was helpful. In the near future I will look into what options artists have for storefronts.
(author’s note: This is a disclaimer added after the fact. Although I did use this gentleman’s services to set up my site I no longer endorse those services. I do, however, continue to endorse the use of WordPress.)
Artists Blogs Worth Reading!
July 8, 2009
St. Petersburg Pier
There are a lot of artists out there writing blogs. It’s a wide demographic. There are artists of all levels from beginners to seasoned professionals blogging. Motivations are also varied. Some do it for fun. Some are vying for attention. Others do it out of the same passion that fuels their art. I write blogs because I hope to stay relevant and make a contribution to fine art in St. Petersburg, Florida and beyond. Currently I regard myself as an average to above average painter with a decent local reputation and good potential for growth. (If I didn’t think I could get better I probably wouldn’t paint. Would you?) It’s the belief in my capacity for growth that makes me thirst for knowledge. I’m a scavenger really. I’m convinced that every artist out there, whether awesome or mediocre, has probably figured out something I haven’t. I want to know what they know. Add it to what I know. Maybe even become a painters version of the Borg collective. The quest for knowledge is fun when it pertains to a passion. It’s even better when I find seasoned professional painters who take the time to write blogs for the purpose of lending the benefit of their experience to people like me. Recently I have discovered two such pros worth mentioning.
Courtesy of Mary Byrom, a Maine artist whom I met in Idaho at one of Scott Christensen’s workshops, I have become aware of a painter named Stapleton Kearns. Kearns has been established and making his living painting pictures for 30 years. I really have to tip my hat to Mr. Kearns because not only is he a very, very good painter but he is a diligent and persistent blogger. He posts an article every day. His articles provide daily insight into the mind of an established painter and seem a valuable resource for those of us toiling to gain further command over elusive prey: Shapes, Values, Colors and Edges. Kearns doesn’t know me but if you check out his blog please let him know I sent you.
I first heard the name Bill Reese at the aforementioned Scott Christensen workshop. I don’t remember the context in which his name was mentioned but for some reason I remembered it. I hadn’t made the effort to find William F. Reese online until Don Maier, founder of the social network Plein Air Artists mentioned reading his book. I quickly found Reese’s website. Reese is a painter of fifty years experience. Along with his enjoyable paintings his site contains some great “musings” with comments by artists such as Matt Smith. Mr. Reese is not as prolific a blogger as Kearns probably because he spent significant time writing the book, which I purchased. I mention the book entitled The Painter’s Process – The Inner Voice because I came away from it with a feeling that completely surprised me. Not because I’ve never had the feeling before but because I never got it from an art book before. Whatever chord The Painters’ Process struck in me I came away feeling that “I am okay”. With wisdom rooted in life experience Bill communicates a set of values which transcend the painting advice given in the book. He persistently prods his readers to figure out why they paint, to define success for themselves. He penetrates the shallows of wealth and fame with his own ideals and reasons to paint. Simply put, he spent his life painting with the hopes that he would create a piece, the beauty of which, would stand the test of time. He doesn’t know if he accomplished that and probably never will. He gave that goal his best effort and fell in love with The Process.
Both Reese and Kearns will be assimilated. Resistance is futile!!
Battle of the Greens-Understanding Light and Color
July 1, 2009
I’ve got to warn you that this article is little left brained! I know, to more than just a few artists, left brain activity is not high on the priority list. But the truth is that art is only possible when there is a collaboration between the left brain and right brain. The Art of painting is an expression of creative intelligence (right brain activity) that cannot be separated from the craft of painting (left brain activity). Indeed the more our understanding of craft becomes second nature the more it’s problems of execution stay out of the way of creativity. And thus, the closer we are to making art. As William F Reese says in The Painter’s Process, “craft is to painting as carpentry is to architecture and typing is to writing.” Learning the craft of painting is difficult enough that it is either confused with art or dispensed with altogether. When it is dispensed with altogether those results on canvas are also, often confused with art. This article is for those of you willing to apply your left brain to the subject of color.
Non-native, Fort Desoto
For landscape painters the color green can be most difficult to master, partially because there is so much of it out there. Sometimes there is so much green in our chosen location that it becomes overwhelming. Florida Landscape Artist Larry Moore aptly calls this scenario,”the battle of the greens”. The painting challenge becomes bringing variety to an over abundance of the one color. For plein air painters, who often use somewhat limited palettes, it is particularly challenging because we are not carrying a plethora tubed greens, blues and yellows from which to choose. To make matters tougher the green we mix from our blue and yellow is often too acidic looking. Sure we can neutralize the green by adding the compliment or by using tube grays but sometimes that doesn’t offer enough variety to satisfy either. So what’s an artist to do?
Perhaps we can gain further insight by looking into the physics of light. The primary colors of light are red, blue and green. (This is different than the primary colors of paint which are red, blue and yellow). The secondary colors of light, meaning the colors achieved by mixing the primary colors of light, are cyan, yellow and magenta. Cyan is the compliment of red, yellow the compliment of blue and magenta the compliment of green. According to the subtractive principle of light we see the color green when all the colors of light except magenta are reflected off of an object and back to our eye. So green is the whole spectrum minus magenta. Likewise red is the spectrum minus cyan and blue is minus yellow.
How do we make practical use of this in our paintings? We learn to mix colors optically as well as on our palette. For instance, when engaged in the battle of the greens, we can juxtapose colors next to each other. We can also uderpaint the green areas in sunlight with a variety of neutral reds and yellows, rusts and ochres, everything but purple (magenta). Then try using a variety of purples in your tree trunks and branches as well as the rocks beneath the trees. They will immediately separate from the greens and contribute a naturalness to the colors in your painting. In the shadows use a variety of blues and blue greens to contrast with above rusts and ochers. In fact, knowledge of this subtractive principle will not only aid your painting but inform and validate your seeing. Which is of course is a skill central to all painting.
It is evident that well known artist and teacher Emile Gruppe understood this principle, too. In his book, Gruppe On Painting, he talks about underpainting skies according to the relative location of the sun. If the sun was off to one side Gruppe underpainted with orange, if behind him he underpainted with red, if facing him he underpainted with yellow. He was setting up an optical vibration, the effectiveness of which can be explained by the subtractive principle of light.
This article was based on material presented in William F. Reese’s book, The Painter’s Process, which I highly recommend as a worthwhile addition to your library. I hope these thoughts and insights inform your left brain in a way that make it a better painting partner for your right brain. Keep painting, observing and studying. You will grow artistically in direct proportion to the effort you supply in these areas.
