Showing posts with label Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Show all posts

Monday, September 14, 2009

Weekend with the Masters 3


16" x 20" oil on stretched canvas
$195.00 + $10. s/h
contact me if interested

Our yard has been filled with zinnias the last few weeks. I wanted to try a bouquet of flowers instead of a daily painting focusing on one flower.



During yesterday's Weekend with the Artist workshop sponsored by the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and American Artist Magazine, I attended a demo by well known Colorado artist Skip Whitcomb. Part way through the demo it started raining. Luckily we were on the Lake Terrace at the Broadmoor, so we pulled lots of big patio umbrellas over to our spot, and Skip continued to paint, and we were all out of the rain. It was great to see a demo of an overcast day. Since Colorado is known for it's sunny weather, 300 sunny days/year, I tend to avoid going out to paint when the weather's bad. As we say here, "Just wait an hour, and the weather will change." This might change my way of thinking.

Some of Skip's main points were:
-"abstract" means we're looking for shapes, values, colors that we can arrange in our world, our canvas
-simpliciy is power--the more you put in, the weaker the statement becomes
-he keeps a sketchbook and always does thumbnails first(before a painting)
-use the golden mean for you center of interest
-he uses veridean only to mix grays, not for greens

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Laurel Daniel saying she was coming to Colorado Springs to attend the Weekend with the Masters workshop. We saw each other off and on over the 4 days and last night she came over for dinner. We spent several great hours sharing and visiting. We found we have many things in common, including: we met our husbands in the 7th grade, we both studied for one year in Sweden. Who would have known! I had a fun evening w/ a new friend all made possible because of blogging and the internet.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Weekend With The Masters 2


This morning I attended a demo by David Leffel as part of the Weedend With The Masters, sponsored by American Artist Magazine, at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. David has so much knowledge and so many years experience of painting and sharing that it's amazing. I have read the book "Oil Painting Secrets From A Master" by Linda Cateura but listening to him speak and watching him do even a short demo was wonderful. As the workshop title says, he truly is a master.

Some of his points were:
-everyone paints the way they do because of the way they think. if you want to get better, change the way you think.
-"essentially, I paint light and shadow"
-a painting always has movement, irregardless of the subject matter
-it is better to be definately wrong, than tentatively right
-Edges: an open edge continues, a hard edge stops. Alternate your edges: hard, soft, hard, soft.
Of course, there was so much more.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Weekend with the Masters


12" x 16" oil
NFS
I spent the Labor Day weekend, and a few additional days, in San Francisco helping our daughter move into an apartment. She graduated from college in June and has her first job in SF. What a great city. She took this painting with her!
While in SF I had lunch w/ fellow blogger Nancy Hartley.



I am spending parts of this weekend attending some of the events at the Weekend With the Masters at the Colorado Springs Fines Arts Center. This is sponsored by American Artist Magazine and has so many great artists giving demos, lectures, and workshops. Yesterday I attended Quang Ho's lecture: Nuts & Bolts: Everything I Wish I Knew Before I Started Painting. Originally from Vietnam refugee who moved to the US in '75, Quang lives in Denver. Some oif this main points were:
-no shape, color, size in a painting should ever be the same
-strive for maximum randomness
-soften your edges
-flow--everything should be visually connected to everything else
-shape is the secret to painting (although he has other secrets)
-when you make a decision it's never wrong. it's wrong if you don't make a decision.

I took several pages of notes. Those are just a few hightlights. He also has a video w/ lots more information that I would love to see for review.