Paint Beautiful Shapes. Paint Beautiful Colors.

Two simple phrases were passed down from teacher to student who then became a teacher to other students. These two directives actually take a lot of contemplation and deep thought. Paint Beautiful Shapes. Paint Beautiful Colors. These are good “filters” to access many works of art. Do they please the eye? Is it a feastContinue reading “Paint Beautiful Shapes. Paint Beautiful Colors.”

Axiom #2: Be An Original. Go From Good to Great!

Be An Original! We have heard that one many times, and I just wanted to explore this axiom in this short video. We can make something technically good by making something similar to someone else’s idea. It might even sell well. But if we want to be the best version of ourselves and create theContinue reading “Axiom #2: Be An Original. Go From Good to Great!”

Paint Nite in Fortuna

A Paint Nite evening brings together friends old and new to experience the process of making a painting in a fun social atmosphere.  On this evening we painted a still life with pears and a lot of laughter in between. Set in Nehemiah’s Art Studio and Gallery in Fortuna, California, Art Nite is a time toContinue reading “Paint Nite in Fortuna”

Art Ability and Disabilities

In the most recent chapter of my life book I find myself teaching art weekly to a group of intellectually disabled adults.  The time spent with these precious individuals has been both challenging and rewarding – mostly rewarding.  What was challenged was my preconceived notions as related to art and the mind.  Art, like manyContinue reading “Art Ability and Disabilities”

One Slow Step at a Time in a Quick World

We live in a world of the quick.  Quick smartphones and ipads and computers and information…quick food and rapid results occur in many areas of life.  As an artist it took me years to be able to understand and paint with color in a way that can replicate what I see and reproduce the imageContinue reading “One Slow Step at a Time in a Quick World”

Vibrancy in the Shade

“In some spheres the shadow condition is the condition of greatest growth.  The beautiful Indian corn never grows more rapidly than in the shadow of a warm summer night.  The sun curls the leaves in the sultry noon light, but they quickly unfold, if a cloud slips over the sky.  There is a service inContinue reading “Vibrancy in the Shade”

Boundaries and Grids of Life

 A common exercise to help train the artist’s eye is to enlarge the image of a photograph by using a grid method wherein a picture is sectioned off.  A corresponding larger piece of art paper or canvas is similarly sectioned off in proportion, simply larger.  Then the student-artist concentrates on one square at a timeContinue reading “Boundaries and Grids of Life”

The Big Picture, The Details

The direct method of enlarging a picture by observing its major geometric shapes, the relation of those shapes to each other, the negative spaces they create and paying attention to the way the light illuminates the shapes to create forms is said by another way in a simple but overused sentence: Look at the bigContinue reading “The Big Picture, The Details”