Monthly newsletter

Here’s April’s monthly newsletter.  Despite the fact that all shows and classes are cancelled there’s always something to do around the studio!  More spider tomorrow!!!

More birds.

I only had two students in my Paint the Night class last night at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley, but they both had fun.  One of the questions were, what kinds of birds are they?  Jenibirds?  Blue fronted swifts?  This is a very popular image, and sometimes students use their own imaginations and create red-fronted Jenibirds, or once, blackbirds.

Good copies

Underpainting going down

On Friday I ran the Paint-the-night event at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley – and had 11 students, many of whom knew each other, so they were enjoying the evening together.  We painted a scene from an open road through fields in the Ojai area – a painting I’d completed in watercolor many years ago and thought would work well as a paint night subject.

Filling in the grassland.

One of the thing that I tell students at these evenings, is that their painting is not going to look exactly like mine – which is why art forgers are paid so much.

 

 

Fences going in.

However this group all got really close to the painting we were working from!  The main difference was that I had yellow ochre deep – vs yellow ochre which I usually work with, and as I hadn’t used this before, I hadn’t realized how dull this color is compared to regular ochre.  I figure I learn something in every class too, so this was it for this one!

Most of the graduates. One had to go home because her baby was crying.

Birdy, birdy.

Three concentrating on making round blue blobs into birds.

Last night there were three students at the Paint-the-night evening at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.  I’ve guided a different group through this painting before, in case it seems familiar, but they were all first time bird-watchers. They all had a lot of fun, and are looking forward to a different painting next month.  If you’re in the area, and you’re interested, it’s on June 23rd.  A great way to celebrate a TGIF.

Variations on a theme.

 

 

City Lights II

#1255 City Lights II. $150. Available only through Etsy (or direct from me….)

 

 

So the one painting completed that evening that you can’t see in the photo on the prior blog post is my rendition of the original – this got photoed today and is now available on etsy.

Open for business.

Rick, covered in paint. He actually had more on the back than on the front. Behind him is the photography of Gary Borgstedt.

 

Rick Pantele and I spent the day painting up the last details, collecting and installing artwork and cleaning up. Finally, we tore the paper off the windows! Yes! Incredible Art Center (https://www.facebook.com/incredibleartschool/?fref=ts) in downtown Palm Springs – where we hold classes and sell art, is OPEN!

To be more precise, we’re ‘open during construction’.  There is still more artwork to go up, and lighting for it.  My first class there is this Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m painting out an edge where the laminate doesn’t reach to the bottom of the desk.

Rick said ‘This one I have Mona Lisa in the window’.  To the left you see the photography of Paul Koestler.

Cocktails for two.

Last night was one of the Paint Night Out nights at the Vanguard Gallery.  We had originally hoped to hold this in a local night club but this didn’t work out for various reasons.  However for the venue I had prepared something a little different – a couple of cocktail glasses to enjoy!  And I think everyone did enjoy the night.  One gal was a long time friend who surprised me by turning up – and said that one of the most encouraging parts of the class was when her painting wasn’t going as expected and I would say ‘it’s ok, we can fix that’.   It took a lot of the fear out of trying to paint.

I get so involved with the teaching, I forget to take photos at earlier stages……

Getting some details in on the glasses

All done. Drink up!

Paint and wine evening in Moreno Valley

On Thursday evening I worked with five ladies – Evelina, Tiffany, Vicki, Jan and Joanne, and guided them through painting a version of ‘And Never Leave…’  They learned how and why to do an underpainting, how to feather in clouds, do a gradient blend, how to get a yellow area to blend into a blue are without getting green, some things on Jeni’s tree cheat-sheet and a little about composition.  I’ll let the pics tell the rest of the story.

Underpaintings..

..more underpaintings

Clouds coming in

Working on feathering in

Joining clouds into a cloud field

Brighter area

Foregrounds…

…more foregrounds

Feathering two areas together

Jan’s finished painting

Evenlina’s finished painting

Vicki’s finished painting

All together now

Newer Work #5

#1138 “Peace and Turbulence”. Acrylic on gallery wrap canvas, 20×16″ $270.

When I hold a paint-n-wine evening, I end up with a duplicated painting.  This time I decided the class would paint “Dark Water, White Wave” an existing oil painting that I love.  So at the end of the evening I end up with a new version of this – in a slightly different size and shape, and this time in acrylic instead of oil.  It is a day view looking east across the Salton Sea.

Class progress

Last Thursday I held a paint-and-wine class at Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.  I know it’s taken me a while to get these posted – the schedule in between has been kind of full.  Anyway, here now are the pics taken as the class progressed.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves – only one had painted before.

The lure of the blank canvas – or is it the fear of it…

Working on the underpainting

Working on the underpainting…

Time for a glass while the underpainting is drying

Getting some clouds in

Waves are harder than you think…

Finishing water

Adding mountains

Working with water

More mountains going in

All done