Artist Spotlite – Bud Sutton

Name: Bud Sutton

Location: Flowery Branch, Georgia

Title of Artwork: “The Mary Ann”

Dimensions of Artwork: 12×24

Medium: Watercolor

Describe this Piece: Old man and his old sail boat enjoying the mist and the breeze and the freedom.

Royal & Langnickel Acrylic Paint Set

Looking for a Royal & Langnickel Acrylic Paint Set? Below is an excellent set for beginner artists. Everything you need to start painting is included in this set at an excellent price. This set can also make an excellent gift for any artist new to acrylic painting. This set is portable and includes a strong tote for transporting your supplies. So whether you plan on painting at home, outdoors or in the classroom, this Royal and Langnickel acrylic paint set is the perfect choice.

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You Asked – Seal Acrylic Painting?

Today’s question comes from Pat :

Pat Writes:

“When I paint with acrylics on canvas should I seal it with anything when I finished. Is there more than one choice? What should drive my decision?”

Do you have any information that might help Pat?  Please leave your response in the comments box below.

Interview With Artist David Hunt

Artist Statement

The focus of my work is synonymously related to nature and landscape. It is an investigation of nature, its forms, its sublimate captivation and the paradigm of how we align our position, perceptions and reactions to them.

Predominantly my subjects derive from arboreal environments, which I record with photography, sketch making, and through the internalisation of personal experience. Hence, when we find ourselves in an environment where the realisation of aloneness becomes internalised, there can be various responses. Angst, vulnerability, fear, adrenaline, but paradoxically, these feelings can also be interpreted as vision, freedom, liberation, and excitement. They can be either comforting or discomforting and this to me is a reflection of our individuality…

Q: What medium or mediums do you work with?

A: Currently I am working with various mediums which include but are not limited to: ink, PVA, oil paint, digital imagery on paper, on canvas.

I feel that restricting oneself to a single particular medium denies the artist a degree of creativity which cannot exist without the unpredictable nature of mixing mediums. It is at those times when the medium seems to take over that the artists sense of loosing control is in fact the artist at the height of his creativity.

Q: How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A: My first response to your question is; always. I think that everyone in their early life is an artist, but only a few of these artists learn how to continue being an artist. For me, I knew that I was an artist during my school years and enrolled on as many arts related classes as possible. I finished school at the age of sixteen in 1984, but was discouraged from pursuing a career in art. I became distracted by money and work and became an electronics engineer.

After about six years I felt empty and tired. I tried to fill this emptiness by enrolling on an evening course for advanced level fine art painting in 1990. This helped me but financial commitments meant that I had to continue working in electronics. Another eight years later and I had had enough. I became too disenchanted to continue in electronics.
I knew then that I must explore my potential as an artist, and so 1998 was a turning point in becoming the artist that I am now.

Q: Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

A: My formal training, I suppose, really began in senior school with ‘O’ level Fine Art, Technical Drawing, and Craft Design Technology. As previously mentioned I then later earned an ‘A’ Level in Fine Art Painting on an evening course at college, this is where I was introduced to oil paint.

After my ‘A’ level, any advancement of my knowledge was self taught. I read books but mostly I just experimented with oil paint by trial and error. I soon learned that it is the errors or mistakes that one makes which ultimately advances ones skill. I might have been happy to continue self educating myself, but the reality of the modern art market is that qualifications count when it comes to finding representation in high profile galleries. Some artists manage to carve out an arena of critical debate around their work from being self taught, but in most cases a Degree is beneficial or even essential too an artists career, and so I began my Bachelors Degree with honours in fine art painting and drawing at the University of Northampton in the UK. I am entering my final year and graduate in 2010. I plan on continuing my studies to go on and earn a Masters Degree the following year.

Q: Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend?

A: My painting is at times heavily impasto, and because of this I was studying Frank Auerbach whose painting is perhaps the most extreme form of impasto I know of. I was watching a DVD of Auerbach called ‘In the Studio’, and in one scene I spotted large tins of paint on his studio floor, I could not make out the brand but could see there were drops of colour on a white tin. I wanted to discover what paint Auerbach was using. After extensive googling I eventually found out. The brand is ‘R J Stokes’. . After having found the website, there was a statement about the paint by artist Edward Beale which confirmed that I had to buy the paint. It comes in 5 litre cans, an artists dream; I would recommend this paint to anyone who uses impasto in their painting.

Q: Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?

A: I am not very keen on the use of the word style when it comes to painting. I would rather associate my work to a movement. It is not that I develop my work to become related to any particular movement; it is more a case of my developing work can be associated to our knowledge of these movements. I think it becomes a natural tendency for my paintings too navigate in a loosely synchronised manner, too the artist or artists I am studying at any given time. The Artists I am most deeply involved in studying right now are, John Constable, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter, and Ian McKeever. All these artists have been associated with Romanticism and so by default my work is specific to the ‘style’ or movement of Romanticism and perhaps more specifically The Northern Romantic Tradition’.

As for subject matter, at first glance it might appear from my work that I am working with trees, or more loosely nature. Whilst this is true, I am also very conscious of the investigation of space and time related to nature, how we position ourselves within nature, and how this in turn relates us to the universe. So in a sense my subject matter might be described as an investigation of the sublime. I cannot really conclude this answer as I am deeply involved in my studies in order to understand my subject matter.

Q: Can you recommend any books videos or other resources that will help new artists?

A: I could tell you some of the books I have read, but these books might not be helpful to other artists. Books are an important resource of course and videos too, but my biggest recommendation would have to be, go and see paintings in a gallery or museum. It is just not possible to fully appreciate a work of art in a book reproduction. Go to the museum, and those works which capture your attention the most, read books about those artists. In this way you will soon find genuine influences too your own work.

Q: How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?

A: The source of my ideas is from raising questions as to what I am trying to achieve. My ideas are generated almost from the experience of creating the previous painting. Each painting I do either moves closer or further away from what I am aiming to understand.

I am trying to get to the heart of what Romanticism in painting is. The natural world is a great source of mystery, or at least it has been until recent scientific discovery makes our understanding of nature less mysterious. Artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries saw this awe of nature in landscape and seascape, in the moon, stars and sun. Contemporary artists also can make the connection between the sublime and nature, but I think now that our understanding of the universe is greater than ever before, the source of the sublime must lay in our own personal experience of the universe around us. To me the source of the sublime lay at a point which I call the psychophysical horizon. This is the point at which the physical world transcends into our unconscious.

Q: Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?

A: Yes, besides the ones I mentioned earlier, I also consider Peter Doig, Vincent Van Gogh and Michael porter to have an influence on my work. Peter Doig’s painting is all about the memory of places, I admire the effects he achieves with oil paint and also the scale at which he works, I was lucky enough to see a retrospective of his work at Tate Britain in London earlier this year. Vincent Van Gogh I admire because of his stubborn attitude to painting which, while keeping him from being identified as a master painter during his life time, ultimately proved to be ingenious and to my mind marks him as one of the true master artists of the 19th century. Michael Porter now lives and works in Cornwall. In the early stages of my degree, I studied his work as it was very close to what I was aiming to achieve. I learnt many techniques from watching him work in his studio. I might have to say that Michael Porter is perhaps the artist I have mostly been influenced by.

Q: Do you have a website you would like to share?

A: Yes, my website is http://www.david-hunt.net This website is intended to show some of my most recent work and while I concentrate mainly on painting, I also show some examples of my drawing, photographic and digital practices. If there is anyone interested in purchasing my work in order to help me raise financing for my Masters Degree, or if you have any inquiries regarding my work, please e-mail me at art@david-hunt.net

Q: Finally do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?

A: Firstly enjoy what you do, this seems obvious enough but I think the thing is not to get too comfortable with what you create, I think that to be at your very best creatively, you really need to step out of your comfort zone once in a while, don’t be concerned with making mistakes as these are often responsible for the most interesting work of any artist.

Pastel Drawing Tutorial – Pink Orchids

THE SUBJECT

For this second pastel drawing demo, I used the picture of two pink orchids highly sunlit from the top left. The two orchid flowers protrude from the background which is composed of elongated leaves rising from the ground. The lower background is shadowed and makes the orchids stand out even more with color and shape contrast.

THE MATERIALS

Again, for this demonstration I used a 64-color set of Mungyo soft pastels (27 mm x 8 mm) and a sheet of Strathmore Pastel paper (11” x 14”) of somehow pale yellow color. This type of paper requires at least 5 mm sticks or pastel pencils to be able to fill the texture more efficiently and render details in realistic drawings.

THE PALETTE

I did not find much problem matching the colors, tones and shades on this one with my Mungyo colors but a set with more color gradations and shades is recommended.

THE DRAWING PROCESS

The following sections do not follow an exact step by step process but rather stages which contain different steps to work with drawing and coloring areas. My intention here in this second pasted drawing demo is to show more pigment addition without saturating or bloating the paper with colors that causes cloudy patches. I recommend shaking your paper from time to time to avoid the accumulation of dust in the lower parts which contaminates the already colored areas, especially the light colored areas. My expertise with soft pastel colors is not extensive so this is actually part of my pastel drawings self-teaching and learning that I publish on the Web.

STAGE 1

With my base drawing carefully and precisely drawn, I begin to match some of the lightest shades in the orchid flowers. This first layer is to slightly fill in areas which define the main subjects and to cover paper texture. White areas have been indicated. Some dark hues have also been added to the orchid. Lemon yellow and yellow ochre are also visible. As I pointed out in my first pastel demo, at this starting stage, it is important to start by just hovering the pastel sticks over the paper without applying much pressure.

STAGE 2

After putting in some coloring from Stage 1, I focus on the lower orchid and start blocking in its shape against the background area which appears a little undefined and blurred. This is yet with the lightest of the various brown and green tones of which the dark background is made. From here I extend outwardly but not far outside of the orchid enclosing area. Here I verify and constrain the orchid’s shape because my base drawing is already concealed.

STAGE 3

Following you can notice that I haven’t moved much farther from the drawing of the lower orchid. The orchid itself shows some loose colors which will need further blending and definition. The dark areas in the background have been strengthened to make the orchid contours stand out. A mosaic of related colors is noticeable which I will later fuse to produce the necessary tonalities. Some leaves have tentatively been drawn with their lightest sunlit or shadowed tones.

STAGE 4

From here I have extended to the left and right but still not much to the bottom and top areas. Light tones first for both light and dark areas to progressively obtain the right gradation and blending. Little by little, step by step and area by area the background becomes apparent and integrates with the foreground. I advance on the top orchid by filling in more areas and defining tones. Not much pigment is yet added, just an overall layer without saturating any specific area. Don’t despair on ending one main subject yet, completing it later as we advance is more rewarding and we can save time on correcting mistakes that can’t be undone otherwise.

STAGE 5

Next, I have covered the bottom with dark blue (ultramarine blue) but it will require some black to achieve the darkest hue. The leaves in the background are continuously and progressively filled with hues that intermingle with each other. Some dark ochre becomes apparent over the green areas but it will be downgraded as I darken these areas. More polishing and strengthening of colors and shades will be left for the last stages to achieve a thorough application of pigments and overall balance of color and composition as well as contrast.

STAGE 6

In advancing to the leaves at the top, the colors need to be some kind of sap green and hookers green using the light shades to match the sunlit areas. Some lemon yellow is also added on the edges of the orchids’ leaves. The upper orchid is not yet well defined or constrained against the background. I do this later as I advance to the upper half. Here, pink shades from the orchid; and pale green and lime green from the leaves are complementary colors whose interplay becomes apparent at the end of the drawing. At this stage, the background appears more integrated and less chaotic than the previous stage.

STAGE 7

To this point, after several days and paused working, an overall layer of the drawing surface has been completed. The only uncovered area is where I will put my signature. The background at the top has been filled with dark blue and some scattered black. A lot of polishing and color restating, shading, blending and texturing will ensue to help define overall color balance and contrast. Edges will be enhanced where needed with contrasting colors and shapes. In the lower background area, dark ochre predominates which will subsequently become the lighter areas when darker tones are added over. More retouching will be required to eliminate color and composition inconsistencies in the drawing.

STAGE 8

At this stage we have a pre-finished drawing. I have added my signature and the upper orchid has been mostly constrained and redefined proportionally. More time has been invested in polishing, saturating and darkening the background. From my experience in photographing orchids, orchid colors can be highly tinted and others quite pale. These contrasting colors can provide interesting results in drawing or painting orchids in any media. Orchid’s leaves, on the other hand, are almost devoid of any texture except for longitudinal divisions that produce certain color changes with light.

FINAL WORK

After much more reworking, dedication and effort on trying to achieve a more realistic approach, I treated every area separately and rendered them to the utmost. The paper texture, however, did not allow for further smoothing of the surfaces and some stippling may be noticeable. This can be overcome by using finer textured paper and trying different pastel sizes, brands and quality.

Please feel free to follow this pastel drawing process to create your own drawing and self-teaching. The process does not start if you don’t take the courage to grab your pastels and start to apply colors over the paper. It emphasizes the application of pastel from small amounts to successive layering of pigments as necessary and allowed by the drawing surface. Working this way will create more confidence in the artist and the ability and capability to handle more colors, hues, shades and tonalities to enhance pastel drawing with time. Until another art demo, best wishes in your everyday art making and take the most advantage of your pastel drawing experience. Please send me your comments to email attached below.

WEBSITE: http://www.georgemax.co.nr/

EMAIL: georgemaxart@hotmail.com

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