Painting trees and leaves Watercolor Demonstration
About Sandrine Pelissier
I grew up in France but have been living in Canada for the last 12 years, I am currently located in North Vancouver and work from a studio on Pemberton Avenue.
Watercolor is my medium of choice because of the unique way it allows me to render light. The transparency of this medium can make it look like the painting is lit from behind and the light is shining through the paper In my portraits, I like to tell stories about the people around me. I am very interested in childhood fantasy or fairy tales (I wish it would snow Flowers, Hair Balloon, Georgia, the Spanish dress and the Eclectus Parrot). I also like to induce a dialogue with the viewer in some paintings dealing more with introspection and mood (Mixed, In the studio).
Those portraits are not about likeness or knowing the people that are being painted, as I see my models as actors in a movie, they are the faces that will allow me to tell a story or to show emotions. Those faces are a source of endless fascination and I find the subtlety that can be achieved with watercolor well suited to the complexity of the human face.
My technique involves the accumulation of many transparent layers of watercolor. Then I like to incorporate mixed media in the background, work sometimes with some contouring. I also sometimes like to add some drawing on top of the painting or some graphic elements…
Pastel Landscape Demo Step by Step
About Karen Margulis
I was born in Connecticut, grew up in South Florida and spent summers in the North Carolina Mountains. I currently live in Marietta Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. I graduated from the University of Florida with a BA in Education.
I operated a family day care for 21 years so that I could stay home with my own 2 children. We traveled every summer with the kids and tried to visit every National Park. Most of my paintings are inspired by the photos I took on these adventures.
I am now painting and teaching pastel classes and workshops full time. I am represented by several galleries in the Southeast as well as several online galleries. I am a Member of Excellence in the Southeastern Pastel Society and a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America.
Watercolor Painting Demonstration – Winter Ice, Potomac River
A Virginia Artist – Creating Award Winning Art In Oil and Watercolor
CHRISTINE LASHLEY — ARTIST’S STATEMENT: As a contemporary impressionist painter, I am constantly drawn to light. Nature’s unique colors, harmonies and contrasts offer a visual feast that I love to capture in artwork. I gather most of my ideas by painting outdoors. On location there is no time to second-guess choices, so the resulting brush strokes convey a sense of immediacy and vitality. My studio paintings are a chance to work larger, while retaining the freshness of painting “plein-air”. Planning first, with sketches and reference, lets me paint freely in the final artwork. Favorite subjects are portraits, still life and landscapes.
ARTIST’S BIO: Christine Lashley studied as a teen in Paris at the Parsons Art Institute and the Sorbonne, continuing on to earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. She worked for several years in the fashion industry in Europe, then as a muralist and graphic designer, but turned her interest to fine art soon thereafter. Christine’s paintings have been shown nationally and internationally. With numerous works in private and corporate collections, her work has also been featured in publications such as:American Artist Magazine, The Washington Post, and Elan Magazine. A North Light Publications book: Creative Freedom, will feature two of her oils in a step-by-step demonstration.
Christine currently lives in the Washington DC area with her husband and two children, and has been an art instructor for over 10 years. She is a juried, signature member of several art groups including: the Potomac Valley Watercolorists (where she served as President), The Baltimore Watercolor Society, and the Washington Society of Landscape Painters, and a juried member of OPA (Oil Painters of America).
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About the Artist
Jim Serrett holds degrees from Southern Illinois University and Vincennes University in painting and drawing. He has been an instructor at the college level and worked professionally as an artist producing advertising art, murals and illustration.
“I would define my works as realism, because I am interested in depicting the subjects I choose to paint, as I see them in nature. I am fascinated by the way things look, painting is for me about seeing. It forces me to study and understand a thing or an idea, to spend so much time with something that I can really begin to see it and explain the subject with as much clarity as I can, observing those things that might otherwise might be overlooked. I hope to seduce the viewer into the painting and if they meditate on it for a while, they may discover deeper, more specific layers of meaning.
I work from life or en plein air using traditional painting techniques. The work of the Masters leaves me with a sense of astonishment over the depth, luminosity and technical virtuosity these artists possessed. Varied in style and approach, they each began with similar foundations and fundamentals on which they developed the skill of oil painting. Understanding the core principles of traditional painting techniques, is a foundation from which an artist can evolve and acquire that greater knowledge, the real and honest expression of art.
These days I concentrate on fine art work, mainly working in oil and charcoal. I believe painting is a permanent attitude of mind. It is a scheme into which the general run of experience fits, which is not an abstract of the intellect but a part of life that needs mental and spiritual concentration. That synchronicity is my goal, the more I paint the more I learn about painting, the more I see as an artist.”
How to Draw Trees with Pencil
About Diane Wright
In 2002, I picked up my art pencil again after 20+ years. During this break, I devoted my time to my family and building a career. Even though I earned my Bachelor of Fine Art degree at the University of Northern Iowa, my career path ventured away from the fine arts. I am currently an IT Manager at a medical auditing firm in Des Moines, IA. My children are in college and it’s now time for me to explore my arts again! I live with my wonderful husband, Les, in the small town of Mitchellville, Iowa.
- Diane Wright
To learn more about Diane and to view her work, please visit her website:
How to Paint a Landscape in Oils Step by Step
About Mike
Nationally recognized, award winning artist Mike Callahan is a fourth generation Nevada native who counts himself privileged to grow up in what he believes to be one of the most beautiful places on earth, the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains near Reno, Nevada where he still lives today. While he has been painting since childhood, he has only been painting in earnest for about the last 5 or 6 years.
Says Mike, “The topography of this area is simply phenomenal; one can go from the high desert to mountainous alpine settings in less than an hour. It is this beautiful and varied landscape that ends up being the subject for a vast majority of my paintings.”
However, if you look through the paintings on Mike’s website, you will quickly see that the Sierra landscape isn’t the only subject Mike typically paints. He also enjoys painting Western themes as well as figurative and portraits.
Step by Step Painting in Oils of an Australian Landscape
About Julie Duell
Julie Duell (nee Henderson) is a 6th generation Australian going back to the First Fleet of English convicts to arrive in Sydney cove in 1788. She also has a drop of American Shoshone Indian heritage for good measure! Julie was born in Sydney in 1941 and continued to reside in Sydney environs thereafter. Julie was named after the month of her birth, July.
Over many prolific artistic years, Julie has painted under the names Julie Ferguson and J. Ferguson-Duell before simply signing her works Julie Duell. As a child, she studied art at St. George Technical College, Kogarah and singing with a private teacher in Rockdale, entering numerous Eisteddfods as a soloist with some success.
Adult years saw Julie resume her art studies, once again at St. George Technical College and then numerous short courses on the Central Coast where she has been a prolific practising artist and art teacher since around 1970.
How to Paint a Landscape in Pastel
Artist Biography – Phil Laughlin, PSA
EVOLUTION OF A LANDSCAPE PAINTER
Phil Laughlin was born in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Like most kids, he enjoyed drawing, but you wouldn’t have guessed from his childhood that art would become his passion. At home, the idea of a career in the arts was never discussed. School offered one art course in 12 years of public education. The prevailing attitude was “Okay… We’ve checked the art box on the curriculum form, let’s move on to the real business of life.”
From Engineer to Artist
Acrylic Landscape Painting Step by Step
About the Artist
I’m Will Kemp, I’m an award-winning professional artist and teacher.
Prior to painting full time I’ve worked in Museums, taught in schools, set up and ran my own gallery for 5 years and have taught hundreds of people to paint and draw.
I’ve studied Classical atelier techniques in Italy alongside conceptual art at the Tate Gallery, London.
How to Paint a Landscape in Oils for Beginners
About the Artist
Ross Bowns is an artist and art instructor working in California. His interests in art are in semi-abstract figurative art but he enjoys teaching broad range of subjects from basic drawing techniques to painting the landscapes.
He received an MFA in Fine Arts from The Academy of Arts University and a BA in Studio Arts from CSU, Sacramento. Ross currently lives and works in Sacramento, California.
Visit His Websites Today:
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