Counterintuitive Painting – or – The Problem Might Not Be What You Think It Is

About Karin

karin wellsKarin Wells is an artist of amazing versatility. She graduated with honors from both the New England School of Art and Design, Boston, 1965, and the Butera School of Art, Boston, 1986. Karin has enjoyed a career as an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator and sign painter. She also taught Life Drawing and Painting for many years. She has most recently studied for three years at The New England School of Classical Painting in Greenfield, New Hampshire, under the direction of Numael Pulido.

To expand her craft, Karin has traveled throughout Europe studying the Old Masters. Her art reflects the deep influence of these great works. Karin demonstrates a remarkable facility for likeness and for the use of light.

The artist is a member of The American Society of Portrait Artists, Portrait Society of America, The Portrait Society of Atlanta, and The Copley Society of Boston.

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Flemish Painting Technique Video

About Delmus G. Phelps

Statement of purpose within the work:

I’ve been an active painter since the mid 70’s creating works in the Realist tradition. Being inspired by the nature around me and in the things we tend to collect, I produce still life and floral oil paintings in the Classical/Contemporary Realism style on canvas and panels.

With a particular interest in sharp focus realism I produce still life works of incredible detail.  My floral pieces exude a peace and serenity much needed in today’s hectic lifestyles.

Using the Flemish method of 7 layers, a 400 year old technique perfected by the Dutch Masters of the renaissance era, my paintings are meant to stand the test of time in lasting quality.

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How to Paint a Lily Flower in Oils

About Beatriz

Beatriz Socorro began her formal art training at age 10. During 5 years, she studied art with the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in Montreal, Canada, where she learned drawing, perspective, the use of light and shadow to obtain depth and likeness as well as clay sculpture.

Professionally, she worked as a photographer and today uses her own photos as subjects for her colorful oil paintings which are characterized by their vividness and visual impact.

Her art falls under the category of Contemporary Expressionism. She definitely considers her work to be an expression of her own spirit.

To put it in her own words: “I only paint when spirit-within leads me and only paint what spirits wants. I myself don´t know what I am going to paint or what the end result will be. I work mostly through the night and sleep during the day. This way I can work without distractions. Sometimes I´ll wake up in the middle of my sleep with the desire to paint and so I do.” Read more

How to Enliven a Painting with Pure Color

About Karin

karin wellsKarin Wells is an artist of amazing versatility. She graduated with honors from both the New England School of Art and Design, Boston, 1965, and the Butera School of Art, Boston, 1986. Karin has enjoyed a career as an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator and sign painter. She also taught Life Drawing and Painting for many years. She has most recently studied for three years at The New England School of Classical Painting in Greenfield, New Hampshire, under the direction of Numael Pulido.

To expand her craft, Karin has traveled throughout Europe studying the Old Masters. Her art reflects the deep influence of these great works. Karin demonstrates a remarkable facility for likeness and for the use of light.

The artist is a member of The American Society of Portrait Artists, Portrait Society of America, The Portrait Society of Atlanta, and The Copley Society of Boston.

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Palette Knife Landscape Painting Demonstration

About Patricia Elliot Seitz

Patricia Elliott Seitz was born in San Diego California, and spent most of her young adulthood living in Southern California. She came from an artistic background of art and music, and always knew that she wanted to be an artist. From age five until she was in her early teens, Seitz was mentored by her mother, an accomplished jewelry designer, and still life painter.

Her love for landscapes and seascapes has been heavily influenced by where she has lived through the years. Her painting approach is based on impressionism, and Tonalism. Painters that have inspired Patricia are Monet, Alexander Wyant, George Innless, Wyatt Eaton, Marjorie Reed, and Vernon Kerr. Her choices of mediums are oil and soft pastel. Her main subject matter is landscapes, and seascapes. On occasion, Patricia will paint still life and figurative work as well.

Her paintings are distinctive for their bold and simple brush strokes, luminescent light and unique color choices. Today she can be found in her studio, painting seasonal paintings of the Central New York area, and the California coast lines. She is an active member of Oil Painters of America, CNY Art Guild, and her work is represented by Local NY art Galleries. Read more

How to Paint Silver with Acrylic Paint

Here is a superb video tutorial taught by Artist Paul Taggart that will demonstrate how to paint the metal silver using acrylic paint.  If you paint in oils, you will still be able to follow this tutorial as the same techniques will work with oil painting.  This video demonstration is part of a series on how to paint metals.  I will be adding the rest of this series in the coming weeks so please stay tuned, or  subscribe to my newsletter or rss feed here and to be notified whenever a new tutorial is added.

Painting objects made of silver can be a very difficult undertaking for beginners, especially since silver is a reflective material, similar to a mirror.  The color of silver can vary depending on the objects that are nearby.  The colors can also vary depending on how shiny or tarnished the silver is.  So there are certain factors to take into consideration.

The following tutorial is only one artists approach to painting silver, but I believe it is one of the best I have seen, which is why I am posting it here.  Paul breaks everything down in this demonstration making it very easy to understand and follow along.  This video is approximately 1 hour in length, so please be sure to set aside some time to watch the entire lesson.  I hope you enjoy!

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Breaking Surf Oil Painting Demo

About Doug

Doug Purdon was born in Toronto, Ontario. He is a full-time painter, teacher and writer. He is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and an elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists and Ontario Society of Artists. He currently lives in Toronto with his wife, the writer Rosemary Aubert.

He exhibits his work in galleries in Canada, the US and the UK and his paintings are in many private and corporate collections, including The Toronto Public Library, The City of Toronto, The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, Sears Canada, and The Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic CT, where his painting Tugboat Alley was awarded the Museum Purchase Award in 2005. A major retrospective of his work was held in October 2007 at the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto.

Doug believes that artists should continue the tradition of passing on their skills and knowledge to other artists and does this through his workshops, seminars and writing. He currently teaches courses at Loyalist College, Belleville, Ontario; Bridgewater Retreat, Tweed, Ontario; and the School of Continuing Studies, University of Toronto and in workshops for art associations across Canada.

While he paints his native Ontario, he also enjoys travelling to different locations and has painted in Scotland, England, France, and the American Southwest and on the eastern and western seaboard of North America. He is represented by Studio 737, Tweed, Ontario; Arnold Fine Art, Newport RI; and the Gallery at Mystic Seaport, Mystic CT.

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How to Make Blue from Ivory Black & White

About Karin

karin wellsKarin Wells is an artist of amazing versatility. She graduated with honors from both the New England School of Art and Design, Boston, 1965, and the Butera School of Art, Boston, 1986. Karin has enjoyed a career as an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator and sign painter. She also taught Life Drawing and Painting for many years. She has most recently studied for three years at The New England School of Classical Painting in Greenfield, New Hampshire, under the direction of Numael Pulido.

To expand her craft, Karin has traveled throughout Europe studying the Old Masters. Her art reflects the deep influence of these great works. Karin demonstrates a remarkable facility for likeness and for the use of light.

The artist is a member of The American Society of Portrait Artists, Portrait Society of America, The Portrait Society of Atlanta, and The Copley Society of Boston.

Read more

How to Clean your Oil Painting Brushes

Learning how to clean your oil painting brushes is important, especially if your brushes are expensive and of high quality.  You want to protect that investment so that your brushes will last for years to come.

There are a variety of methods for removing oil paint from a brush. If you were to ask 5 different artists how they clean their brushes, you would more than likely get 5 different answers.  Some artists use turpentine or mineral spirits while others prefer to use safer alternatives like baby oil or citrus based cleaners.

I would like to outline my process for cleaning my brushes in this post as well as include articles and videos from other artists.  This way you will have a variety of resources to help you choose the method you are most comfortable with.  The main objective with cleaning your oil painting brushes is to remove as much pigment as possible from the brush immediately after each use. Also important, is try your best to maintain the brushes original shape.

I would like to start by sharing the supplies that you will need if you decide to go with my method of oil paint brush cleaning. I do not use any dangerous solvents, thinners or chemicals to clean my brushes.

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How to Begin a Landscape Painting in Oils

In this free oil painting video lesson by artist Dick Ensing  you will learn a method for starting a landscape painting using oil paint. This is not the only way to start an oil painting, but it is an excellent method and one that every beginner should become familiar with.

The artist will be working from a photograph of a scene in Tennessee. He will begin with a value sketch using only one color, Cerulean Blue. He is using Charvin Oils for this particular lesson. He says he likes these oils because they have excellent pigment strength and when they dry, the color is very close to the color you start out with. He also points out that he likes to work with flat brushes with long bristles. He says the longer bristles last longer and they give you a nice chiseled edge to work with while you are painting.

He very lightly begins to sketch in his composition using the Cerulean Blue. He is just looking for shapes at this point. While he is laying out his composition, he is careful not to place his focal point directly in the center of the canvas as this will produce a boring painting. He places his focal point off to the left of the center.

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