About Kenn Backhaus

Kenn was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and spent much of his childhood on the family farm near Burnett, Wisconsin. His fondness for nature became the catalyst for his art. Kenn’s parents encouraged his artistic education and following High School, he attended Layton School of Art in Milwaukee,Wisconsin. After graduation from Layton in 1973, he embarked on his professional career in Design and Illustration. As a commercial designer and illustrator Kenn received many awards at both local and national levels, which included acceptance in the Annual Society of Illustrators Show in New York. Although Kenn took pride in his commercial successes, his heart always belonged to the fine art of outdoor painting.

With developing interest in the historic Plein Air style of painting, Kenn decided in 1984, to devote more time to his passion for painting and the love of the outdoors. He found that capturing true color, value and the mood of a subject was best done on location or through direct observation. His passion for painting has broadened his subject matter to include not only landscape, but also figurative, portrait, still life and wildlife.

Kenn’s works have been juried into many shows across the country, including the Oil Painters of America National Shows. His works have received many awards including the Collector’s Choice Award at the Seventh Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Invitational 2005, Artist’s Choice Award at the First Annual Telluride Plein Air Exhibit and Sale, 2004, Fredix Artist Canvas Best Landscape award at the 2004 Oil Painters of America National Show, Kirkland, Washington, Tara Best Landscape award at the 2003 Oil Painters of America National Show, Taos, New Mexico, Second Place Award in the Crystal Cove Invitational Exhibition 2003, 1999 Finalist winner The Artist Magazine, a Best of Show in the 1999 Invitational American Plains Artist Show, Midland, Texas, Award of Excellence in the 1998 Regional Oil Painters of America Show, Arlington Heights, IL.

Kenn is a Master Signature member of the Oil Painters of America and a Signature member of the Plein Air Painters of America. He also served as President of the Plein-Air Painters of America from the year 2000 through 2001.

Kenn is one of fifty artists selected from across the country to participate in a traveling museum show titled “FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA”. The exhibit will open at the Haggin Museum, Stockton, CA in the Spring of 2004 and will travel across the country to various museums through 2006. The traveling exhibit is scheduled to conclude in 2006 at the Scottsdale Artists’ School in Scottsdale, AZ.

To learn more about Kenn and to view more of his work, please follow this link to visit his Website

Landscape Painting Demonstration in Oils – “Shaw Cove”

Stage 1

This painting was completed in July during the Sixth Annual Laguna Plein Air event in Laguna Beach, CA. I used a digital camera on-location to capture the painting during its various stages. I have various starts to my paintings. Depending upon the intricacy of the scene I may start with a more refined sketch or in this case I started with a loose oil paint/mineral spirits wash to define the masses. This beginning stage sets the pace as to the view point of the scene, the light and shadow masses and the positive and negative areas of the scene. The artist also needs to develop the focal point very soon or at least know where this will happen in the composition.

Stage 2

This second stage is very important; I have to develop the areas that are in shadow in relation to the areas that are in light. This area will be the secondary focal area of the painting. I already know where the main focal point will be, I just do not have time at this point to put it in. The plein air painter has to concern him or herself with the constant moving light. What is in shadow now may in ten minutes or less become filled with light so the artist needs to develop the painting with this in mind. Here I start to place paint in a more opaque fashion over the initial wash areas of light and shadow to establish the correct value and color temperature. The water area surrounding the rocks, are also given attention.

Stage 3

From the very beginning one of the things that caught my interest in this scene was the occasional wave action against the far rocks. This will be my main focal point, so in this stage I observe the waves for awhile to determine at what stage of the wave hitting the rocks, I want to portray. This is placed in along with developing the foundation of the ocean with the horizon line and placing in some of the sky value and color.

Stage 4

This is a refinement stage; my eyes continually scan the scene to see the harmony in the scene and to be sure of retaining that harmony in the painting. The sky is developed further with not value changes but subtle color temperature changes. More delicate attention to the subtle ocean colors with the suggestion of movement of waves. I also make understated additions to the rock area. Observing my tide chart I notice that the tide is going out so I will be aware of more rocks that will start to be exposed, this may be helpful in the finished composition.

Stage 5

This stage I continue to develop the subtleties of the ocean with additional light and dark values placed in certain areas to give the suggestion of waves and waves breaking on the rocks. I start to develop the shadowed foreground area in the lower left hand corner.

Stage 6

Here I give final attention to edges, softening some like the wave splash, giving the suggestion of wind and spray of the water. I review other areas to determine the edge quality and contrast of value, especial at the focal point. I develop more definition of rocks further out in the ocean as that tide recedes and a few indications of waves further out. The shadow area of the foreground is finished in the lower right hand corner. The very last stage is getting away from the painting for a while and looking at it with a fresh eye the next morning. Observing the painting in the studio away from the source allows me to see the painting for what it is. At this point I should have all the visceral response from the scene I need. Any refinements now are more design decisions, either simplifying or stating more boldly various areas of the painting. Sign it! and you’re off to start another.

Media: Oil/linen (Claessens oil, single primed no. 15)
Palette: Winsor Newton brand oil paint

Titanium White
Cadmium Lemon
Raw Sienna
Permanent Rose
Permanent Alizarin Crimson
Ultramarine Blue
Ivory Black

About The Artist

I was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1942. As I look back over my life, a very obvious unifying thread is my commitment to art and my ambition to produce paintings that bring something of God’s heart into today’s world.

I trained and worked initially as a graphic artist, then moved into professional fine art in 1974. I was successful in winning the Cambridge Art Award twice, and the prestigious Kelliher Art Award twice in consecutive years.

In 1976 I founded the Downtown Hilton Gallery in Auckland. In 1983 I sold the Gallery and since that time have devoted myself to painting and having art prints made of my work.

In 1984 my wife and I traveled in Israel. This special time provided the inspiration for quite a number of my more popular Bible based paintings.

In 2001 I commenced holding large, interactive art workshops in primary schools for children aged 5 to 12 years. I particularly enjoy opportunities to pass on to the next generation drawing and color skills that I would love to have been taught when I was a boy.

Many of my paintings are visual stories that contain partially hidden words or imagery. The viewer is encouraged to embark on a voyage of discovery where additional levels of meaning unfold only when the painting is looked at closely.

Most of my paintings are executed in oils, often over the top of other media.

My studio is attached to our home which is on a small farm in a rural area 45 minutes North of Auckland. My wife and I have 6 married children and a growing crop of grandchildren. We were able to subdivide the farm and now have most of our children living as immediate neighbors on their own lifestyle properties.

You can learn more about Graham and view more of his artwork by following the link below to his Website:

http://www.grahambraddock.net

Graham also has a drawing based Art Course that is especially suitable for children.

See it at:

http://www.grahambraddock.com

Landscape Painting Lesson in Oils by Graham Braddock

Subject Matter

Oil Painting Demonstration – Step 1

Sometimes I set out with an imagined mental picture and then go looking for suitable reference that will give the painting authenticity. Other times I go prospecting for good painting subjects. The demonstration painting, “Memories of Taranaki”, is the result of one such trip.

The low light was perfect one still winter afternoon. An ethereal Mt Taranaki presided over the land, majestic, disembodied, cut off from the middle distance by low cloud and mist. I knew my problem was going to be finding a suitable foreground. So, as the light faded, I drove hurriedly down a country road, stopping whenever I saw streams or trees that might prove interesting.

In these conditions, a camera is the only way to grab detailed reference. I found a reasonable rock strewn stream, climbed on to some rough ground above and beside it, was attracted to what appeared to be a rocky outcrop to my right. I ran a little further and found myself gazing over an old quarry site. Brilliant! Big old trees, remnants of the original native forest, still held out on the higher points. I felt I’d stepped back in time 80 years. A pioneer flavour seemed to linger in the stillness… I took several photos and left, knowing I had the basis for a very good painting.

Composing the Painting

Oil Painting Demonstration – Step 2

Much later, in my studio, I studied the photos and began a small layout sketch. The subject still excited me but the composition could stand much improvement. The stream that had originally appealed to me needed to be shifted a few hundred metres and re-routed through my painting. I invented a winding, loose metal road, installed an old wooden bridge over the stream and then brought the road right across the foreground.

The stream and road provided good eye paths, but I still felt that an extra focal point, other than the mountain was needed. Tucked over to the right above the road was an ideal place for a Victorian settler’s cottage. I drew one in then turned my attention to the foreground foliage. Instead of the sea of prickly gorse bushes which featured in the photos, I decided on some pasture, a number of native trees and ferns and lots of rank grass.

By this stage I had come a long way from my original photos, but an exciting “walk-in-and-explore” picture story was all set to happen.

Technique and Surface Preparation

Oil Painting Demonstration – Step 3

Technique

Over the years I’ve sought ways to combine the looseness and spontaneity of sketching, the freedom and accidental effects of watercolours and the richness and versatility of oils.

What I’m about to describe may seem dreadfully complex and time consuming; in fact its pretty straightforward and often results in marvelous effects, particularly in glowing shadow areas.

Surface Preparation

I used a 10cm house painting brush to give a 82 x 65cm sheet of hardboard two coats of gesso. On the second coat I was careful to use brushstrokes which were at right angles to the first coat. After a light sanding, the gesso provided me with a low relief criss-cross pattern, which was much smoother than canvas, but still provided good tooth, which is ideal for working in charcoal.

Charcoal

Oil Painting Demonstration – Step 4

Using a stick of willow charcoal, I sketched the painting up in a fairly loose style. Whenever I blocked in shadows, I was careful not to press so hard as to obliterate the interesting texture created by the brushstroked gesso. I then took an aerosol can of workable fixative and sprayed the whole picture surface with several light coats so that the charcoal would no longer smudge when rubbed. (With this painting I made the silly mistake of not dusting off most of the charcoal near the skyline before spraying on fixative – Result? Extra work covering it up with oils later).

Acrylics and Indian Ink

Oil Painting Demonstration – Step 5

Next I grabbed a 2.5cm pastry brush and turned the whole thing into a dreadful wash painting using transparent acrylic colours. I avoided using any opaque pigments (white, Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Red Oxide, and so on) as these would obliterate the charcoal.

To add further interest, I took a plastic spray pot filled with Indian ink and squirted little blobs of ink on to the picture surface. Some of these I softened back with a paper towel. I tried to restrict the blobs mostly to the middle and lower parts of the painting in order to keep the sky and distant mountain clean and soft.

This is the point where my painting looks a real mess. The good thing is that it doesn’t matter how garish or rough the preliminary work is because the next stage can pull it all together. Also, the “accidents” can be turned into interesting effects if allowed to show through the oils. Bits that don’t work can be hidden by applying thicker oil paint.

Oils and Working from the Top

Oil Painting Demonstration – Step 6

Oils

I use a large wooden palette with a hard, polished surface. I always set all my colours out before I begin, and I always put each colour in the same position, an inch or two in from the edge which leaves a good space in the middle for mixing colours. Having a standard layout when setting out your colours is as important as having a standard configuration for the keyboard of your piano or your computer.

On one corner of the palette I clip a metal palette cup half full of Archival brand Classic Medium. I’ve found this an excellent medium, particularly suited to thin glazes of colour.

The colours I use most are Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Mars Red and Ultramarine.

I use smaller quantities of Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Oxide of Chromium, Pthalo Green, Pthalo Blue, Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber. The reason I use Flake White is because I want to minimize flat or dull spots in the finished painting. Flake White acts as a primer, while Titanium White has the properties of enamel. I know that I’ll use at least 2 coats of oil paint so the rule is;- “Start with primer – finish with enamel”.

One other point. I’ve given up on cheap brushes. Lately I’ve been using Art Spectrum Definer series bristle brushes and find them excellent.

Working from the Top

I almost always start with the sky over at the light source (Flake White and a little Naples Yellow).

As I work away from the light I add more Naples Yellow, perhaps a hint of Cadmium Red, and then progressively more blue. When I paint a clear sky, I make sure it is pale down on the horizon, and that it deepens as it rises.

Next, using the same large (No. 10) brush, I paint in the cool parts of distant land masses. I use a second brush for clean, soft highlights on trees or pasture. I use white, Ultramarine and Mars Red as my basic opaque shadow mixture.

I progressively reduce the amount of white content in shadows as I work forwards and downwards so as not to cover up all of the interesting, blobby effects in the underpainting.

By the time I reach the foreground, Alizarin Crimson and Raw Sienna (beautifully transparent) have replaced Mars Red (very opaque) in the shadows.

I am careful to further enrich and warm the shadows the closer they are to the foreground. I also avoid putting on highlights until I’m satisfied that the shadow tones and colours are fairly right. Sunlit foliage has more and more yellow in it the closer it gets to the foreground. Some of the crisp, foreground highlights in the grass have been put in using a long haired, pointed sable “rigger” brush. I always use Titanium White with touches of Cadmium yellow and Cadmium Orange for such highlights.

Fine Tuning and Framing

Oil Painting Demonstration – Step 7

Fine Tuning

Once the whole painting has one coat of oils on it, I generally let it dry, then give the whole thing a coat of retouching varnish. This increases gloss on the surface and does away with any chance of dull patches developing when I apply additional paint.

With all of my landscape paintings, I like to invite the eye to go on a journey through space.

This usually means that some middle distant parts need to be knocked back further. I do this with a very thin application of Zinc White (transparent), often with some Raw Sienna in it. The smoke haze from the cottage was created in this way.

Often some foreground shadows need strengthening. This is achieved using thin layers of Alizarin, Ultramarine and earth browns.

Framing

Finally, I set the finished painting up under a very strong light and took the time to gaze and dream. The only thing left to do was choose a frame. Because most of my paintings have a fairly traditional flavour, I go for frames with a traditional feel. They must be wide, and usually incorporate either gold or silver leaf.

Dont skimp when it comes to framing. A cheap frame around a lovely painting can downgrade it horribly!

Here is another incredible landscape painting demonstration by Artist Maxim Grunin. I am simply blown away by this guys talent. I find it amazing how he can complete these paintings in one session and make them look like they took days or even months to complete.

In the video demonstration below, Maxim creates a beautiful landscape painting from a drawing.

If you would like to learn more about Maxim and view more of his work, follow the link below:

http://maximgrunin.blogspot.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9yltK3MrpE

This is a painting lesson in spontaneity.  Its about just letting go of all inhibitions and painting from your imagination and heart without the aid of a reference photo or plan.   This will teach you how to develop your own unique painting style and most of all, how to truly enjoy painting.

Karrie on Canvas – Landscape Painting Demonstration

A big thanks to Karrie Evenson and the folks over at Jones Television for making this video demonstration available!  You can learn more about Jones Television by visiting their page over at YouTube Here, or by visiting their Website Here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhim6VtviJs

This landscape painting lesson is courtesy of Barry Waldman of Interactive Art School.

A Revolutionary Way to Learn to Draw & Paint

Student uses a Digital Camera (supplied in your Student Sign Up Kit along with Textbooks & Supplies) to take digital photos of their completed assigned Lesson Artwork for each lesson. The student sends those photos as email attachments to the teacher who draws, paints & comments on the work & posts a critique of each lesson on our WEB site, a personalized How-To-Do-It-Better Critique for the student to view 24/7/365.

Follow this link to visit the Interactive Art School!

Landscape Painting Lesson – Simplify Trees

A sculptor student asked about how one does images of trees and further how to simplify them as the complexity of painting a million leaves can make an artist batty. Some painters and sculptors want to paint every leaf…bless them…for the rest of us this mini-lesson is about:

A. Making realistic trees

B. Simplifying those trees in our images (paintings, drawings, sculpture)

First there are countless kinds of trees and then millions of variations within those– two shown here, they couldn’t be more different

(above left: photo of wide tree…….above right bare trees from my painting “Snow Gardens” below:)

We could go on and on with many other tree shapes, sizes and variations, but let’s focus on one tree, analyze it in the following steps:

I. Let’s figure out how to make the tree real

II. Let’s explore how to simplify the real tree we create in various degrees of simplicity

As a reference for a painting…lets analyze one tree:

1. The original photo

2. That photo made more contrasty to start to see the form better revealed (this is done here with photo manipulation in sketching in nature you would squint your eyes to achieve this effect)

3. I did a 3d model of the tree to show its basic underlying form

A tree – like everything we see, has a basic form or a series of basic forms as its understructure. Students often get lost, particularly with trees, in painting each leaf …while to make it real its underlying structure needs to be communicated.

To make an object seem solid, one needs to understand the following:

Study the above and also the mini-Lessons on Form (click on the blue links below):

Lesson 2 Basic Form and

Lesson 3 Advanced Form

One needs to mass the tones in groups based on the above — the darkest tones on the shadow sides of objects, middle tones in the transitions from light to dark and the lighted tones in the most light stuck areas of an object.

Just below is a painting of a group of leaves from the tree photographed above (you can paint the rest of the tree in this level of detail – I’m just not going to do it …it would take almost forever)

Now lets explore how to paint the tree simpler, then still simpler: on the left is the original photo, then a simpler painted version, then an even simpler version on the extreme right:

Left is a reprise of the source photo from above……then, the tree painted to be round in lots of colors and values…. then the another interpretation SIMPLIFIED—into three tonal masses

In my paintings above, I eliminated the sky and simplified the outer shape of the tree to better demonstrate the principals of form and the simplification.

In the right hand most simplified tree, I used only THREE color mixtures to paint the tree On the left hand side is the transitional middles tone Up through the middle is the light struck tone…then some middle tones again to step down from the high tones of the light struck leaf masses…. and…on the right side I have massed the darks…the resulting tree is simple but solid…no details, not painted leaf by leaf

POSTERIZED: Simpler still– areas are divided into a few colors – tree leaf area into just light stuck side and shadow side

(See Wikipedia definition of “POSTERIZATION” at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posterization

Then – silhouetted “forest” in color:

The trees in the foreground are darker and more vibrant (more intense color green… while the taller “forest” behind is a lighter and bluer, less intense color blue-green— this is a reflection of the concept of “atmospheric perspective”…as things get further from the viewer’s eye… they get light in tone, less chromatic (color intensive) and have less contrast (see
mini Online Lesson 4) for a fuller exploration of atmospheric perspective.

To see examples of simplified trees -see the work of these painters and photographers:

Edward Hopper*

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MCG/FH536~Gas -1940-Posters.jpg

http://ursispaltenstein.ch/blog/images/uploads_img/hopper_2.jpg

http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/06autumn/images/jenkins_fig2large.jpg

_______________________________________________ and

Fairfield Porter

http://www.tfaoi.com/am/10am/10am132.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ec/Fairfield_Porter’s

_painting_’Under_the_Elms’,_1971_-_1972.jpg/300px-Fairfield_Porter’s_painting_’Under_the_Elms’,_1971_-_1972.jpg

http://www.tfaoi.com/cm/3cm/3cm617.jpg

also:

Fairfield Porter on Mark Harden’s “Artchive” Painting titled “Amherst Campus“:

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/P/porter/porter_amherst.jpg.html

Fairfield Porter on:

The Bridgeman Art Library:

http://www.bridgeman.co.uk/search/s_results.asp?search=fairfield+porter&stype=all&order=5&page=&view=2

_______________________________________________

and

Ansel Adams

http://www.blognow.com.au/uploads/l/Llennodo/19959.jpg

http://doors.stanford.edu/ansel-adams/iceberg-panorama.jpg

_______________________________________________

and

Edward Hopper

* A note about Edward Hopper, the great American Illustrator and Painter – he was a master of “leaving out”, or simplifying… you can see it in his trees, his people, his houses and interiors…he leaves out detail…one fact few observers notice is that there is no glass in any windows Hopper ever painted. Study his most famous paining “Nighthawks” a picture of people seen in a late night diner in Manhattan, NYC through windows – NO GLASS.(Yes, there is a hint of it at the far left where the window curves around the corner – but not in the large part of the diner window and also, look across the street at the shop windows “Nighthawks” can be seen on the Artchive website at:

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hopper/nighthwk.jpg.html

Look at the other Hoppers on the Artchive site like “Chop Suey”

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hopper.html

Once you get to the Hopper bio at the page above, click on the “VIEW IMAGE LIST“

To sign up for the course, click here.