SHOW AT AURORA GALLERY IN VANCOUVER

	Cast Shadows; Pacific NW Plein Air Aurora Gallery, WA
	Reception Friday November 6, 2009
	5:00 pm -9:00 PM
	Aurora Gallery, 1004 Main St. Vancouver, WA 98660
	http://www.auroragalleryonline.com/

AN INTERESTING VIDEO ON HOW OUR VISUAL SENSE WORKS

Some of these illusions have been around for a while. What's interesting about this talk is the way he explains what's happening visually. Our brains interpret images based on what has been useful in the past. This has great implications for how we as artists express the world of light in paint.

Beau Lotto: Optical Illusions Show How We See

REVIEW The Oil Painting Book

THE OIL PAINTING BOOK

by Wendon Blake, Paintings by George Cherepov

After recently seeing the movie, LOCAL COLOR, in which I was intrigued by the paintings glimpsed throughout the movie, I searched out a couple of books by Cherepov, who was supposedly the basis for the curmudgeonly old artist, and this was one of them. Turns out, I read this book years ago, when I was just learning to oil paint. At that time, I learned two things from it: that paintings are built in layers, and how to paint vibrant skies. Interestingly enough, if this book has more to teach me now, I wasn’t able to see it. The approach is step-by-step, with prescriptions for what colors to use, which I have never found a very useful approach to learning painting. And because it is a relatively old book, there are few color illustrations, with age-dulled inks, making it hard to see the artist’s use of color. Most disappointingly, I didn’t get to see the vibrant, energetic paintings I glimpsed around corners in the movie. The search goes on.

BOOK REVIEW: BOLD STROKES: DYNAMIC BRUSHWORK FOR OILS AND ACRYLICS

BOOK REVIEW: Bold Strokes: Dynamic Brushwork for Oils and Acrylics, by Mark Christopher Weber. North Light Books, 2009.

This new book by Mark Christopher Weber takes the highlights of BRUSHWORK ESSENTIALS, his previous publication, and goes one step further, with step-by-step painting exercises to teach you expressive brushwork. He begins with the basics: how to get paint on your brush. Then, with three main ways of loading the brush, he demonstrates the variety of strokes you can make. Once you have the basics down, you’re ready to tackle the paintings.

Weber takes a subject and walks you step by step through initial washes and expressive strokes laid on top. By going through these exercises, you can begin to get the feel of how to choose where to put your paint to make the most impact. You can learn how to vary the width of your stroke with pressure and with twisting the brush. You can practice the essential color notes and highlights to simply capture a subject. The illustrations make it very clear where to put the paint in the exercise paintings, but not as clear how to get it exactly there.

The painting demonstrations are in both acrylic and water-miscible oil, a nice bonus if you are having trouble finding books in this relatively new medium. Personally, I’d prefer some demos in traditional oils. If I could wish for anything, it would be that he’d spend more time demonstrating how to lay paint on top of wet paint, how to create gradations, and how to add color into already painted areas.

If you’re looking for a spur or need some guidance in creating your own signature brushwork, this book is worth playing with.

EMOTIONAL LOGIC

Here's a book I recommend reading, especially if you get criticism from friends and family about being too illogical or emotional:

HOW WE DECIDE By Jonah Lehrer

Lehrer goes into aspects of decision making, both emotional and logical, and guess what? There are times when the logical works best and times when the emotional works best. And they aren't what you think they are. It turns out that much of experiential expertise relies on the emotional decision-making process.

"Every time you make a mistake or encounter something new, your brain cells are busy changing themselves. Our emotions are deeply empirical."

Enjoy the journey!

K

Book Review: CONFIDENT COLOR

CONFIDENT COLOR: AN ARTIST’S GUIDE TO HARMONY, CONTRAST, AND UNITY by Nita Leland. (North Light Books, 2008.)

Imagine a book you could open to almost any page, and find a thought to explore for the day. Nita Leland has created this book, in CONFIDENT COLOR. Every page of the book explores color with illustrations from a variety of artists, charts, and “Try It” exercises to emphasize the principles. Want to know what colors will emerge from your palette? Create color cards and organize them or display them. Want to create a more brilliant palette? Leland helps you explore this too. She covers basic color terminology and theory, the seven contrasts of color, and color harmonies. She includes exercises in limited palette and thoroughly explores many different types of palettes. Her exercises will open your eyes to working with color, not to creating color recipes. This book, with its wonderful stay-flat binding, is easy to open and use in the studio. A compendium of color thoughts for the beginning and advanced artist alike.

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL AND PAINTING

Stuff I took with me to Arizona (in lieu of clothes).

Black sun hat, black sun shirt
Testrite easel (with carrying bag, sling for easel, shade for easel)
Plexiglass palette

Stuff sack with bungee cord, roll of tp, plastic garbage bags

Raymar panel carrier with homemade panels
Frederix Canvas pad
2 prepped and unstretched 12 x 16 canvas mounted on
gaitorboard (for later stretching)




















M Graham Walnut/Alkyd Medium
MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) with Flash point highlighted, rubber banded to the box
Titanium White (2 tubes), Cadmium Yellow Light, Quinacridone Red, Cadmium Red Light
Yellow Ochre, Transparent Red Iron Oxide
Ultramarine Blue, Manganese Blue Hue, Sap Green

Rubber bands, blue tape, push pins
gesso and black acrylic

Whew!
I think it weighed around 15 lbs, but I forgot to weigh it.

Happy painting!