Just Pick 2

Here’s an idea I came across recently that I thought you might like. It’s a way of getting around ‘painter’s block’ which is a bit like writer’s block, only worse! This is when you just don’t know what to paint, or how. And it strikes every artist every now and again.
So here’s what you can do to get those creative juices flowing again. Pick a subject – any subject. It doesn’t really matter what. It could be a landscape, a photograph, an object from your house, just anything. And then think about how you can draw or paint it using just two from the following list: line, tone (value), colour, texture, atmosphere, blocking in solid colour, using different materials.

So for instance, paint a vase concentrating on using lines and textures; or paint a landscape using just blocked in solid colours and tones. This will force you to look at, think about and paint the subject in an entirely different way to usual and should undo that creative block.

Painting Ideas Webpage

Have you had a look at the Painting Ideas page on my website yet? I'm slowly adding new ideas to it, and have just put on a couple of websites that you might like to visit. One is the Painters Online site that is run by the UK magazines The Artist and Leisure Painter, and the other site is a gallery with lots of video content. I think you'll find both of them interesting!

Wildlife Artist of the Year

Do you want the chance to win £10,000? Then why not try your hand at painting a wildlife subject for the 2009 Wildlife Artist of the Year competition. For more information visit http://www.wildlifeartistoftheyear.org/index_2009.html

The Zorn Palette

I recently came across what is known as the Zorn palette, which consists of just yellow ochre, cadmium red, ivory black and white. Now whether Anders Zorn ever used this palette of colours is debatable, but it has been attributed to him. (Anders Zorn (1860-1920) was possibly Sweden’s best known artist and he specialised in painting portraits and nudes. I have used one of his charcoal sketches as inspiration for one of the projects in my online drawing course).

So I thought I’d have a go at using these four oil colours, but actually had a bit of trouble getting any kind of blue out of the ivory black. The theory is that by placing a grey made from the black and white next to an orange made from the red, yellow and white, the orange will make the grey look bluish. This is because the eye picks up the orange and then ‘invents’ the complementary blue colour. However I just couldn’t get it to work. I just got grey!

But this got me thinking about just using three colours for painting (plus white if you are using oils or acrylics). There’s an American oil painter called Kevin MacPherson who paints outdoors a lot, and uses just cadmium red, Cadmium yellow, ultramarine blue and white, and with these he creates every colour he could possibly need, and all with great harmony!
So why not pare down your paints to just these four and have a go at mixing everything else. See what you can come up with.

Painting Vacation in the USA

Are you looking for a quite and beautiful place to paint for a week or two? Then why not look at this property sent to me by a course member, which is available as a house swap. Its at Jamestown, Rhode Island, USA and is a New England seaside hideaway. If you are an artist, a writer, a globe trotter, or just an escapee from any big city you will find inspiration and enjoy island living in this shingle-style, seaside cottage. For more information, go to http://www.homeexchange.com Listing ID 95348

Summer sketches make winter paintings

Summer is such a good time to get out and about with your paints and sketchbook. We get so locked indoors in the winter months because of the weather, and it’s good to use the warmer and drier summer months to go outside and collect material to use in the winter days. If you sketch as well as take photographs, you will soon build up a wonderful resource that will spark off ideas from which to paint.

So my advice this month is this – take a small pad and a pencil with you wherever you go, and sketch anything that you see of interest. If you can manage it, keep a small watercolour paint box and a couple of brushes in the car so that you are always ready to paint a quick scene. It doesn’t have to take more than a few minutes to capture the essence of a building, a landscape, a group of children playing, or whatever it is that has caught your attention. And who knows what masterpieces these sketches will inspire in the winter months to come!

Credit Crunch

The downturn in the economy in the USA and in Britain is hitting us all hard. I've certainly noticed a big decrease in the number of people singing up for my online courses, and this is very unusual in the 31/2 years I've been running them. Money is just getting tight, and I suppose that art courses are one of those non-essential expenses that go first when folks tighten their belts.

However I've always tried to keep the courses at a reasonable price (there are some very expensive courses out there!), and I hope that this will continue to attract people to sign up for them. I've even now reduced the price of the watercolour course for anyone signing up for news and info. So, even though times are tough, let's not let it get us down, and let's cheer ourselves up by getting out those pencils and paints and enjoying our art.