Recommended for All Studio ArtistsAuthor Archives:
How Well do Purple and Orange Dance Together? Mixing Secondaries
Step by step progression of red rocks. Discussion of mixing orange and purple colors. Garden of the Gods outcropping.
An Artist’s Demo Inspires Me to Paint Patches
Last Saturday, the Saks Galleries of Denver, invited people to attend a demonstration by Michelle Torrez, a highly acclaimed artist. Her subjects are most often dancers or people moving, and her brush strokes are very expressive. Since Denver is only an hours drive away, I decided to take advantage of this opportunity. My preferred tool [...]
Humbled Artist: A Writer Responds to One of My Paintings
Recently, I received a wonderful gift in the mail from a friend and fan of mine. Unbeknown to me, he had written a story poem inspired by my painting “Swinging in the Wind,” and sent it to me. As the recipient, I was humbled by his words – in fact I was moved to tears. [...]
Paint it Red & Paint it Big!
Years ago, while attending a workshop instructed by a well known artist, the class was talking about some tips on how to one’s artwork accepted into juried shows. One statement from the instructor I will never forget, was “Paint it red and paint it big.” Accordingly, this would potentially increase my probability of being accepted [...]
Why do You Read/Subscribe to Art Magazines?
Colorado artist Carol McIntyre reflects upon how artists may use fine art magazines.
Is Creating Possible When an Emotional Crisis Crosses Your Path?
Last week I learned that my older, and only, sister is in the fourth stage of liver cancer (the survival rate of liver cancer is extremely low). This was unexpected news. Meanwhile, I had been in an intense stage of painting, creativity, challenging myself with my visual message, pushing my skills, writing, increasing my visibility [...]
What Happened to My Iris? Rebirthing an Old Painting
What do artists do with their older paintings? How easy or difficult is it to paint over an existing painting? How often do artists do this? While in the process of purging and re-organizing my studio, I came across a couple of paintings that had, in my opinion, ‘lived their life span.’ “Purple Ruffles,” was [...]
Ellie Comes to Life – Final Step in Painting Memory Portrait
As you can see, in comparison to the previous step, Ellie has lost that ring around the collar! LOL! Her fur pattern was a bit tricky to paint, because there is a tendency to paint strips and they are not really stripes. She feels hugable to me, how about you? Her owner was very pleased [...]
Memory Portrait of Ellie – Step 4
Ellie’s owner Jane, gave me complete artistic license while painting Ellie’s Memory Portrait – which is a really nice thing to do – and Jane did not want to see the painting as I was painting it. At this point, however, I did send her a digital image – the one you see here – [...]
Memory Portrait of Ellie – Step 4
Ellie becoming 3-D (click to enlarge) Now you can begin to see Ellie become three dimensional. The background is essentially done at this point. Toward the end I will tweak any areas I think need to be lightened or darkened. You will notice that I used de-saturated purples to help bring out Ellie’s eventual fur [...]
