Setting Up For Robert Johnson's Painting Workshop At The Art Guild Of Port Washington

In July, The Art Guild of Port Washington was lucky enough to host Robert Johnson for a very rare New York area workshop.  I have a ton of photos from the workshop itself, but I thought you might like to see how we set up for a still life workshop.

I've been to several workshops where there are no set ups and the students are left to fend for themselves, often with lackluster props.  Also, there can be people in a workshop who are new to still life and may not know how to do a proper set up.   And don't get me started on sharing a set up in an expensive workshop.

When we do still life at The Art Guild, everyone has their own set up, already set up the day before the class starts.

We have a lot of props there as two of us are still life artists and there are also a lot of "community" props, things that people have donated and are for everyone to use.

Luckily, my studio mate is a very talented floral designer as well as a painter, so she is able to buy flowers at a distributor for the classes, and she makes the most amazing floral arrangements.

The first thing I do is get my own supplies together and pack them in my paint box.  It is one less thing to worry about in the midst of everything else that is going on.

Next up is purchasing supplies.  For a still life/floral workshop, we gather a few buckets full of flowers, and a variety of fruit ( lemons, red and green grapes, oranges, apples, etc).

We then get all the props in one place.  Fabrics, vases, small objects, crystal pieces and presentation boards to hold up the fabrics and create a background.

And then it begins.  We spend a LOT of time with the set ups.  It's quite rare that we just pull some objects and fruit and create a set up.  They go through lots of changes.  Fruit, objects and flowers go in and out until the still life is just right.  This can take some time and people often look at us like we are nuts, but what is the point in doing a workshop with all of these beautiful things if you are not going to make it the best it can be, right?

These are some of the set ups that we ended up with.  You may be wondering what the little post it notes on some of the shelves are for.  When using fruit in a still life, I like to include one or two pieces of cut fruit, but I don't want to do that until the morning of the workshop, so we put a mini post it in the spot we want to use for the fruit slice as a reminder.  This way it's easy to just come in and cut the fruit and not have to think about where it belongs.

Two other things I should mention.  Lighting is very important.  In a workshop, there is rarely natural light for everyone, so we use spotlights with daylight bulbs.  We just hook them up at either side of the still life to create shadows and they work very well.  The other is how we actually make the set up.  We use milk crates to create height and then lay wooden shelves on top of them.  If you go to Home Depot, you can just tell them the size you want and they will cut them up right there.  We then stained them with Minwax Dark Walnut.  We clip the fabric to the presentation boards and then you are ready to start styling.

When people see me doing set ups, they will often ask how I know when it's right.  I wish I had an answer to that question, but unfortunately, I don't.  I do follow two basic rules.  The still life should be a triangle and should read from left to right.  But the rest is just having an eye for when it is right.  I take my time with the set ups and if there has to be a ten minute discussion of whether there should be one grape or two on the right side of the still life, that is what happens.  I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't rush in order to get it done quickly and if something doesn't look quite right, change it.  No need to have anything that drags down the set up.

It is also really helpful to consult books on the type of set ups you want to do.  We had Robert Johnson's book open while we were doing these to make sure they were along the line of what he would want to paint.

In addition to Robert's book,  David Leffel and Sherrie McGraw's books are a great source of inspiration for this type of still life set up, as well as any book on Chardin or the Dutch Masters.  I look at them all the time and they are so helpful.

The students were so happy with the set ups and thanked us for making them available, which was so nice.  I want people at a workshop to be happy and if they are paying for the class, they deserve the best you can give. ( Can you tell I recently had a crappy workshop??? :)

I always love a behind the scenes look, so I hope you enjoyed this one.  I'll have a separate post about the workshop itself.  It was amazing.  If you have any questions about setting up a still life or a workshop, leave me a comment.  I'm happy to try and help!

** I just want to make clear as per the rules that I was not comped in any way for anything in this post.  I paid for the workshop and helped out as a volunteer. The props and supplies that were used were purchased by us or were things we already owned.**

Taos Workshop - David Leffel's Opening Night Demonstration

As I said a few weeks ago, I'm not really painting at the moment, but I do have some workshop and travel related things I would like to write about until I'm back in the studio.

In the fall of 2014 I attended a workshop in Taos given by David Leffel, Sherrie McGraw, Jacqueline Kamin and Gregg Kreutz.  On the opening night of the workshop, 80 of us gathered to watch David Leffel do a portrait demo.  While he painted, David also spoke to us about his process and told us to use the demo as a vehicle to learn and to get an insight into his thinking.  I did my best to accomplish both of those tasks.  I have nineteen pages of notes and a bunch of photos from the beginning of the painting until the end.  It was really quite amazing.

*Just a note about the photos.  I was a seated off to the side and using the telephoto lens on my phone so they are not the greatest pics, but you can still follow along with the progression of the painting.

The man himself, David Leffel

The text below is right out of my notes from the lecture.

David began by talking to us a bit about how he approaches painting.  He talked about sculptural painting, seeing the world in terms of planes and masses rather than smooth and rendered.  You want to paint with paint, not draw with paint.

What you put on the canvas is what you are thinking.  When you look at a painting you are looking at what the artist was thinking.  In order to paint better, you have to understand what your brain is thinking about.  Then you can appreciate what your subject matter is.  Don't copy what you are looking at, if you do, you are not seeing dimension or form or understanding the medium.

You should get information from your painting.  Is the color good? Is the form okay? Look for form, dimensions and planes on the model, still life or landscape.  Don't paint a bunch of individual objects - let the light flow.  Think about what your mind is focusing on.  Get an idea about what you are painting.  Don't just match the colors you are seeing.

Make every brush stroke meaningful.  Careless brush strokes won't make a good painting.  Be aware and on top of what you're doing from the first brush stroke.

As you can see here, David starts with a toned canvas.  He told us he uses a mixture of Old Holland Olive Green and Burnt Umber.

To start the painting, he told us to first get a sense of the size and placement of what you are going for.   Be concerned with the filled space and the empty space, the light flows and the shadow stops.  You should start out very abstract, making the shadow hold the light.  See what is important about the whole composition rather than little pieces.

Our lovely model, Drea

Don't worry about proportion or drawing yet.  Don't measure or you will destroy your confidence - telling yourself you can't see.

Holding the brush and making brush strokes with your arm is the only real oil painting technique you need to know.

Painting is a problem solving discipline.

With a single source of light, the start of a painting creates a hard edge.

In sculptural painting, the light hits, turns away, becomes a soft edge, then becomes a shadow.  You want the viewer to look inside the form.  The highlight is the most compelling thing to look at.

Look for ways to describe movement of space - near to far or far to near.  Don't copy lines.  Look for something to describe the model ( or whatever you are painting).  In this painting, David used the model's hair to make the lines of her face.  He worked from side to side, not concentrating on any one area.  Things that are close are sharper, what you want to go back is vague.  Don't wait until the end of the painting to describe something.

Try to understand what you are painting from the first brushstroke.  Don't plan on fixing later.  You have to do a lot of paintings to do this.  Read fast and get it down.  Think like a painter.  Don't paint every little thing - paint the shapes.  In sculptural painting, it is important what you leave out.  Learn what to leave out rather than what to put in.  Good painting is an open ended dialog.  Do a lot of paintings to learn what to leave out.

You are not drawing an eyelid, you are drawing a plane.  You are always painting movement.  Life is movement.

The shadow holds the composition in place.  If the shadows are weak the painting will be weak.  Light is the melody of the painting.  Light moves, shadow is still.  That is their relationship.  They play off of each other.  Light against shadow.  The shadow has to be quiet so the light can move.  The strength of the shadow is the strength of the painting.  The light moves the eye in a chiaroscuro painting.  The old masters used rich, warm shadows and their paintings looked warm.  The impressionists used cool shadows so their paintings are cool.

White is the coolest and most opaque color - the opposite is depth.  Warm shadows have the depth of transparency.  Warm has a feeling of depth.

When painting, think more abstractly.  Don't be seduced on a personal level (painting an eye or a nose).  Everything in the painting is important.

Painting the background - part of painting the background is the color and value of it.  Everything you don't want to be seen is part of the background.  This will determine how dramatic the painting will be.  You are selecting what the painting will be.

You are not copying - you are in control of the painting.  You have to think about it.  You are responsible for your painting.  The more dramatic the foreground, the more dramatic the background can be.  The painting tells you what to do and what not to do.  Internalize rather than externalize.

Make crisp brushstrokes.  A brush stroke begins and ends.  You finish the brushstroke, you control how much paint comes off your brush.  You need to feel what is happening under the brush.  Your technique is all feeling.  Don't blend.  Just let the paint merge by making brush strokes.  Your whole arm has to be open.  What you are doing on your palette is as important as what you do on your painting.  You are always responsible.

Form goes across.  You will paint form or direction.  Light and movement are most important.

This was the end of the demo.  It lasted about 90 minutes and though I did leave out some of my notes, you can get a very good idea of David's teaching.  It was pretty amazing to be there for this presentation.  It is not often that you get to hear a master painter tell you their process, paint a demo, and answer questions from the audience all at the same time.

If you would like to learn more about David Leffel and the Artist Guild artists, check out their website here.  The site has all the info on David, Sherrie and Jackie as well as videos and books for sale.  I have David and Sherrie's books and they are wonderful learning tools, as well as beautiful art books.

Reading over my notes from the class brought back a lot of memories of the fun time we had as well as reinforcing these lessons in my mind.  I hope you enjoyed reading about it as well.

David A Leffel, The Mastery Of Light Retrospective Exhibition

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the opening reception of David Leffel's retrospective exhibition at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in Malibu.  It was a fantastic exhibition and it was great to see so many of David's paintings all in one place.

There were two rooms filled with portraits and still lives.  There was a great turnout and it was so fun to see everyone from The Artists Guild as well as workshop participants that I've met over the years.

As you can see, David has done many self portraits.  I have never attempted it and don't know if I would, but I always like to see how other people do it.

After taking a look at the paintings in the small room and catching up with some friends, I went into the large exhibition room.  This is where all my favorites were hanging.

This is a large portrait that David did years ago of Sherrie McGraw.  I was lucky enough to see this a few years ago during their Taos workshop and it is one of my favorite paintings ever.  I was so excited to see it again.

Do you recognize the couple in this painting?  It is John Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin!  John is an amazing singer and songwriter, but he is also a painter and took lessons from David Leffel.  When John and Elaine married, David was in attendance at the wedding and he was commissioned to paint this portrait of the couple. Sadly, they are now divorced and rumor has it that Mellencamp is dating Christie Brinkley.  Just to fill you in on the gossip :)

I love all of these still life paintings.  The light that travels across them is so beautiful.  A good reminder to myself that I need to pay more attention to that.

David signing books

-

A beautiful book was published for the exhibition and David spent almost the entire reception signing them.

Me with the man of the hour

Tim Newton and Jackie Kamin.  Tim is the chairman of the Salmagundi Club here in New York.  It was so fun to run into him at the show.

In the middle of all this, a crew was filming the reception!  They have been working on a documentary about David Leffel for the last three years.  The director told me that it should be finished up in a few months and then they will start submitting it to festivals.  I can't wait to see it.

Such a sweet story behind this painting.  I love the fact that he wanted to paint someone who had lived life.

Check out this close up.  The colors of the white vase are amazing.  So often we think a white vase has to be white, but adding in all the surrounding colors makes the vase look so rich and helps integrate it into the rest of the painting.

Tim Newton,  Jeremy Lipking and Gregg Kreutz.

My favorite pic of the night.  Such a sweet photo of David and Sherrie.

This was a fantastic exhibition.  If you are near Los Angeles or want to do a fun friends trip to LA for the weekend, you should definitely pay a visit to the show.  There were a bunch of us who got together with friends and made a fun weekend out of it.  I had never been to Malibu and it is absolutely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

The day after the show we did some sight seeing around Santa Monica.  A beautiful, fun place to hang out for the afternoon.  It was so fun to see the pier in person after seeing it several times in movies.  The perfect weather did not hurt either, especially since spring is only making sporadic appearances here in New York.

 

Hope you enjoyed this look at the exhibition.  I'm off to the studio now to try to finish up at least one of the three paintings I am working on.  Have a great rest of the weekend!