Robert Johnson Painting Workshop At The Art Guild

Due to some crazy life circumstances, I am way behind on posting, but I'm going to go ahead and put up everything I have wanted to post over the last year.

First up, the photos from Robert Johnson's painting workshop at The Art Guild.  I posted our prep for the workshop awhile ago, so here are some pics from the weekend.

Day one started out with Robert doing a demo for the group.  Everyone learned so much that he generously offered to come in an hour early the next two days to continue working on it.  Having a generous teacher who really wants to help the students learn is so important to having a successful workshop.

As you can see, Robert started the painting by blocking in the set up, then started adding color.

After the morning demo, we started on our paintings.  If you recall from my set up post, everyone had their own still life to work on, so we spent the afternoons on those.

This is the set up that I chose.  I did not get very far as I was helping at the workshop and I'm an incredibly slow painter, but since I have access to the props, I will finish it up someday.

Robert also brought a couple of his paintings in so we could see them and study his work.  I so wish I had the $$$ to buy these!  They are really incredible.  Here are a few close up shots.

I'm very lucky to own a few of Robert's drawings, so I brought them in to show everyone even though we were not doing any drawing in class.

Here is Robert with his beautiful demo.  We had such a great weekend.  I'm hoping to do it again some time.  If you are unable to take a workshop, but would like to see more of Robert Johnson's work, he has a beautiful book of his paintings as well as some dvd's available here.

Redoing A Painting

At least once a year I vow to stop going back to old paintings, but it never lasts.  Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't, but I'm happy to say my latest redo took my painting from "meh" to a piece I am really happy with.  

This is how the painting started out.  It was ok, but not great.  The set did not flow in a way that looked good to me.  Everything on the canvas seems to be on it's own instead of working together.  If you go from left to right, the apple and pear are together, then the bowl of fruit, then the vase.  You may be wondering why I did not change this up as I was working on the painting, but sometimes you don't realize that things are not working until you have the finished piece.  It's frustrating for sure, but that's how it goes.  Not everything you do will be great.  

The Art Guild was having a show called Red! and of course I was making myself nuts by setting up a very complicated still life that is going to take months to complete.  Luckily, a friend suggested doing something a bit easier and I realized that I had this canvas sitting around the studio.  I was happy with the vase so I left that alone, but everything else was repainted.  

I started out by changing the background from green to red.  Then I repainted all of the fruit.  I put another coat of red over the apples and pears, and then changed the green apples to red and added some grapes in front of the vase.  I also repainted the metal dish.  It was a little too rough for my liking, so I cleaned it up a bit.  Last, I repainted the wood shelf to make it integrate into the new painting.  

Red Vase With Fruit, 16x12, oil

This is the new painting.  I like it so much better.  I feel like everything is now flowing across the canvas in the way that it should be.

The painting was accepted into the Red show, and in a huge surprise, won first place!  

Don't be afraid to change something up if it is not working or you are unhappy with the finished product.  I'm already on to another redo!

Sherrie McGraw Demo At The Salmagundi Club

Last week I was lucky enough to see Sherrie McGraw do a portrait demo at the Salmagundi Club here in New York City.  I've seen Sherrie demo many times out in Taos, but it was great to have an event close to home.

It was a packed house and I was about half way back so the pics I was able to get are not great, but I know I have many Sherrie and David fans here, so I decided to post them as I thought you guys would like to see the demo.

The Art Renewal Center exhibition was also hanging, so it was great to see that.  I had seen many of the paintings online, but it is so different seeing them in person.

Tim Newton, Chairman of the Salmagundi Club, introduced Sherrie to the audience.

Sherrie told us a bit about what she was going to do, and then got to work.

The block in.

There were screens set up so everyone could see exactly what was happening.

On the model breaks we were able to check out the exhibit.  There were so many beautiful pieces hanging.

The model, Henry, during a break.  Such a great costume!

Here is the finished demo.  Sherrie is amazing.  This was done in less than two hours while answering questions.  It would have taken me that long just to do the block in.

I'm so glad I got to see this, especially as I am headed out to Taos to take a workshop with David, Sherrie and Jackie Kamin very soon.

Next up at the Club is the American Masters Show.  David and Sherrie, as well as many other great artists, have work in the show.  Check it out if you are in the area, but if not, I will have a post here soon.

Wallflowers At The Art Guild Of Port Washington

Just a quick note to let local readers know about a great show happening today at The Art Guild.  The reception for our big floral show, Wallflowers, is happening today from 3-5 pm.  I have two paintings in the show, and I'm thrilled to say that my Sunflowers won third prize!

Cherry Blossoms, 20x16, oil

Sunflowers, 20x16, oil

The Art Guild is located at 200 Port Washington Blvd, Manhasset ( LI ), New York.  Come join us if you are in the area.  New York City readers, the building is a ten minute cab ride from the Port Washington station.  Hope to see you there!

New Painting: Cherry Blossoms

I mentioned in a previous post that I finished a second painting since getting back to the studio.  I started these cherry blossoms last March before the big mishap, and the canvas has been sitting in my studio ever since.  My first thought was to just leave it and finish it up next spring when the cherry blossoms are out again, and I also considered buying faux blossoms and trying to finish the painting that way.  But I never use faux flowers for painting and I really didn't want to leave it sitting around for another eight months.

Because the buds were so delicate, I painted the background and the ginger jar first.  This background has many coats of paint and I knew I would not be able to paint around the blooms, so as I did with my pussy willows, I let the background completely dry and then began doing the flowers.  I got two sessions in with them before I had to stop painting.

Fast forward to two weeks ago.  I finished the hydrangeas and needed another floral painting for a show I wanted to enter.  Since I am the slowest painter alive, I knew I could not crank out another painting in two days ( my time before the deadline).  On a whim I put the painting on the easel and just started painting.  I figured the worst that could happen was I would have to wipe it out.  No guts, no glory and all that.

This is where I left it the first night.  The flower buds went right in, and I faked the ones on the wood shelf, and they went in fine as well.  I also finished up the wood shelf without a problem.  I did all that with no reference material whatsoever, so what was the problem?  The ginger jar!  The one thing that was sitting right in front of me was the hardest part of this painting.

The problem was that I decided the jar needed a few more coats of paint.  That took some time, but was not too terrible.  The main problem was that I like to have my porcelains completely dry before I put the pattern on, but in this case that was not going to happen.  Now, I could have left well enough alone and just painted the pattern on the canvas the first day, but I have to have everything just right and the perfectionist in me could never just go with "good enough".  So the next day, deadline day, I got back to it.  I painted one more coat onto the jar and then got started putting in the pattern.  It was not as difficult as I had thought it would be.  The main difference is that it is not so easy to correct a mistake on a wet canvas.  On a dry canvas you simply wipe it down and start over.  With this situation, I still made plenty of mistakes, but had to be very delicate in removing them, as well as adding the paint back to the jar from the wipe out.  I also redid the highlight about a thousand times.  I was having a tough time getting it to look exactly like I wanted it to.  It either looked like a blob of white, or it took over the whole top quarter of the ginger jar.

Finally it all worked and I got my show submission in at 9:30 pm.  Two and a half hours before the deadline!  There are reasons my hubs refers to me as 'Last Minute Frances'  :)

This is the finished painting and I'm happy to say, it was accepted into the show!  I've already started a new painting, and it's very nice to just be painting without worrying about a deadline.  I'll have show info up soon.

Mauritshuis Museum On Instagram Stories

The Mauritshuis houses an amazing collection of Dutch and Flemish art from the Golden Age.  I've not been lucky enough to visit the Netherlands yet, but you know it is on my list, and the Mauritshuis will be one of my first stops.  I am a huge fan of Dutch and Flemish art and have been very influenced by the Golden Age painters in my own work.

Until I can get there in person, I happily follow their Instagram account.  Recently, they had a great Insta Story showing the details of a beautiful painting, Forest Floor Still Life With Fruit And A Wicker Basket Of Flowers, by Abraham Mignon.

I have never saved photos from an Insta Story before, but I loved this painting so much that I took screen shots so I could study it further, and I thought you guys might like to see them as well.

This is really one of the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen.  It has everything.  Flowers, fruit, insects.  All of the things that make the Dutch paintings so amazing.  I've been studying these shots since they were posted and will continue to do so.

One of the amazing things about Instagram is being able to see art from around the world.  If you love Dutch and Flemish art as much as I do, give the Mauritshuis a follow.

Mauritshuis
The Hague, Netherlands