Meeting notes, July 24, 2014

At todays meeting Loretta, Marty, Tim, Tedd, Barb, Erin, Susan K, Jodi, Bill, Kathy, Jeanie, Susan G, and me, Celeste.

Today's suggested table topic: big shapes and linking shapes.

Celeste: A workshop teacher once told me you must first bake the cake before adding the decorations. In other words, you must first put in the big shapes before adding detail. I brought in a book about big shapes on small surfaces. I brought in two paintings.

Tedd: I brought in two paintings. One was done with black and the (green) color was painted over it later. 

Barb: Recently I did a plein air painting that was so difficult. The clouds and sun were shifting and I wasn’t happy with my result. I won’t give up, however. I brought two paintings today, one a studio painting entitled: The King of the Mountain.

Erin: Recently I watched a  DVD by Ian Roberts... it is about composition. I also read a book by Kevin McPherson. What I learned...our world is mostly horizontal to us...but we need to think about verticals in our paintings to hold the viewer in the picture.

I brought in some watercolor paintings.

Susan: I painted in the lavender festival. During that time I painted this painting, painted at a Rose farm. The owner came out to speak to me, because he was concerned that they had “just sprayed” (This meant chemicals, but that didn’t dissuade me).

As we talk about things like big shapes we should also think about rhythm. One of my teachers was premier artist, Albert Handel. He wrote a book called Intuitive Composition.  With a clear understanding of the fundamentals of art we must also trust our intuition. Oftentimes, you will know what the picture “needs”...and this is not necessarily something that can be described with words.

JodI: I am listening today!

Jeanie: I did this painting, a cloud painting, in my studio.

I am looking forward to painting outdoors.

Anna: You go out into nature and zoom in on something that you really like...but then you can get enamored with absolutely everything else out there and forget what it was that drew you to the place in the first place. It's a problem. 

Amiee Erickson had us do abstract thumbnails and designs in her class. She stressed that we must know about how our lights and dark would work before setting brush to canvas. Photos are great...but viewfinders –I'm thinking that that’s the ideal tool to use to design your painting. I brought three paintings. The St. John's bridge painting is slightly different than last time you saw it.

Susan: I brought in a Plein Air magazine.  It has an article in it about an artist named Glenn Dean. He works on 6 x 8. He captures grand scale and size in a small space. I have been taking Anton Pavlenko’s class. He thinks about things like zones of color temperature instead of about objects. This has been insightful for me. I brought in a pastel of a golf course.

Kathy Johnson (new). I have taken classes with Craig Srebnik. He is all about big shapes and connecting the shapes! He likes darks to form a strong abstract shape (to benefit the painting).  This is a painting that I painted during his classes. (Welcome, Kathy!)

Bill:  I painted with the Tuesday plein air painters. I painted in the St. John's Park. Here is my painting of the bridge. I also recently went to the Oregon Country Fair. I painted this a scene of a tent and “imagined” the people under it. Sometimes it is best to paint what is before you.... just “paint where you are”!

Tim: No painting to show today...I am moving so I brought in an assortment of art books that I am giving away. (Thanks, Tim!)

Marty: I take a lot of photos while I think through how I'm going to paint the painting. I take these photos to determine value relationships and also about how the shapes and in particular how the big shapes should work. I recently went to a talk by Michael Harding. I got to get some new paints and I did a 2nd rose painting. I was interested in how this Rose painting would compare to my last rose painting. The newest painting should be more luminous than the last rose painting (because of the Harding paint).  What do you think?

Loretta. I have nothing to add to the discussion. I have moved and I will be back to painting soon.

Announcements:

Ted Chilless has a solo show with a reception First Thursday at the US Bank in the Pearl. He has a new project about portraits in the works.

Erin Cadera is going to be at the street fair in the Pearl on 13th St. on first Thursday. She wants to know if she can come hang with you while you paint outdoors sometimes..(to “shadow” you). Also, she has a really big easel that she is willing to loan to someone. (Just a loan until she moves studios). Let her know if you are interested.

Thomas Kitts Lecture: Hood River, Columbia Art Gallery Friday 7pm.

Thank you all for bringing in your ideas and paintings.

Next meeting: July 31, topic:  What does an artist do to excel and succeed in today’s competitive market?

Return to the front page here:  http://allaprimaportland.blogspot.com/