Everything I Know About Painting

I am reading a great book right now called "Alla Prima - Everything I Know About Painting" by Richard Schmid. I heard about it from my art teacher Ann, from Lavender Hill Studios in London who I had the opportunity to study with two days while floating down the Thames River this past August. I like to ask art teachers about their number one recommendation for me based on our time together and hers was that I read this book that I know should be on the bookshelf of any oil painter.

While reading the book, it dawned on me that it would be a great idea to chronicle what I know and learn....contemplating it helps me assimilate the wealth of information I've learn through teachers and self-study. So, I am going to start writing about some of the lessons I learn along the way.

The first lesson I would like to share (and keep hearing from fellow artists) is that the best way to learn and develop as a painter is getting paint on a canvas! It know it sounds simplistic, but it is true. As much as I study and read about painting, nothing replaces the ultimate lesson of the one-on-one session between you and your canvas. It reminds me of when I was in college and one night I was up at 3 am writing a short story for an English class. My Dad woke up and found me sitting at the kitchen table with writer's block - eyes propped open with a toothpicks - staring at a blank pad of paper with a stubby pencil in hand. He smiled, made some coffee, and sat down, gently advising me that the best way to write a masterpiece was to first get words on paper. He told me to double or triple space and to just start writing streams of thought: words, phrases and sentences - everything that came to mind. After regurgitating my thoughts on paper, he told me to cross out what I didn't want, move words and sentences to new locations and continue the process until it came together as a story. He also added that paper and pencils were cheap, so he went to his office and grabbed every tablet he owned, sharpened a bunch of pencils, and placed them on the table in front of me. I worked on that short story for the rest of the morning and handed in that day and was pleasantly surprised that I made an "A". I'll never forget Dad's lesson during the wee hours of that morning and my memory of it creeps in during my journey as a painter. He was basically teaching me that artistic expression is like sculpting. Using malleable resources and the courage to forge on, it's all a matter of getting medium on a surface and creating.

Of course, even when I do that, I do find that some tools work better than others, so it's not all highfalutin and advice from my Dad. I can sit in front of a canvas all day and move paint, but it does help to understand color theory, composition and methodology to create something visually appealing. So I've purchased many books on painting and painters and I will actually read the dozen or so I have before me in time. One of those is the Bargue figure drawing course, a 336 page complete reprint of a famous, late nineteenth century course that is tedious but necessary in my opinion. It is a series of drawings to copy from antiquity that aid in seeing the structure of the human body with clarity and intelligence. There are no numerical proportional charts, perspective boxes or geometrical schemata to memorize. The techniques are developed for the person in view and will help me capture the beauty of nature and light as I study the human body.

Here are the two oil sketches I started with Ann from Lavender Hill Studios while on our boat in England.

The candlestick, pear and apricot were laying around and while we didn't have the best lighting, Ann taught me how to work with what I had. I haven't finished it, but I don't think finishing was the intent. Ann discussed composition, color and approach rather than finishing and the resulting lesson I will carry with me forever.

The other one is a quick study of Rachel, one of the crew of our boat. We only had about an hour with her sitting at the dock in Windsor, so it also was not finished but an experience in studying human form, value and light.

So, today I am off to do double duty: get paint on canvas and then draw a bit from the Bargue course...it seems as though both streams of consciousness will work together on my journey as an artist. I'll write more about my lessons in the days and months to come. If you want to view my progress as an artist, visit my website at Amelia Island Artist. You can also view paintings as they develop on my Facebook Page.