Hello from Iceland

[Þorgrímur Andri Einarsson]

Hello all. 

I am new to this network and I have to say i´m excited to see your works of art, be inspired and hopefully get some good advice. I am new to painting, so please go easy on me :)   Thanks to Richard for starting this whole thing. 

I am from Reykjavík in the south west part of Iceland. I have always been inspired by nature and never quite found an outlet for it, until I almost accidentally discovered painting. I havn´t stopped since. I am a beginner still and I hope to learn much here.

Hope to meet some good people here.

Best wishes 

Þorgrímur

[Mary Paloma Diesel]

Welcome. I haven't been able to do the workshops for a couple months because I've been substitute teaching! But I hope to return and paint in December. You will enjoy this -- sounds like you have a lot of enthusiasm, and that's what Richard's workshops generate in all of us. Good luck

[Þorgrímur Andri Einarsson]

Thank you Mary. 

I just took a look at your paintings. I do like them very much, especially Anvil, and also the one that seems to be from the first workshop.

Thanks for being in touch. 

[Nancy Sands]

I'm a little late, but welcome. I'm sure you will love this workshop and learn a great deal. Richard is a terrific teacher and artist. The members here are all encouraging and helpful. I once had a very sweet girl in my high school English class who was an exchange student from Iceland. It will be lovely seeing some of your work from there. Painting is like anything...the more you paint the better you get. So...happy painting.
Nancy Sands

[Gregg S. Geary]

For someone new to painting as well I am humbled by the talent you display. I think you have found your calling. I too enjoy nature and enjoy the challenge of representing in on canvas. You seem to have a gift for capturing the mood of a scene which I have not yet mastered. Congratulations and keep up the good work.

From your picture it looks like aviation is part of your regular work. Is that true. It is quite a switch from painting. As a college dean I find that painting is a wonderful escape from the political stresses of my regular workday and wondering if this is the same for you.  Whatever you do, keep painting!

Aloha,

Gregg

[Þorgrímur Andri Einarsson]

Hello Gregg.

Wow thank you so much for your very warm comments. I do apreciate them very much. It is always nice to meet fellow students of painting. I picked up the brush first in 2010, and I have not let go of it since. I think the trick is (if you want to get better) to paint paint paint paint :) And study the right material, which is why its good that you found this website early on. 

I can see why you would think I work in aviation, but on this photo I am just a passanger. But both my older brother and father are pilots, and I sometimes go with them on short tours. I work as a composer, and sometimes as a carpenter, and yes painting is such a good escape into my own little world. I would however like to work full time as a painter, and composer, and it is a dream of mine that that will come true one day :) We will see.

Thank you for getting in touch and I´m looking forward to see more work from you. 

Toggi

Gregg S. Geary said:

For someone new to painting as well I am humbled by the talent you display. I think you have found your calling. I too enjoy nature and enjoy the challenge of representing in on canvas. You seem to have a gift for capturing the mood of a scene which I have not yet mastered. Congratulations and keep up the good work.

From your picture it looks like aviation is part of your regular work. Is that true. It is quite a switch from painting. As a college dean I find that painting is a wonderful escape from the political stresses of my regular workday and wondering if this is the same for you.  Whatever you do, keep painting!

Aloha,

Gregg

[Gregg S. Geary]

Dear Toggi,

So interesting to learn that you are a composer. My professional degrees are in music (musicology to be specific). My background in music made me apprehensive about the "immersion" approach I was getting in my painting class.  I signed up for a college extension class on Saturdays and the teacher paints for one hour while telling us what he is doing and then we spend the rest of the morning painting our own painting. To me, that was like having someone play a Beethoven Sonata and turning to a novice and say "here, you try it now."  It seemed like too much to handle all parts like light, perspective, shade, tone, color value, hue, chroma, etc. etc. I wanted to do something akin to scales and exercises before trying to fill a canvas. So I end up every night reading about painting, working on perspective, watching art videos, and doing little studies (clouds are my favorite but I still don't get them right). It is a magnificent obsession, though. I look forward to learning more along with all the fine people on this site. I will be in Richard's Hawaii workshop in Sept. and hope I do not embarrass myself too badly.

It is wonderful meeting you and I look forward to getting to know you. We both live on volcanic islands so there another common thread to talk about. I would like to hear some of your music sometime as well.

Aloha,

Gregg

[Þorgrímur Andri Einarsson]

Dear Gregg

Hahh yes thats funny that we both have a background in music. So are you teaching music right ? 

About the imersion approach, I feel its a little different from music, because in painting its all visual. I find it extreemely helpful to see professional artists paint. Of course it will become much easier I think when you become more familliar with all the terms they are using.

But you are right about doing these little excersizes such as perspective. I am going to recommend you to check out an online course which in my opinion is the absolutely best online course out there. You will find it on http://www.virtualartacademy.com/. I have been following it now for a couple of months, and it is simply filled with the best knowledge and little excersizes (and big ones). Its a little pricy, but totally worth it. You dont have to buy the whole course in one go, you can split it up into two sections like  I did, or buy these little modules on a certain topic. I know that Richard has been doing this course too. 

I´m a little jelous that  you´ll be in richard´s workshop in Hawaii. Actually i´m a little jelous that you live there :) You can probably paint outside the whole year round !?

If you want to check out my music, feel free to go to my website and have a listen. I am rebuilding the website, but a lot of the music is up there already:    http://thorgrimur.com/

All the best for now

Toggi

[Gregg S. Geary]

Toggi,

Thanks for your reply. I am familiar with the virtualartacademy.com and am working my way through their program. The cost is a little high but everyone raves about it so I think I will stick with it. I hope to have more time to concentrate on it when my Saturday classes end in two weeks. I need to work methodically through the lessons. Richard has a similar program with his workshops and he has direct links to the virtualartacademy as well.  I have also signed up to take a course in watercolor through the Univ. extension program in the fall.

You should not be too jealous about me living in Hawaii. It is a little urban here in Honolulu and I prefer something more rural but then I would not have a job. Iceland looks beautiful. I do not teach music at the moment because the University has me serving as the Interim Dean of Libraries. I have three degrees in music and a second masters in Library Science so that is how I ended up in the Library. It is a large academic library (150 staff not counting student workers) so it gets pretty stressful and that is why painting is such a terrific escape.

I took a quick listen to some of your music tracks. I listene Breath of Spring, and love it. It is beautiful, atmospheric, and imaginative. I enjoy music that is creative in the modern sense and yet still accessible. I also listened to Superimposed Scales and like it too. It is quite transporting and a little other worldly. Well done.

Aloha,

Gregg

[Michele Paradiso]

Welcome Porgrimur,

I am new to this site also, and find the community so friendly and  helpful. I like your work, especially the seascapes. You seemed to have captured the mood very well, and your work certainly doesn't reflect that of a beginner.   Visiting Iceland is on my bucket list…the landscape seems mysterious, moody yet beautiful. Hope to make it there soon.  I enjoy looking at member's work and reading the comments. I learn so much this way.  I look forward to seeing more of your work.