Block Studies

Add a Comment

Comment by Dania Bree on November 28, 2011 at 16:20

Stuart,

I'm impressed you paint to relax.  I love to paint but sometimes it can be downright frustrating. HA !  I can certainly understand the attraction because it is a different venue from your work.  Being a Surgeon - thats pretty creative and skilled to !  Thanks for all the info about Wet Canvas, I've seen it before but never reviewed the site in depth.  Last winter I took and online class with Phil Starke out of Tucson, Arizona for about 4 months.  I learned a lot from him.  The artist that really influenced my pursuit of landscape painting was Paul Strisik.  I am fortunate to own one of his paintings.  There are so many artist to admire.  I also use DVD's to learn by as well.  I like being able to review them because you just can't take it all in at once.  I just posted another little still life.  Now I have to decide what I want to do next.  Oh, decisions, decisions !  What fun to find the next enticement ! 

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on November 28, 2011 at 14:51

Dania, I checked out Gregory Packard's site; WOW! is right; I can only aspire to that kind of clean, shimmering color.  I am not quite up to a painting a week yet.  I am a general surgeon and still working, but art has always been my relaxation.  I did these competitions on The Complete Artist as a lark and I have really enjoyed meeting all the other artists through the site and seeing their work.  The place where I am really learning a lot is at Wet Canvas Live with Johannes Vloothuis from Hamilton, Ontario.  Check out his site www.improvemypaintings.com; he is a fabulous teacher.  Some of the other artists on this site have also been taking his online courses:  Barbara Sawyer, Hazel Persson, Vida Evenson and Xiao Li just took his essentials of painting trees online course as did I.  He has an upcoming free course called "Essentials of Painting Water" coming up on 3 consecutive Saturday afternoons starting on December 3rd.  You will find a sign up on his website.  The course will be sold as a video download in several months by Northlight Books; his other prior courses are available also.  I have found that I learn faster from video material than from how to art books, magazines, workshops and courses.  As far as I am concerned, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a DVD is worth a thousand pictures.  Stu

Comment by Dania Bree on November 28, 2011 at 10:14

Hi Stuart,

I'm not a colorist either, but now that I have a better understanding of that philosophy I can sure recognize in other professional artist.  Trying to practice block studies can only enhance the journey.  Your are right about the discipline - trying to set aside time can be difficult.  I love Chris's paintings to.  She reminded me of Carol Marine before I knew she was a Daily Painter.  I will definitely check out Larry Seiler's site.  Another artist I like is Gregory Packard.  Talk about fresh color ! WOW!  I retired from GM a few years ago where I was an automotive illustrator.  I'm really enjoying being able to devote my energies toward improving my painting skills.  It is something I have always wanted to do since I was a little girl and my father took me to the Art Museum Museum to see an Impressionist show.  Your paintings are very nice.  When I first saw your painting of Chinaman's Bluff I thought it was a photo.  My goal is to try to do a painting or a study or an exercise a week - keep a momentum going of some sort.  It should be interesting.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on November 28, 2011 at 9:17

Dania, I am not a colorist--you can tell this from my paintings, but I am interested in the approaches of the colorists.  Camile Przewodek is as good as it gets from that school.  I have met her and she lives not that far from me and runs an art school focused on continuace of Henry Hensche's work.  I have her DVD also and plan to build myself a light box that I got the design for off of Larry Seiler's "Painting from Life" blog to try and do some block studies to improve my color competency.  I love what Chris Roughton is doing with her small studies and will try and do some of this also.  Larry Seiler is on Wet Canvas as well and has done a lot of this.  Richard has a bunch of exercises and some paper cutout blocks printed with a photo printer in his course, but I am pretty handy and made a bunch of blocks from scrap wood and painted them with acrylics.  The hard part is the discipline of sitting down and doing the paintings.  I am sure you are correct about the time it takes to see all those colors correctly.  I have been painting since childhood in the studio and 5 years now into outdoor painting I still struggle a fair amount.  Richard's course provides a lot of the academic and practical background needed to master color and is a very good video course.  Since I have never had a formal art education, I usually do best with some academic background that stimulates my brain a littel.   Stu

Comment by Dania Bree on November 28, 2011 at 5:01

Stuart,

Thanks so much for your comments.  Yes, I do think I'm going to look into the Mastering Color course.  This photo  is darker than the actual painting, but you can get the idea.  I've been reading about Henry Hensche and recently downloaded a DVD by Camile Przewodek called Painting Light.  Fascinating subject !  I think I need to work with these block setups for some time before I see some progress.  Hopefully they will help me with my landscapes.  These workshops are great opportunities.  Looking forward to seeing you in the next one.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on November 28, 2011 at 4:37

Dania, this is  very nice; I need to do these kind of studies.  If you have not looked at Richard's "Mastering Color" course, take a look.  It's an excellent course; I did not do all the homework (mistake) but got a lot out of the course.   You should be all set for the competitions when we move on to still lifes.  Stu