Workshop10

Park Lane painting for Workshop 10. 11" by 14" oil on linen panel.

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Comment by Ningning Li on June 30, 2012 at 14:29: I forgot to ask Lorna, the nice lady who dornated her photo for us to play, in which season the photo was taken. I will go to ask her. Hope that I did not bother her too much.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 30, 2012 at 13:56: Deodanda and Li, thank you very much. I actually expected my reds and yellows to be a bit brighter, more like Li NingNings, but when the two warm colors of the three points of my triadic gamut mask were the yellow ochre and indian red ,I could not get very saturated yellows, oranges or reds, and when I added more white to brighten, it cooled and chalked out. So, as Nancy Sands said it really looked like a cool winter day. I did learn a lot, but I think next time I would use a more saturated red that is more toward the orange spectrum (like cadmium red light) or a more saturated yellow, again toward the orange such as cadmium yellow deep. So, Deodanda, I think you may be quite right about more push of the yellow ochre also. I was really trying to bring out the red in the rocks. And my fan below (Li) who says you are excellent and know a lot is very right; she also painted a terrific painting this time. Thanks a lot you two. Stu

Comment by Ningning Li on June 30, 2012 at 12:48: Stuart, Deodanda is exellent . She knows a lot. I like her critique of this work, everything she mentioned was true.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 27, 2012 at 14:04: Nancy, Li is fantastic and she is a bit like Vida Evenson; she just sucks up that art knowledge and knocks out a more stunning painting each time. I went in and looked at her painting magnified and for somebody who was stingy with paint in the last workshop, she has some juicy and buttery paint with nice brushstrokes in her light areas. I sent you a private message inquiring about why you never posted anything on Wet Canvas Live and whether you are doing Johannes courses and how they are going. James Gurney's book is the best art book I have bought in the last 5 years as far as painting technique goes. I qualify it only because I love the two David Curtis books I bought, but they are more about artistic style. Richard's "Mastering Color" DVD course is also quite good; I bought that about 2 years ago. I am happy to be back doing landscapes again. Stu

Comment by Nancy Sands on June 27, 2012 at 10:38: Hi Stu, Don't you just love Li? She has such a wonderful way of seeing all of us and is so thoughtful and generous with her insights. Your cool color choices really did lend themselves to that wintery mood. I keep trying to incorporate mood into my paintings, but, like you, have trouble pushing the right brain out of the way. It is easy to let the right brain take over in the beginning stages, but ole lefty worms it's way in and makes me work on those details that tighten up the paintings. Ugh!! I guess we will just have to keep on keeping on to work out those things we always want to change. Thanks for the suggestion of James. Gurney's book. I will try it out. Have a wonderful trip. You will love Montreal.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 27, 2012 at 8:08: Thanks Li. I am going out of town for 10 days this weekend on vacation to Canada (Montreal) and Vermont. I will be taking my pochade box and oil paints and painting outdoors. That definitely loosens up my style. If I do anything signigicantly looser or different than my usual, I will post it on this site. Stu

Comment by Ningning Li on June 27, 2012 at 7:20: Stuart, I read your comments about your work twice and thought about it. It is not easy to change style and is not necessary to change everything as you have a lot of good stuffs which you should keep them tightly. If you really want to try something new as you said, personally I think that first thing is force youself not treat the canvas as your patient whom you are going to operate on. Then you maybe able to get rid off those little brush strokes of dabby. Those small brush strokes I think created by too much sense of care and responsibiliy to avoid error which in medical operation means life or death. You mentioned about colour, I think that is much easier for you than those dabbys psychologically. Make decision what mood and atmosphere and weather you want us to feel then take time to choose the right colour. Maybe go farther than you should and then come back to the right degree as you tend to use very soft greydown colour. You know all these, I just remind you again. You are a wonderful realistic painter and can be better. It will be a fun to see your new approach next workshop.Li

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 26, 2012 at 19:11: Nancy, thank you. I did like the lesson and I do have a little trouble breaking out of my style which Richard calls a little too "dabby" and my rocks look a little wormy and a lot of my shapes are cloned. My left brain seems to take over at a point in the painting after a pretty good right brain start. I really wanted a little warmer feel, but with a grayed down red (Indian Red) and a grayed down yellow (Yellow Ochre Pale) that will not happen. So I did really learn something about the temperature of the painting that you can produce with the gamut mask. Quite some time ago, I took my cool yellow (Cadmium Yellow Light) off my palette entirely and left the warmer yellow (Cadmium Yellow Deep) on my palette for mixing just to warm up my plein air paintings; so I should understand very well what is needed to get warmth into the painting. You are very right; this has a very cool wintery desert feel to it. By the way, James Gurney's book "Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter" is really a terrific book and has a lot more information about gamut masks and use of color and light; I bought it about 3 months ago and refer to it frequently. Stu

Comment by Nancy Sands on June 26, 2012 at 16:40: Stu, you really do have a definite style to your work. I think in a gallery, I could pick your paintings out easily. The way you carved those rocks out with your brushwork gives them the rugged feel needed for this scene. Good job on the color harmony. It has a cool wintery desert feel. This was a terrific lesson from Richard, don't you think?

Comment by Ningning Li on June 24, 2012 at 3:08: Stuart, we are different flowers in the garden of art. Sorry, maybe this is not suitable for a gentleman. And you did a wonderful job , for me you deserve it. By the way, I saw so many different approach of this workshop. I am struggling about vote them or not. I voted a lot for the previous workshop. I have to learn control myself. But on the other hand, I really enjoy those works different from me. All the jobs have something special and beauty there and I can feel the painter's effort too. As for to be an art critic, I need to improve my English and knowledge of art first.