OPA - Oil Painters of America

Dedicated to the preservation of representational art

Rick Delanty

My 3 Essential Ingredients for a Plein Air Painting

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“Plein Air Painting has a language all its own.”  –Mark Kerckhoff Moment, Place, and Feeling “Capturing the moment” is certainly a worthwhile endeavor in plein air landscape painting—sometimes it seems almost impossible. Changing light, atmosphere, and weather, not to mention windy conditions, insects and onlookers make it a challenge to create that perfect masterpiece that...
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The Ideal Subject

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“Sketch everything, and keep your curiosity fresh.”   – John Singer Sargent “The more I paint, the more I like everything.”    – Jean-Michel Basquiat As do you, I love to paint. I love nature, the experience of being outdoors. And I love many of the things I see around me, from morning to night: the...
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Just Do It!

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‘Learn technique; have full command to the extent of not being conscious of how it is done. When craftsmanship has been developed, you are free to create… technique will give way to expression!” (Sergei Bongart) The doorway to defining your own artistic, expressive voice lies within yourself, and your own intuition. Intuition is “immediate understanding,”...
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“Confidence” Should be a Tube of Paint

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Real confidence only comes from study and practice.—Harley Brown As I’ve been preparing to paint lately, I’ve been thinking about how great it would be if “Confidence” were just a color I could squeeze out onto my palette. It would mix smoothly with all the other colors, and give each brushstroke the snap and spring...
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Painting is like Swimming: It’s easy when done right

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To float like a cloud, you have to go to the trouble of becoming one. -Robert Genn, Canadian painter “I’m in the zone!” “This painting practically painted itself!” “I found the sweet spot in this one!” “FINALLY—I didn’t over-work it!” In artists’ studios all across the English-speaking world, these thoughts are being expressed, either verbally...
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