Oil Painting

When someone tells me, “I just love your colors,” I, of course, appreciate the compliment, but I think the real key lies in getting accurate value relationships.

The artists’ cliché, “Value does the work, but color gets the credit!”, is absolutely true.

It’s like being a lineman in football; the big guys upfront slug it out to create space for the running back to dance through. The RB gets the girl, the glory, and the endorsements. The lineman gets ice packs and the whirlpool!

Value is not only the key to successful color choices, but it is also the key to design. Composition, or design, is, at its heart, the distribution of three or four large, interesting, value masses on the picture plane. (What makes those shapes interesting? According to Master Artist Quang Ho, they are unique and specific.) Noted instructor, David Leffel, has said, “a painting composed of a number of small value shapes will appear small and petty.“

There are two problems:

1. Seeing the correct value relationships
2. Painting them

So, what are the solutions?

Chunking

Bryan Mark Taylor in his instructional video, The Master’s Mind, talks about chunking as the most efficient way to master a new skill. He describes a process of isolating and rehearsing one “chunk” of information until it is mastered, rather than trying to do everything at once. (BTW the video is well worth the price; click here to find out more.) Musicians do this routinely – I’m working on improving my guitar playing, so I practice scales in five positions up and down the fretboard. Using a metronome, I gradually increase the speed.

The traditional way to develop a good understanding of value was to draw from the plaster cast, trying to render the light and shadow in five values. Drawing in graphite or charcoal takes color out of the equation. That’s how Bouguereau, Sargent, Sorolla, and Zorn all learned! When I studied at the American Academy in Chicago, my instructor, Ted Smuskiewicz, had me make my first paintings using only mixtures of white and black paint. I wasn’t making finished pieces; I was learning to see the relative values! It’s interesting to note that Jeremy Mann actually sells his stunning large monochromatic cityscapes which he gives titles like “Composition 172”. You can see his work here.

Quick Fixes

For those of you who want some “quickfix tools” here are four ways to help you see the value structure in any subject:

Squint – (and compare). At the American Academy I was told to squintâ¦oh, about 10,000 times! Squinting simplifies the world into five or six values.

Use a red acetate film – It takes the color out and again lets us see the value masses.

Use Notanizer– This is available in the app store; it reduces any scene to black & white (a “notan” – the Japanese word for “light and dark.” A notan is two values. You can also set the app for three or four values). The app costs a couple of bucks but has saved many a painting!

Use Photoshop – You can go to “image – adjust – hue and saturation” to de-saturate the image. Then go to “filters – artistic – cutout” to reduce the image to 3, 4, 5, or 6 values (Adobe calls them “levels”) It does the same thing as Notanizer.

How to paint them

The good news is that the hard work of seeing the value structure is done. The bad news? We still have to execute. Here are a few “hacks” that might help:

Grisaille (pronounced like Versailles) – This is an indirect painting method developed during the Renaissance. The artist first makes a complete under-painting in 4 or 5 values of grey. After the grisaille dries, the artist glazes transparent layers of color on top of it, finally arriving at the full color painting. (You have to allow each layer to dry before applying the next). Time consuming, but artists like Bouguereau and Ingres created stunning masterworks using this technique.

Monochromatic block in – Richard Schmid and others sometimes use a single color (raw umber, or transparent oxide brown, for example) to create an underpainting. By wiping out the light areas with a rag and deepening the darker areas with more paint, one can arrive at a very believable full value representation. The artist then paints into that underpainting with opaque paint, working “wet into wet.” Hint: you need to do this on oil-primed linen or canvasâ¦an acrylic primed support can’t be wiped all the way back to white! This technique is much faster than using a grisaille.

Paint big value masses – Think of areas as opposed to things. For example, the shadow on a figure might bleed into the shadow on the wall behind the figure. Zhaoming Wu (a master who teaches at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco) calls this a “unified shadow shape.”

Make “puddles” – When I paint a portrait I mix a single “puddle” for all the colors that I see in the flesh in the light. Part of that puddle might be redder, part greener, part more violet etc. but the values are tight, meaning there are no unintended value jumps when the hue changes. The key is, there is no space between the colors in the puddle.

Check your work – Notanizer, Photoshop, or even your red acetate film come in handy to make sure that you did what you intended.

Happy painting!

Square is Rare. Reviewing paintings that were exhibited in the 2024 OPA National, Eastern, Western, and National Salon shows reveals that not many were in a square format (13.5 % or 80 squares out of 592 total paintings). If you are a representational painter and have little experience with a square format, I encourage you to read on. Being an unfamiliar format, it may require rethinking and adjusting your design ideas, especially center-of-interest (COI), balance, and placement of primary, secondary, and tertiary shapes within your composition. Other painting tools such as values, drawing, color, edgework, paint-application, harmony, and the like apply as they do in rectangle format paintings.

Three Benefits of Daring to Paint Square.

1. Experimentation can lead to new learning and growth. Why venture into a new format that you may have little or no experience with? For me, experimenting is an important way to grow as an artist. When I intentionally try new methods, I may initially fail but stretching my abilities helps me become a better painter. I am a novice in painting square. However, recent attempts of daring to paint square have helped me strengthen my design choices in all my paintings, whether they are horizontal, vertical, or square.

The square format challenges me to think how to best arrange and prioritize shapes throughout the canvas to convincingly tell the visual story I want to convey. Since there is no favored side (all four outer edges are equal), there is no natural area-skew that rectangular canvases offer. I pay more attention to balance, COI, and shape placements. I identify upfront tradeoffs as to where I want the viewer’s eye to move and where is the best location and way to present the COI. These are things I do with rectangular paintings. However, the square format is new and different. It reminds me of the importance of these design choices.

2. Another reason to consider experimenting with squares is that it can help set you apart from the pack. Based on the 2024 OPA shows, over 85% of exhibited paintings were horizontal or vertical rectangles.

3. A final, albeit less important reason to consider a square format is that social media platforms, such as Instagram, are shown primarily in a square format. If you paint square, your social media image is purely presented (not cropped).

In this article, I will discuss square canvases painted by Piet Mondrian, two personal paintings of mine, and one painted by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida. I will analyze the paintings by Mondrian and Sorolla and explain compositional choices I made to enhance and draw you into the squareness of my paintings. I will conclude with five specific tips.

Piet Mondrian Went Square Early On.

Let’s look at an abstract square painting that was created by Piet Mondrian in 1929 titled, Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black.

In my opinion, design is one of the most important skills in our painting toolkit. Mondrian’s Composition No. III design has unequal and therefore unbalanced shape choices, yet, when placed together there is dynamic and varied interest, balance, and symmetry. Specifically, the intersecting narrow black horizontal and vertical shapes that go from edge to edge are off center and meet to the left and below the center of the square (creating unequal quadrants and tension). The smaller yellow, black, and blue rectangular color shapes on the lower right side of the painting help counterbalance the larger red shape in the upper left.

These fundamental design choices of Piet Mondrian’s abstract square painting format work in an elemental way. They provided me with clues on how to think about painting in a square format for my representational/impressionistic paintings. Let’s discuss the first example.

Haymakers by Mark Daly (oil, 20” x 20”, 2024). I recently painted this in a square format because it was going to be used as the cover of a new song that I wrote called Time To Make Hay (more information on my music website: www.MandoMusic.com). The rural scene was based on plein air painting trips to Shipshewana, Indiana, and supports the song’s lyrics. A square painting naturally fit the square format needed for the song’s packaging. What I did not realize is that I was going to embark on a journey of painting design growth.

The round wheels and gently sloping hillside in Haymakers soften the tension of the square format. As you can see, the horses and figure (the haymakers) are the COI. In front of the horses, there’s a soft-edged path that leads from middle-right to the upper-left. The addition of the small white building (secondary shape) above the haymaker’s head at the end of the trail was an addition I made to take advantage of the square format. It helps move the eye through the composition. The flatter, light-value sky shape was chosen as a rest area and because it reinforced the lyrics, “Going where the sun is going to shine…dark clouds have left and moved away”. By design, the sky is lighter and warmer on the upper right corner. This helps counterbalance the figure’s light valued shirt located toward the opposite corner. Each shape choice works within the square format and plays a prioritized role that supports the painting’s idea.

Rain Along The Avenue by Mark Daly (oil, 30” x 30”, 2024). After painting Haymakers, I wanted to try more squares. Rain Along The Avenue’s square format is a made-up scene of New York City. Having painted many city scenes with flags and figures, this was an opportunity to experiment with an unincumbered design within a square format. There were no photo references, only the memory and experience of many previous attempts of painting similar motifs, all in a rectangular format.

I sketched, prioritized, and chose various design choices and elements before applying paint. For example, the V shape formed by the receding thirteen flags along both sides of the street and the reflected narrowing angular shaped light from the sky help add perspective and create downward movement towards the COI (figures). Like the Mondrian abstract painting’s black intersecting lines, the flags and bright sky are intentionally placed off center. The yellow cab on the lower left and the small flag above it (blowing in a different direction from the other flags) provide counterbalancing visual interest to the large flags on the right side and the figures below them.

Other less obvious design choices that break up the equilibrium of the square canvas are the use of round shapes and lost edges (umbrellas, curved figures, and broken edges from the clouds in the sky and the upper areas of the distant buildings). I chose rectangular windows (intentionally not square) to add visual interest and variety to the square format. There are prioritized primary, secondary, and tertiary shapes placed throughout the composition. Judgmentally, these specific square format design choices made the painting’s story more convincing and engaging.

One way to check the power of a good square painting design is to rotate it 90 degrees, view it on each of its four sides and see how the visual elements hold up (or not).

Strolling Along The Seashore by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (oil, 205cm x 200cm, 1909, Sorolla Museum, Madrid). While not a perfect square, it is very close. Sorolla took full advantage of prioritizing and placing appropriate shapes on a square format in this painting. I don’t think it would be as engaging or interesting if he painted it in a typical rectangular format.

Strolling Along The Seashore is a good example of how to leverage a square format to make a better painting. Compositionally, Sorolla uses the two figures (his wife Clotilde and daughter Maria) in a counter balancing way. The figures dominate the painting. They lean forward (toward the right side of the canvas). This creates diagonals and adds movement and life to the composition. The large parasol held in Clotilde’s left hand counterbalances Maria’s hat held in her right hand. Maria’s directly viewed face counterbalances Clotilde’s veiled face.

Sorolla effectively used round shapes that offset the square format. For example, the curved transition from the large ochre colored sand shape in the painting into the water above it breaks up the equidistance of the four outer edges of the canvas. The curved parasol on the lower left side of Clotilde provides a point of entry. Its angular parasol shaft points to Clotilde’s hand. The round shaped hats (one worn, the other held) add beauty, bring visual variety, and help communicate Sorolla’s story of two elegant women walking on the beach.

The Dare to Paint Square Challenge: Five Suggested Steps to Becoming a Better Square Painter. The main idea of this article is not to have you become a square painter, rather it’s to challenge you to continue to experiment with your design choices and to seek new ways to paint so that you can improve your painting abilities in whatever format you choose.

When considering a canvas choice, the outer four edges make up an important design decision. A square format, while not traditional, does provide certain advantages. But the design choices must work within those advantages (and disadvantages). The square format has natural tension. It is less familiar. That does not mean it should be ignored.

In conclusion, here are five suggestions to help you paint in a square format:

1. Find examples of square paintings that inspire you. Study them. Learn what makes them tick. Borrow ideas that you can incorporate into your own visual stories in a square format.
2. For your paintings, choose designs that will leverage all areas of the canvas. Still life paintings are naturals for a square format (you can easily choose and set up the composition to leverage the square shape). Prioritize your shape sizes and placements to convincingly tell your story. Choose your COI carefully and consider balance and counterbalance within a square format. Map out eye movement throughout the square.
3. Draw your design options in a sketchbook or pad before painting. See how the different, prioritized shapes enhance a square format, interrelate with each other, and support the overall purpose and story of the painting you want to share with others.
4. Try at least five squares before you give up.
5. Write down what you learn with each attempt. Apply learnings to future paintings (square and rectangular).

This article was written by long-serving Board member and Master Signature artist James Bruce Jr., (January 1938 – December 2020). It is reprinted from our archives and outlines the methods and criteria the OPA jury uses to select paintings for the National Juried Exhibition. We hope it helps you select your best work to enter into this year’s show. See you in Bradenton! 

The deadline I’m referring to is the last date to enter OPA’s competition, 34th National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils to be hosted by The Art Center Manatee County in Bradenton, Florida. The focus in the jurying process will be to select paintings which show the highest quality in draftsmanship, color and composition, emphasizing a diversity in representational style and subject matter. Entries must be received no later than Saturday, March 1, 2025.

Each year OPA receives approximately 1,900 entries and jurors must carefully choose approximately 200 paintings to be included in the exhibition. As always, the goal is to assemble the finest display of representational oil paintings.

This annual national competition is one of the most important endeavors of the OPA mission to promote representational painting. Awards for this annual competition total approximately $100,000, including a $25,000 Best in Show, so there is good reason to enter. That said, every artist entering should understand the jurying process and what criteria is used to determine the paintings that are included in the competition.

OPA selects a jurying committee comprised of 5 OPA members. Three are Signature members of OPA and two are Master Signature members. The make-up of the committee is different for each exhibition and jurors do not know who else is jurying with them. The Jurying Chair always attempts to get jurors that represent a variety of painting styles and that are located in different parts of the country. Jurors are asked to use the criteria below in making their selections.

• Is there a dominant value?
• Is there a dominant harmony?
• Is there a clear center of interest?
• Is there balance?
• Do the shapes and lines lead the eyes to focal points within the picture plane?
• Is the drawing accurate?
• Are the value relationships convincing?
• Are the color temperature relationships consistent and believable?
• Is there an appropriate variety of hard and soft edges?
• Is the paint application varied and interesting?

III. Expression/Idea:
Does the painting’s intent or execution demonstrate a unique, compelling or worthwhile idea?

There are two rounds of jurying. For the first round, jurors are asked to evaluate each painting and assign it a “yes” or “no” vote. Yes means that the juror believes that the painting meets some or all of the criteria and warrants a second, more critical evaluation.

The second round is usually comprised of approximately 600 – 700 paintings. In this round, jurors are asked to vote using a scale of 1 to 7. It is important that jurors are consistent and use the following scoring system when making their selections.

• One represents a painting that is weak in all or almost all of the above.
• Two represents a painting that is weak in most areas.
• Three represents a painting that may be competent in a few areas but, overall, is aweak painting.
• Four represents a painting that displays knowledge of the fundamentals but overallis mediocre.
• Five represents a painting that is competently handled in most areas.
• Six represents a painting that is skillfully executed in almost all areas.
• Seven represents a painting that is outstanding and is skillfully executed in virtually every area. These are the top 1-3% of entries for this show.

 Summary:

• Very Weak
• Weak
• Some Competence
• Average
• Competent (top 15 – 25% of entries)
• Excellent (top 10% of entries)
• Outstanding (top 1– 3% of entries)

After the jurors have completed voting, the scores are tabulated and artists receiving the most points will be accepted into the exhibition. Only one (1) painting may be accepted.

Again, the last date for you to enter is Saturday, March 1, 2025. I hope that you will enter the annual competition. Your painting cannot be selected if you don’t enter, so do so starting November 1, 2024, and use the criteria that the jurors will use to select your entry. Present your very best painting. Follow the entry rules and use the criteria the jurors will be using to judge your painting against the best paintings entered into the competition. And best wishes to each member of OPA. The competition is stiff but it is worth the effort to participate by submitting your entries before the deadline!

Respectfully,

James Bruce Jr. OPAM

In Memoriam
(January 17, 1938 – December 25, 2020)

James W Bruce Jr. began pursuing art at age 14. He was a Master Signature member of Oil Painters of America and believed that art competitions organized by OPA provide wonderful opportunities to learn and grow. In September 2016, Bruce and Scott Christensen had a two-person exhibition in the Patrons’ Gallery at the Salmagundi Club in New York City. In addition to his love of painting, Bruce pursued a significant career in banking. After retiring from Banks of Mid-America, the largest banking company in Oklahoma, he acquired controlling interest in American Bank Systems. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of American Bank and Trust Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma and InvesTrust of Oklahoma City. He served on boards of the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University, Canterbury Voices, and Oklahoma Arts Institute. In 2006, Governor Brad Henry awarded him one of the prestigious Governor’s Arts Award. A retrospective of 25 of his paintings was held in the Governor’s Gallery at the State Capitol in recognition of this award. James tirelessly gave his time and expertise to Oil Painters of America, serving on the Board for over ten years.