Oil Painting

OPA Signature Member, Art Gallery Painter, Award-Winning Artist, Sr. Illustrator in Animation and Gaming field, born in Guangzhou, China. Received his BFA degree from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art one of the most prestigious fine arts schools in China, has lived in the United States since 1996. 

I have loved painting since childhood, and I wanted to be a professional painter when I was a teenager. My youth was the decade of China’s Cultural Revolution. There were no art teachers, and no art teaching books. I had to explore painting by myself and find some art loving students to draw and paint together. After graduating from high school, I was forced to work in rural areas immediately. I worked and painted in the countryside for two years.

After the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, I returned to Guangzhou to study art and work. In 1984, I was admitted to Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and then received four years of formal art education. After graduation, I stayed as a teaching assistant. Two years later, I moved to Australia and soon worked in Walt Disney TV animation studios in Sydney, responsible for the animation background production painting. Ten years later, by chance, I was recruited by Fox Animation Studios in the United States, so my family came to the United States to work and live for more than 20 years.

In the United States, in addition to working for animation film and television production studios and game production companies, I also spent a lot of time and energy continuing my oil painting. I participated in oil painting exhibitions of different fine art associations almost every year, especially those of the Oil Painters of America. In 2017, I was honored to become a Signature Member of the Oil Painters American association.

After decades of art career, I have been very clear about my own pursuit of fine art. Photo realism is definitely not my pursuit. What I like is a style similar to Impressionism, pursuing the great feeling of shape, color and stroke. I may even be influenced by some film and television animation art. Of course, my personal oil painting style also affects my painting process in film/TV animation and games, but I don’t know what kind of painting style I belong to. Let it go. I like outdoor landscape painting, but I prefer to figure paint at my studio. People on the beach, Western figures (cowboys, Native American Indians, horses) painting and ballet dancers are all my favorite painting themes. In each of my paintings, I pursue an outward expansion or inward contraction force and sense of movement, and use a variety of changeable composition and modeling. I use color and brush knife touch to achieve this effect.

For decades, I have always regarded oil painting as my other half and second career, which allows me to paint whatever I want without disturbing my basic living expenses. Although my first career is painting for movies, TV and games, I also enjoy the fun. In short, for me, painting is not only my work, but also my life hobby. Both are unified.

As artists, we always desire that our work stands out. One of the key ingredients in a painting is mark making, your individual way of applying the paint.  So why not help that process of unique mark making along and actually make a tool to use that no one else in the world will have? I have found that mini relief printing blocks (or I guess you could call them original rubber stamps) are a great help.

There are many repetitive patterns I have found myself painting, sometimes occurring on fabric or sometimes I just want the repetition to create a unified image. As I have worked on those pieces, I’ve pondered different ways to create those repeating shapes since my freehand painting leaves something to be desired in the area of accuracy and painting small shapes over and over can get tedious.  I tried stencils cut from card stock and thin cardboard but they didn’t hold up very long or clean up very well when using oil paint.

In college, and off and on through the years, I have enjoyed various types of printmaking, including linoleum block printing, which I finally decided to incorporate in a small way into my oil paintings. For a long time, I have used a chop (a small carved seal or impressed design) along with my signature on paintings, so it wasn’t much of a leap to add other impressed marks. When the painting idea calls for it I carve designs out of eraser-like soft blocks which cut almost like butter. From 1/4” to 3/8” thick, they come up to one-foot square and are available at online art suppliers. Linoleum cutting tools work well, although I usually just use an X-Acto knife. 

I can have an idea and literally in 20 minutes I can be holding the finished block, ready to use. The carved look of the stamp is also to my liking. Seeing the strokes of the carving tool is a little like seeing the strokes of paint; I enjoy having the process visible. *IMPORTANT TIP: if your design needs to face a certain way or it incorporates letters or numbers, draw it on tracing paper, flip it over and draw over it to transfer the pencil design to the carving block so you can carve it in reverse. I have learned this step the hard way! 

When I painted Round and Round, the model was wearing a coat from Uzbekistan with traditional embroidered designs. I had previously done a painting of a woman in the same coat and rendered it in a realistic way, so I decided to try doing it more abstractly this time and I thought the graphic designs on the coat would be a nice contrast with the realistically painted face. 

After selecting the spiral motifs and the small flowers to highlight, I carved the blocks. The spiral block ended up being 1 1/2” x 3”. Black oil paint was rolled onto my glass palette with a brayer (small roller used in printmaking) and the stamps pressed into the black. You could roll the paint directly on the stamp or apply it with a paint brush, just try to get an even coat. Then press it to the canvas. Press it again for a lighter mark or drag it like a brush. The large flower shapes I drew with a paint brush. The nice thing about stamps is that they can apply paint or if they are clean, they can lift it off, which I did on the right side where I had painted in the wet black background. I find it pleasing having the negative and positive of the same shape in an image.  I also pressed on one spiral in white above the black area. A day or two later, feeling that the black spirals were too dark, I lightly scumbled white paint over them.

Print in several colors, pick up, layer, smear – there are lots of possibilities. 

When you “ink” (with oil paint) the stamp and print into wet oil paint, like I did with Cowboy Star, you never know just how it will mix. That’s part of the fun of it. The stamp may lift off some paint already on the canvas while leaving some new color behind. I also painted just the edges on some of the stars to make an imprint of the outline.

The interesting silhouettes of miniature relief blocks are also helpful in creating texture on a background. There is a horse above the cowboy’s shoulder on the right and three chicken outlines in the left lower corner. No one else may have noticed those shapes in the background clutter, but I know they are there and it kept me entertained while I was doing it.

The big Anna’s Eighty-Eight butterfly stamp was used similarly in four colors to create background texture in Waiting for Little Brother. Some of them are only partial butterflies, just use what you want of it, like using the large flat side of a brush or the thin edge. The flower used in Daffodil was made for a different painting, one that didn’t work out, but then it was perfect to add a bit of structure to her dress.

The butterflies in Jackrabbit Nibbling have been used in several paintings, in different arrangements and numbers.

Once you have amassed a collection of your original stamping tools (and the scraps in weird shapes that are leftover), you can use them over and over just like your favorite brush, palette knife, squeegee, or paint scraper.  As you work on a new painting you may realize that you already have a little extra something in your bag of tricks to give it the perfect unique touch.

With its rich cultural heritage and awe-inspiring landscapes, Scotland has emerged as a top destination for artists seeking inspiration and growth through their travel. Artists coming to paint in Scotland find plenty to enjoy as they tap into the allure of this enchanting land and its culture. This prompted the renowned organization, Workshops In France, to leap across the English Channel and curate immersive painting workshops and art retreats, such as the Majestic Scotland Art Retreat, in the land of myth and legend. It’s an annual occurrence and each summer their team travels to Scotland to host these events. 

Why Oil Painters of America Artists are Choosing Scotland

This will be Workshops in France’s 3rd year of sponsoring an award at the Oil Painters of America National Conference. The prestigious Bronze Award, provided by the organization, aims to make international travel more accessible for artists. The OPA bestows the award upon the artist whose work they select for this special recognition and they generously include additional cash as financial support, ensuring that the winning artist can attend a top-notch workshop or art retreat without breaking the bank.

Even before the award sponsorship came into being, the connection between Oil Painters of America artists and Scotland was growing. OPA Masters and award winners Daniel Gerhartz and Quang Ho (with Adrienne Stein) have previously led workshops in this impressive land.   

Kami Mendlik received the bronze award for her piece, Devotions, in Steamboat, Colorado at the 2022 conference. Her landscape was a standout at the conference, a painting with lily pads floating on a serene pond. After much deliberation, Kami selected to attend the Majestic Scotland Art Retreat with her partner, in July 2024. As fate would have it, last year’s prize winner chose the same art retreat. In 2023, Scott Burdick was awarded the bronze award for his piece The Hope of Freedom. Scott had accompanied Susan Lyon to Provence when she taught with Workshops in France in 2022. Once they considered their options Scott decided on Scotland and signed up for Majestic Scotland Art Retreat. The gathering at this summer’s retreat now boasts a built-in master class of seasoned painters.

Nationally recognized, Rose Frantzen is also set to teach a workshop at the same grand manor house in Scotland’s Angus region with Workshops in France later this year in July, further cementing Scotland’s status as a preferred destination for artistic exploration.

Majestic Scotland Art Retreat: Where Inspiration Takes Flight

Majestic Scotland Art Retreat, is a standout offering from Workshops in France and draws its name from the awe-inspiring destinations where the artists venture out to paint some truly majestic sights. Some locations such as Glamis Castle are still connected to the royal family. Other sites belonged to rulers of the past; the ancient Dunnottar Castle overlooking the North Sea provides a backdrop of breathtaking beauty. Watching the sea birds swoop around the castle ruins while a lone bagpiper plays a lament nearby, makes the perfect place for artists to engage all their senses as they paint. 

Scots are fiercely proud of their heritage from their ancient Celtic roots to hosting the largest cultural event in Europe, the Edinburgh Festival. Scottish culture includes appreciation and encouragement for all things art. When asked why artists are choosing Scotland to pursue artistic goals, some might say that Workshops in France is biased since two of its organizers, Julie Snyder and Shirley Hambrick, were born there and take every opportunity to return to their homeland. This is good news for their fellow travelers as they understand Scottish accents that can leave most foreigners baffled. 

Historical Artistic Heritage 

One genuine group of painters was the “Glasgow Boys,” a collective of 19th-century painters who revolted against classical painting and left an enduring impact both at home and abroad, adding to Scotland’s prominence in the art world. Inspired by the French Impressionists and painters who popularized the pursuit of plein-air painting, their work centered on portraying everyday life from their own experience. 

The Glasgow Boys were seen as rebels by the academics of their time as their paintings captured the real life of everyday people, farmlands, and their country. Some of the group were also avid travelers and painted abroad. This modernistic approach was not limited to Glasgow of course, as artists throughout Europe were rejecting academic Classicism for a more direct style, painting from observation and often en plein air.  The transition eventually led to Impressionism. Scotland’s artistic legacy, as exemplified by the Glasgow Boys, provides a historical backdrop for today’s contemporary painters of realism.

Hauntingly Beautiful and Inspiring Landscapes: A Palette of Diversity

Scotland is a location like no other that inspires artists with visually stunning, pristine ecosystems. Imagine waking up to mist-shrouded scenes with wild deer and songbirds adding to the enchantment. The Majestic Scotland Art Retreat is a sensory experience that touches the soul with tales of legendary feuds and romantic heroes. From the dramatic Highlands to the serene coastal areas Scotland offers a diverse range of subjects for artists. The Glasgow Boys and other artists found inspiration in rural settings and paved the way for contemporary artists to draw from Scotland’s hauntingly beautiful landscapes. The extended summer hours of prolonged daylight add more opportunities for painters to capture the essence of this land.

Art Retreats and Residencies: 

OPA Sponsorship and Artist Connections

Having two OPA bronze awardees, Kami Mendick and Scott Burdick, in attendance at the Majestic Scotland Art Retreat this summer, along with master artist Susan Lyon, adds a layer of depth to the artistic experience. The collaboration of unique and diverse artists fosters enriching discussions, making the journey as memorable as the art itself. There are other delights to be found in Scotland, her world-class museums in Edinburgh and Glasgow, along with the Scottish Highlands and the misty isles of the West Coast make it a destination of discovery no matter where the road takes you. 

If you’re eager to be part of this extraordinary group of painters, reach out to Workshops in France with any questions about Majestic Scotland or other upcoming workshops at team@workshopsinfrance.com. 

Being an artist, like many other professions, opens up to an interesting question on the choices one faces, e.g., Sculpting vs. Painting, Oil painting vs. Water colors vs. Pencil drawing, etc., or perhaps a little bit of all of them.

There is, of course, no answer to what people will choose in the end, it is their individual preference that will influence their decision.  However, I would like to delve a bit deeper as to once our artist decides which medium to call their own – what would be their subject matter or perhaps their subjects (plural).

Through the years and after visiting a myriad of museums, galleries, and exhibitions, we many times observe a painting, or any other work of art, and immediately we can tell who the artist is due to their unique painting style, and/or genre of choice, and/or use of colors.  I have visited the art web pages of many artists to see that they focus on one subject matter and very little on other genres.  Again, there is no right or wrong if one chooses one or the other.  But I would like to provide my own “Two cents worth” to this topic.

Looking at my website, one can see that I have differentiated between my subject matters, by creating categories or albums: Equine, Figurative, Still life, Scapes, and Boats  Are they distinct one from the other, or are they all something of me? I believe the latter is more representative of myself.

I love horses, and I have painted quite a few in my time. However, it is always their eye(s) that are special and require the most attention to capture. In essence, they are the window to their souls.

Figurative painting brings out the facial expressions, the smile and twinkle in eyes, the connections and relationships between the subjects, and of course the anatomy of the ever-changing body between relaxed and when exerting an effort.

Land and Sea Scapes – capturing what nature has in its endless beauty and power like a storm or rough sea or pleasant beach.

Still life is unique, as it allows you to “bring them to life”, and to connect some interpretive thread between them.

I believe that keeping oneself “open” to multiple genres of art is worthwhile and provides a robust and diverse insight to living and dormant subject matters. For me different genres require different approaches to the painting and different implementations of painting techniques.

I have heard some artists advocate in favor of the single genre option, that “multiple genres may indicate that the artist has not found their ‘true’ specialty”.  I find this to be nothing but discouraging, and as I mentioned before, there is no right or wrong, but if artists only paint in one genre, maybe they should try their hand at adding to their repertoire. They might be pleasantly surprised. 

It was the day after Labor Day in 1954, where I found myself sitting in a first-grade classroom. Being a “Baby Boomer”, it was common to have at least 40 or more students in one class. This was terrifying and overwhelming to say the least, so much so that the boy in front of me wet his pants. He was so embarrassed, and the entire room felt empathy towards him even at that young age. All our nerves were shot, and then came the Alphabet.

I did well for the first few letters, but I found I couldn’t keep up with the rest of my class. As you can imagine, panic ensued, and I quickly learned to just fake it; stay under the radar as much as possible. With these challenges that I didn’t quite understand, I began to think about things outside of my classroom, and that is where I was stuck with the “Art Spirit.” I began to draw things during class, which brought me to my first punishment. In my first grader brain, “All I was doing was drawing my mom in her undergarments,” which she walked around the house in. If you knew Billie, it would make you laugh, because my mother had a huge personality and spirit and did not worry about modesty.

The only thing that kept me drawing was the need to feel good about myself. Being unable to read well caused me to fall behind more and more. At the time, no one understood why I had a hard time in school, so the assumption was that I didn’t care. Art was the only thing that I could do on my own terms; it kept my spirit alive in a time that I had little to be proud of. It wasn’t until 1980 that I was diagnosed with dyslexia.

The early 1960’s were my turning point, this is when I found my “North Star”. My passion hit me like a bolt of lightening when I first saw a man doing an oil painting demonstration in a department store. Right then, in that moment, I thought, “Now that is for me!” I started learning about art, and my heroes became the great illustrators of the past and present. I never had heroes in sports, so I knew I found something special to me.

Upon graduation from high school, I was accepted into a private commercial art school. There were only 55 students in the entire school. Each and every teacher was a working professional who taught us one on one—no books! I graduated early, got married to my wife of 55 years, Jonna, and from there my career took off. I knew so long ago that I had the “Art Spirit” in me, and at once I began my fantastic career as a designer and illustrator. 

My evenings, weekends, vacations, and any free time I could manage were spent on oil painting. I found Master painters to teach me their ways, since my career focused on commercial art. I knew oil painting was my true passion, and I pursued it while working in corporate America for as long as I could. Jonna and I supported our family, and in 2001, Jonna’s support led me to a life decision that changed my trajectory forever.

On a cold January day in 2001, I walked away from the corporate world, commercial work, and all of the money. My dream of being a full time painter was here. I worked so hard to get to this point, and it began to pay off. I was showing work coast to coast, traveling the country while getting inspiration for my impressionistic paintings from all of the beautiful nature my family and I were able to experience. I drew inspiration from water, from the mountains, from the woods and the desert. I found myself spending more and more time in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is such a magical place to me and many other artists alike. It was a town thriving on creativity and art. There were so any galleries in Santa Fe and so much promise, that we decided to live there and show in galleries all over the West. That was until 2008, when half or more of the galleries closed, including mine.

After the galleries closed, Jonna and I returned to our beloved Kentucky and we found success on our home turf. I started doing workshops at various venues and art clubs in Cincinnati, and I began to take groups to France and Italy. I have done studio work and plein air work within my workshops, and teaching became a huge passion of mine. I would encourage anyone who feels a passion for art to pick up a pencil, brush or whatever medium you prefer and just try it, it can only make you better to try doing something you love, as I did.

I am always trying to learn as well, by practicing new tricks and continuing to learn from the masters, some I can even call my great friends. When doing plein air, I use an “Easy L” portable easel, but I am a bit older now, so I do prefer to work out of my studio and perfect my craft even further. I paint mostly on canvas, as I can stretch my own, and I use regular oil paints, as well as Griffin Alkyd white by Winsor & Newton.  I am proud to say that I “work” almost 7 days a week, but to me it’s my freedom, not my constraint.

Fundamental to our success is my wife, Jonna. She handles the business end of things, as we say “everything but the paint”, so that I can stay in my right brain. She is also my best critic, and will encourage me to push myself into creating masterpieces. I paint only what interests me, and sometimes when I paint from photos, I will paint upside down so that I stop my left brain from interfering with my right. This was shown to me by artist and long-time friend, C.W. Mundy OPAM. More often than not, I enjoy writing stories for my paintings. Sometimes they are a bit more open verse, but it adds another dimension to the art that allows the viewer to expand their visual experience. 

Something that I have enjoyed doing is commissions, which I like to call “Legacy Paintings”. Being able to tie a person’s or family’s story and emotion to a beautiful landscape gives me such a full heart. It is a win, win, win experience for all involved, and these paintings become instant family heirlooms. To know that generations to come will be admiring my artwork fills my heart with such joy, its crazy to look back at how I got here.

I am so fortunate that the Lord gave me the ability to make a living doing what truly feeds my soul; I make art, I have the pleasure of bringing beauty into this world, from this world, and share it with family, friends, and strangers. Of course, we are only strangers until I can shake your hand, give you a hug and offer you my heart and soul on canvas. 

Stay tuned, I am sure the best is yet to come, thanks be to God.

Tom Bluemlein OPA