When I began to think about the topic of working from photos or working from life, I thought back to when I first began painting. At that time I was focused on recording all the details I could. I had very little thought of how my paintings could be more than just a faithful recording in paint of what the camera had captured. Photography became a crutch for me. In the end I slowly lost the skills of drawing and the sensitivity of color, value and edge information needed to help communicate my own unique vision of the world around me. Sure my paintings looked like the photo I was working from, and on occasion, I was able to capture a little bit of the life of the subject I was painting, but for the most part my paintings were lifeless. I was lacking all of the things that make for an interesting painting and for me, probably the biggest, poetry. I know poetry in a painting is pretty vague and very individual, but I think we all feel it when we see it in a great piece of art.
Painting from life has always been about the experience and the knowledge gained from studying life. I cannot think of any better way to grow as an artist than to work from life. A question to ask yourself is what is more important to you, the finished painting or the experience gained while creating the painting?
Certainly, photography used as reference in a painting has its place, as long as we can avoid the pitfalls of working from them. Photos rarely capture accurate color and value. (I should say my photos rarely capture accurate color and value.) Some of you are probably better photographers than I and don’t have this problem. Working from a photo really is just a memory exercise. You’re asking yourself what color was that when I took that photo. This is when all that time you spent working from life comes into play. The more you work from life the stronger your paintings will be when working from a photo. Every time you work from life you’re creating a visual library in your brain. When you’re back in the studio, you can access this visual library when working from a photo that is lacking the information you need.
One of the benefits of working from a photo is the opportunity to explore subject matter that working from life doesn’t always allow. We’ve all been on vacation somewhere when we see something that we would love to paint, but it’s happening so quickly that trying to paint it would be impossible without taking a photo. This is when taking a photo and making some visual notes in a notebook can be of great help when you’re back in the studio working from that photo. Taking the time to study the scene and making those visual notes either in a notebook or in your mind is very helpful. We’ve all be caught up in the moment where we see a great subject and we just start snapping picture after picture, without any thought of making some mental notes as to what we’re seeing. When we get back to the studio, we’re often disappointed that our photos didn’t capture what we saw.
Photoshop can be a great tool for artists who want to play around with different color combinations and compositions. Changes in colors can be very easy to do in photo editing software. This can be very helpful if you want to change the color of a piece of clothing your model is wearing to see how different color combinations work in your painting. You may also want to try collaging different photos together to try different compositions as well. The possibilities for editing your photos are endless for someone who understands Photoshop. In the end, any photo editing software is just another tool for the artists. An artist needs to determine if it’s something you want to experiment with.
I think Dean Cornwell sums it up best when he said, “Do what the camera can’t do- the camera can’t add the spiritual; it can’t go beyond the mentality of its models. Test your work ask yourself can the camera do what I have done? If you can make a real picture you won’t have to worry about the camera.”
I hope we all will continue to work from life as much as possible. Understanding that photography is just another tool we can use for exploring new creative ideas, but should never become a crutch for developing the skills and experiences that can only be found when working from life.
Oil Painting
Elements of Style
A question that invariably is asked by students or observers during a workshop or demo is “How do I develop a style?” A comment I often hear from fellow artists at shows, galleries and museums is “I would recognize his/her style anywhere.” As artists, we want our work to stand out for its individuality, to be recognized as part of our body of work and for what we have to say as an artist even though our style may evolve throughout our career.
Brush mileage is the answer we hear for how to become proficient as a painter. I believe this applies to developing a style as well. Style develops while learning to master the elements that are essential in a great painting. When an artist takes on the prolonged study of painting, the essentials become a natural part of the artist. Hopefully, we will continue to learn and grow as an artist, to experiment and improve. As a result our style becomes a work in progress.
The elements listed below have been discussed and dissected in countless books and articles. They are intertwined in a painting and cannot be completely separated other than as a basis for study and learning.
Color Palette – As artists, we choose to limit the number of colors we lay on our palette. We choose which warms, which cools, which darks and lights, transparent and opaque, so on and so forth. We will during the course of our career even zero in on brand choice. So, our palette and choice of colors becomes part of our recognizable style.
Composition and Focal Point – An artist moves you around and through a painting with the use of darks and lights, pure rich colors and grays as well as where they place the focal point. Edges, texture and brush strokes are crucial in aiding this movement around the painting and to the center of interest.
Edges – The use of edges, soft, hard and intermediate serve to strengthen the composition. Sometimes I think that the pursuit of edges may be the most difficult to master.
Texture – This applies not only to thick/and or thin application of paint, but it also applies to the surface we choose to work on for each painting: from gessoed boards to stretched or mounted linens and canvas, fine weave to coarse weave, etc. I have seen beautiful works painted on copper and on aluminum salvaged from soft drink cans. The surface we choose becomes very much a part of our style.
Brush strokes and paint application – Choice of brush, i.e. bristle, sable, nylon, filbert, flat, bright, etc. or palette knife, whether applied thick, thin, broken, and the length of stroke becomes inherent to the artist. This inherent quality helps to mark his style, it is his signature so to speak.
Subject matter – I have often heard it said that there is no new subject matter, just new ways to present it. That uniqueness of presentation is style. It is what differentiates us as artists and as human beings.
In his book, Alla Prima, Richard Schmid tells us: “Do not ask yourself, “What do I see?” Rather ask, “What do I see?” In doing so, we are on our way to developing our own style.
More than Ordinary
In Robert Henri’s classic book “The Art Spirit,” he speaks of “more than ordinary moments of existence.” A spontaneous trip to Madrid with my artist friend Jim Aplin led to such a moment. Actually it was a series of moments over a period of three days. The setting was the Sorolla Museum. This is no ordinary museum. It is the artist’s home and studio. It almost feels as if he might step back in the room at any moment.
There is nothing so inspiring as standing in front of a great work of art and studying every brushstroke. Joaquin Sorolla filled his canvases with skillful drawing, rich color and juicy brushwork. A feast for the eyes.
His materials and supplies offer an intimate and fascinating view of the man and his methods.
At the age of 57, while out in the garden working on this portrait, Sorolla suffered a stroke. Although he lived another three years he was never able to paint again. But what an extraordinary body of work he left for the world to enjoy, and what an inspiration he continues to be.
“My only ambition was to create an honest picture that would interpret nature as she really is, as she ought to be seen.” -Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923)
The Art of Gradation
One of the more overlooked technical devices in creating a painting with sophisticated interest, is gradation. Although it is easy to think of gradation in terms of color or value, by extending your gradation vocabulary in all aspects of the work you can add interest, excitement, passive and active passages, elicit specific responses from viewers of the art, and produce paintings that invoke mood, time, and feeling in a more calculated way.
COLOR AND VALUE
Before we look at more advanced ideas, let’s look at a few common examples of using gradated color and/or value in the landscape. If you paint landscapes, you may have been taught to apply gradation of lighter to darker or warmer to cooler in a large expansive sky. Not being one to fall back on formulas, I suggest my students begin to recognize when this truly happens in nature, at what times of day and with which specific colors and values rather than automatically reverting to this concept in every single case. Sometimes the sky may also gradate from warm to cool (or vice versa) as it spans from left to right rather than from horizon to Zenith. Learning which of these devices to use to convey a specific idea can strengthen your landscapes and keep them from all looking the same.
Gradation of color and value can also be useful when painting other subjects. In a still life, for example, you might use a gradation in the background from left to right and from top to bottom. Notice in this quick head sketch how color gradates and alternates from warm to cool to warm to cool to warm to cool as it wraps around the form of the form.
Still another way to think of using gradation with color, is by varying the amount of color intensity from very neutral to extremely chromatic. Notice here, from left to right, we experience neutral, chroma, less chroma, neutral. See how the most intense chroma is where I want you to linger the longest when you look at the painting. I use this same type of gradation many times in the landscape to move the viewer’s eye around the painting, lend atmospheric perspective, and add interest.
SHAPE, LINE, EDGE, and TEXTURE
Now, let’s take a look at gradation and how it can be useful in reference to other technical aspects of painting.
In this same painting, notice how the edges are gradated. See how they are much sharper and harder in the most important parts of the painting, and gradually become lost and soft as they radiate away from them.
Practice seeing and using gradation as many ways as you can. Then edit and use the types that work best for your subject. This sort of experimentation brings a load of learning at the easel and buzz and excitement to your next exhibition.
On Workshops – Can't get there? Bring 'em here!
So many great artists, so many great places to see them, just not possible? Bring them to you!
If you’re like me, and most artists I know, you dream of going away to a workshop to immerse yourself for a week (or more) coming back full of knowledge and new approaches and having taken giant steps forward in your work learning from the masters. But let’s face it, we can’t all do that. Your resources may not allow for the expense of workshop plus travel and lodging, you may not be able to take the time away from family and/or work, or you may be holding back because you aren’t at the ‘right level’ yet.
There is a solution, a way to ease in, invite the artist to your home art league or organization. If you are not already in one, join one!
There are many advantages to bringing the masters to you. Here’s the who, what, wheres, hows and why from convenience to affordability to the truest value of it all.
Where to have it is the next thing to consider. Our league had a retail space for a gallery with a back room big enough for classes and workshops. The convenience of your own space is that you can set up ahead of time and leave supplies and work out over night all week long. You can run successful workshops at community centers, libraries, church trailers, and even hotel meeting rooms (we’ve done three of the four.) If you do have to pack up and take everything out with you every day have a few extra facilitators to help with set up every morning. It will be very hard for artists in the workshop to do the set up and take down every day and still get everything out of the workshop that they desire. Our league is made up of volunteer members so we can divide the work up under the guidance of a workshop director. Cost of space is part of your workshop fee of course. If you have the means, use them. If you don’t, be creative! In our town there are grocery stores with community areas built for local organizations to use. To keep cost down check these things out. Figure out rental fees or percentages of workshop costs to make it profitable as well.
Another where is the place your guest artist will stay. Being in a league/organization helps. WAL has members willing to host visiting artists, both teachers and students, during workshops. This really keeps your workshop fee as low as possible, and helps those attending from just a few hours away from having to spend on lodging. Do make this one of the first questions you ask a potential visiting artist. If they are willing to stay with a member that is wonderful, let the member also serve as their chauffeur for the workshop. If they are not willing to stay with a member, wonderful too–they are still coming! But you will have to find a hotel and that along with their transportation to and from hotel will add significantly to your workshop fee. Nonprofit organizations like WAL do get discounted rates at hotels for workshop artists.
His first workshop for The Woodlands Art League was two weeks long. It was a great success. He has since returned in 2011 and 2014. We are planning his fourth workshop here for June 2015.
So that’s the priceless value of bringing a master artist to your group–building a relationship. As artists painting together, growing together, with guidance from a master artist, our abilities develop along with our friendships and our commitment. As Clayton says, “I see the progress as I return to a student and know the marks they are making on the canvas are done with greater understanding and ability. Very rewarding as a teacher to see such thing. I tell the students they are painting in the workshop to let me directly into their thoughts. It helps to know what a painter needs to hear so I have direction as a teacher.”
Proof–a few words from artists that attended his latest September workshop:
“I experienced a delayed absorption of information, because it wasn’t until weeks after the workshop that the words Clayton shared impacted my thinking and my approach to my artwork.”
Julie Graham
“What a lesson! After the demo already I felt I’d ‘leveled up’ as an artist! Clayton’s voice is still present as I work my own pieces and repeated in my elementary classroom as I share and remind my students of the importance of making every visible application intentional.”
Abby Salazar President, Woodlands Art League
“I hear Clayton’s words, “Is it in the light or in the dark?” I am reminded to put brushstrokes down only if I am sure that temperature and value are right. I think about area of emphasis and this new “awareness” makes me go back to reading and researching and putting it into practice every time I paint.”
Carolina Dalmas
Jill Behrens
“When I have an opportunity to study with one of these artists that WAL brings in, I jump at the chance. Not having to pay for my own room, board and transportation makes workshops exceptionally affordable. I’ve taken local workshops with Judy Carducci, Clayton J Beck III, and Rob Liberace. Each time I have studied with these great teachers, I’ve been able to adjust my own sensibilities and I’ve seen a maturing in my own work.”
Suzie Baker
The impact of the master artist can be felt throughout your home league and your community, not just those in the workshop. Ask your guest artist to participate in an evening reception open to all members and the public at large. By hosting an Artist Reception and Demo those not in the workshop still have the chance to meet the master and learn, still get a chance to build a relationship and grow. AND you spark interest for your upcoming workshops!
There ya go–it’s that easy to bring the master artist to you!