New Art Class in Seattle

 Tomorrow I'm starting a new series of classes for teens "Creating  an art portfolio"

We'll work on the portfolio ,which will  distinctly represent you to a college as a potential student and young artist. 

We’ll prepare 12 finished pieces from categories :observational art, personal art .

The final portfolio will show your knowledge and skills  in drawing, painting and composition. Give me a call if you want to be on the list for the next session 

"Fort Casey" oil on linen , 9x12

Just a little note about giving your painting a real boost and increase the interest
by having one or more secondary focal points or areas as well as a primary  focal point or area.
Just make it more interesting and intriguing for the viewer .

Fort Casey - oil on linen , 9x12 - for sale @ 250.00












"Morning  in Coupeville" - Here is example of how NOT to design and compose your painting.
I actually will use this painting as a poster for the very common artistic mistakes.
Number 1. This building is dividing the painting right in half .
Number 2. To many focal points and there is no comprehensive idea , why did I choose this composition in a first place. Basically TMI - too much information . And that is the main reason I won't sell this plein air sketch to demonstrate to my students - that  we are all humans and make mistakes :-)
Happy Painting Everyone

"PRELUDE DE VIOLIN " oil on linen 11 x14

This painting I started from  the vinette set up by my very good friend, painting buddy and great artist Irina Milton in her studio . I finish it from the photograph and really like the cold, northern light.

I have lots of interesting insights today , but have to be in a hurry to  hang my show up. 

Well, all words of wisdom will need to wait to be said :-) Till evening ..

 For sale - 650.00 - free shipping as always

Plein Air Paintings

In October I'm starting a new Class. Even though we still  left  out some color mixing topics , including painting water, trees, rocks , but I decided to incorporate those subjects in my new block of studies.

So the whole new segment will  be dedicated to detailed study of Composition.

Sergey Bongart once said , "Value and Design set the painting. All else builds from them"   That's why composition is a second  most important part of successful painting.

We will study :

1. Space devision 

2. Focal Point

3. Eye movement

4. Variety

5. Line

 I think it will be a perfect opportunity to include those left out color subjects , as water, trees, rocks into the "Composition" class  

My highly recommended  list of books:

 "Color Choices "by Stephen Quiller 

"Blue and Yellow don'r make green" by Michael Wilcox

"Color and Light" by James Gurney

And here are a new group of plein air sketches made at the Bloedel Reserve this weekend .

"SNOHOMISH MORNING" 12X16 OIL ON LINEN

From my experience of being an instructor, attending countless workshops, open studios , painting sessions, I came to understanding , that  most  artists struggling  with 3 major aspects : Seeing correct values, seeing and choosing good composition and seeing   big shapes. There is a small magic you can use to improve all of those three aspects in your painting.  Just knowing and using this little magic for at  least a month, will safe you so much grief( embracement on the workshops)  and money  ( buying those workshops )
So, if you are committed to being a better artist , and serious about to achieve certain level of painting  technic, you need to start seeing in values !
Make yourself a rule TO START your creative day with a small monocrome study.
Just use  4 values (white and black included) to portray your subject. It's really better to paint from life. So set up a tiny vignette . It will force you to make decisions about where values must be pushed darker or lighter to stay within the limited range. This exercises will help you to see values, patterns, and organization of a simple shapes  Result: strong design all of sudden knocking in the back door while you're busy thinking about reducing values. That's your  magic!
If you are a proud  owner of a Ipad - you can download an incredibly helpful aplications for artists:
http://appadvice.com/applists/show/apps-for-artists

You can go enven further with monochromes - But this will be subject of another post !


 I was painting plein air all last weekend , with two different group. It was so much fun!
Here is the painting from that session . It
s for sale @ 500.00

"Provence Ruelle" from the series "Suitcase of Pastorales"

It's a foggy, gray day here in Seattle,  and  all of sudden you realise that, yes, it's a Fall after all. The problem with Indian Summers is, it's  usually sweet ..but short.
I hope the weather will  improve for my paint out session on Bainbridge Island tomorrow. I'm taking off to Pulsbor now, and wanted to give some scoop om my latest discoveries, art  tips and helpful little tricks.
1. If you accidentally drop a good chunk of oil paint on the carpet, dress, furniture, your new couch, so on , the best solution is immediately dry it out with the paper towel and spray with the cheapest possible hair spray.
 The cheaper the spray the better It work . Guaranteed !
2. To clean your brushes and keep its chapes , simply rub in castile soap. Don't wash it with the water!
3.To keep a large piles of oil on you palette fresh and oily for longer, before  putting it away in the refrigerator, drop tiny little drops of clove oil in every pile ( I use lot's of oil, so it's literally   "piles") the then put it in the refrigerator . That strong clove odor will keep the paint fresh .
That will be it for todays words of wisdom :-)

And here is painting # 3 from the workshop. It's belong now to my series " Suitcase of Pastorales" - Provence Ruelle" . It's for sale - $ 500.00

My Fall's Art Shows schedule