Children come up with wonderful imagery! I’ve had the pleasure of teaching kids several times, and it’s always delightful to see what they create! Here’s a big self-portrait mural that Ms. Heigel’s students painted with me at the Otterbein Public Library: It’s about them, and their interests – sports, games, books, pets, friends, family. Windmill […]
Inspiration – Diebenkorn
When I hit a plateau or am stuck, or just need some inspiration — looking at great artists helps me a lot. This painting is by Richard Diebenkorn. and it’s called “Cityscape 1″. It’s huge, like 50″ x 60”. He painted it in 1963, when he was 40. Diebenkorn passed away in 1993 at the […]
Which Brand of Acrylic Paint?
You know that saying “It’s a poor craftsman that blames his tools” Well it’s not necessarily true. Especially with paint. The ingredients make a big difference in how paint behaves, whether it’s smooth or sticky, how well it spreads around and whether you can mix colors to get something good (or just bleh). For Paint […]
Giant Paintings!
This landscape painting is HUGE! It’s a 4′ x 8′ panel that I painted for the VA on Soldier’s Home Road, West Lafayette. We talked about painting directly onto their wall, but their walls have a lumpy surface, kind of like a woven basket, so that wouldn’t have worked. I used acrylic paint on plywood, […]
Avoid “Overworking” Your Paintings
“Is it done? Am I finished?” It’s a tough question sometimes. Here’s an example of a painting I consider to be “overworked”, and it’s one of MY paintings 🙂 Aaaaargh! When I look at this, the purpose isn’t clear, the relationships between the objects are vague; the shapes are too similar without being rhythmic; there’s […]
