In 1841 a portrait painter and tinkerer, John Golf Rand, invented the collapsible artist's paint tube. I've read that Renoir said, "Without tubes of paint, there would have been no Impressionism." Really? Like most stuff you read on the Internet, those types of "quotes" remind me of that game of "Gossip" we played as kids. Go ahead, google Renoir's quote and see what pops … [Read more...]
Reduce distractions
How does an artist guide the viewer through a painting? Too many distractions and you'll lose the viewer. The picture will confuse them, and they will move on. Oops... missed that sale! Sometimes you will want to have distractions to add interest to the painting. You need to think about what you are doing, though. Many paintings contain objects placed with little or no … [Read more...]
The Alexander Method™ – Part II
Last time we mentioned that Bill lost his home. We'll get to that in a minute. First, though let's answer this question. What makes the Alexander Method™ special? The secret is in Bill’s wet-on-wet technique. The emphasis in this sentence is on the word "Bill's." You see, Bill innovated the wet-on-wet technique that painters used for centuries. We'll highlight some of Bill's … [Read more...]
The Alexander Method™ – Part I
The Alexander Wet-on-Wet Technique revolutionized the art of oil painting. Bill Alexander spent years developing and refining this special technique to make it possible for anyone to create a painting with a minimum of instruction. With traditional oil painting, it often takes weeks, or even longer, to finish one painting. With the Alexander Method™, you can complete your … [Read more...]
All aboard!
Laurie and I were talking the other day about our love of model trains. I shared some stories of the train set my dad bought me for Christmas when I was six or seven. On reflection, he, most likely, bought the train set for himself. I happened to be a handy excuse at the time. Every Christmas we would set up the train set under the Christmas tree. Every year he would buy … [Read more...]
