Hello Art friends!
I’m incredibly blessed to have had the chance to teach at the Inn at Little Pond farm!
Art at the Inn 101 was an Introduction to oil painting! It was great to gather & pause from our hectic lives and just paint!
“Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.” –Alice Walker
Yes, it was a soul restoring day! When I began painting 6 plus years ago , I had no idea the blessing and adventure I’d find! So glad I picked up that paintbrush! From the beginning I was hooked!
It brings me great joy to stand before a canvas & capture the beauty I see all around! And to encourage others along the artist way. What a privilege to welcome new emerging artists to this beautiful journey!
Beauty matters. Why? Because it enlarges the soul makes people pause… all while giving a gracious nod to the One who created it all!
“Art exists to taste the eternal.” –Paul Cezanne
As promised …the artists left with something new on their canvas! Maybe not a full blown masterpiece but it was a start! And they did awesome! It takes miles & miles on the canvas to really progress, so glad we got started! 🍐
We chatted about fear & I showed them one of my favorite quotes.
“To live a creative life you must lose the fear of being wrong”! –Joseph Chilton
This gives freedom to learn and make mistakes along the way. Here’s another one from a lovely artist I met in a France this summer.
“The genius in my work is all my mistakes.”💕 –Jill Steenhuis (A Provence artist)
Good things to remember as we continue the journey.
We talked about:
Terms & Tools …
- Canvas
- Easel
- Pallet knife
- Paint brushes
- Charcoal
- Taboret (to mix paint)
- Turp or Gamsol
- Oil paints (Gamblin brand is my fav but there are many others!)
- Baby wipes
- Paper towel
We looked at the Color wheel with focus on 3 Primary colors:
- Cadmium red
- Ultramarine blue
- Lemon yellow
We added also added white, ivory, and black.
The 3 primary Colors , are much like the music scale “do re mi ..” they produce all music!
Colors are the 🎹 piano notes of artistry!
These colors can produce most any shade, color, tone & value creating a symphony of its own kind!! Of course you can buy any color , nuts it fun to mix your own. But how you proceed is up to you and your wallet!
We didn’t have time to go deeper into “Values” and what all the light darks mean in a painting.
But we did begin to understand the importance.
We looked at a pear with no color , just shades of greys…
Lights & darks = values
I heard so many times that,
“Color gets the credit but value does the work. “
“Value” is hard to grasp but it’s what makes a flat surface look 3 dimensional!
Ask yourself,
Where are the lightest light?
Where are the darkest darks?
I encouraged the artists to look outside… see all the darks and the light in the trees.
Then see where the light hits on your subject…🍐and go from there.
It was fun to see all the pear paintings…varied, unique. Getting the value right, is what makes a good painting great…And great color choices!
So glad we got started … we created some real possibility!
We sketched out our pears …
We Mixed the colors …
Blue + yellow = green
Red + blue = purple
Red + yellow = orange
We talked values ,
add more blue or black to darken
More white or yellow to lighten …
This is just the beginning , there is so much more! What an exciting adventure! 🎨
Here are some next step Art recommendations…
- Practice
- Practice
- Practice!
- Get a sketch book
- Draw or paint often…even a bit each day
- Read art books
- Watch YouTube lessons
- Go to galleries & museums
See the world through an artists eye, it’s so beautiful! God created an incredible place for us to live, enjoy and paint!!!
You can find most all resources at …
- Michael’s
- Hobby Lobby
- Cheap Joes
- Amazon
Here are a few more of my favorite Quotes..
“Art is not what you see, it’s what you make others see.” –Degas
“Life is a great big canvas, throw all the paint you can.” –Danny Kaye
“Life is a canvas, every single layer matters. Every layer is not wasted, He uses it all.” –Marcy Gregg (Charlotte artist)
“Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things.” –Pablo Picasso
“Each painting is a stepping stone to the next. Trust the process!” –(Me)😘
It was an enjoyable day creating at the beautiful inn together! Of course the setting, the ladies, the Bubbles & yummy charcuterie were just fabulous !!
Hope to paint together again very soon!
Live creatively, friends!
Sandy
(aka Mia!)