How To Loosen Up

I recently presented a demo for Art School Live with Eric Rhoads.  The theme was how to loosen up with the added benefit of using Acrylics. This fast-drying medium definitely helps with spontaneous painting, because you can correct mistakes easily and build paint immediately…no slip sliding away! We can achieve an Alla Prima paintings with oils, too, but it’s a little trickier with wet-in-wet. As an aside, I have not switched completely to acrylic paints, but rather have integrated them into my oil painting practice. Sometimes I use them for an underpainting and then go over them with oils later, or sometimes the Acrylic underpainting tells me to stay all Acrylic. Helps me paint larger. With the right surface, paint brand, and brushes, they can look quite a lot like oils. 

In the Art School Live demo I started simply with light and shadow shapes, using a sort of Notan sketch as a guide.  The concept of Notan (balance of dark & light) and my preliminary sketching was discussed in the demo but not shown on the Live session, so I want to elaborate on that subject as it is a huge part of my loose style.  Before I begin a painting, and to familiarize myself with my subject, I do contour drawings, which is simply drawing the outline of the subject in a continuous line (meaning I don’t lift the pencil from the paper).  Contour drawings are fluid and imperfect, which loosens me up right out of the gate.  Then I take my favorite composition and break it down into 4 values with Greyscale Markers and then in only two values (Notan).  This process gets me oriented with my subject which allows me to be more spontaneous when the paint comes into play (I emphasize the word “play”). These preliminary sketches inform my next step, a tonal underpainting or a value “road map”, if you will. Ps, pictures of my sketches and scene reference for the demo painting below.

In the underpainting for the demo and in an effort to keep loose, I used a paper towel to swipe in big shapes with energy and movement. This broad application of massing in shapes informs the end result. The Notan/value underpainting can be graphic or scrubbed in, it doesn’t matter.  With a good underpainting, you can pull out information without tight rendering. You are in control to highlight what’s more important, eliminating fussy detail. 

I’d like to share some little tricks for looser painting that I mentioned during the demo:

•Use a big brush, a big tattered brush is even better!  Use all sides of the brush.

•Lay down a stroke and leave it.  You can always adjust it later if it is really a problem, but most of them are not…lay it and leave it.

•Starting with a little controlled chaos will help you stay away from the little fiddle-y details.

•Work all over the canvas, keeping everything at the same level of un-finish. Once you get everything to the same level, anything that needs refining will jump out, and so on and so on until you decide what the final finish is. 

•Challenge yourself and see how much information you can leave out and still tell your story. Just because it is there, doesn’t mean you have to put it in.

•Change the colors to suit your needs and work from a limited palette to achieve color harmony. As long as your values are correct, the painting will work. 

•If a color is not shining the way you want, what can you do to enhance it? I continually focus on contrast, juxtaposed complements, bold against neutral, and cool next to warm (or layered on top of). If you watch my demo, you’ll see that with each stroke I employed one of these concepts. 

My final offering to stay loose is to get a little out of your comfort zone. When I am giving a demo, being recorded giving a demo, or am under any time constraints, I usually do better. While you may not ever be recorded or filmed, you could set a timer knowing you must stop once the timer sounds, at least to step back and check values.  Using Acrylics is also a great teacher of expedience because of the quick drying time. Painting outside will also teach you to get that paint down. That light changes fast! I feel that any of the aforementioned constraints train you to be more spontaneous and therefore more painterly. In any case, just remember to stick to those big shapes and big brushes, and have fun!

You can see the demo here  https://www.facebook.com/Eric.Rhoads.Publisher/videos/3963678433956792 and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sswddqpKTpU

A Gift

I believe that people come into your life for a reason, just when you need them.  Sometimes you know why and sometimes you may not.  Along that same vein, I have a story to share.  

In the early 2000’s, I had been painting for some time, but was in need for a little jumpstart.  I was more than ready to change things up and push my current boundaries.  The Chestnut Group, a plein air painting organization that I belong to, has a long history of inviting seasoned plein air painters to teach each year.  They invited Camille Przewodek, and I enrolled in the workshop.  You talk about getting information at the exact moment you are ready to receive it…well, I left that workshop a changed woman and I never looked back!  Camille taught us how to manipulate and layer color in a new way, infusing our work with more excitement and vibration.  While I have altered the information I learned from Camille to suit my personal painting style, I have always been grateful for her influence. She is hugely responsible for the change in the way I see color.

So this year, some eighteen-ish years later, I was a faculty member at the Plein Air Convention and Expo where I demoed for a large crowd.  Camille came to watch me at work and made sure to catch me afterwards.  She was so complimentary and supportive.  The best part is I got to give her a big hug and tell her how her workshop all those years ago influenced my artistic path.  It is a true gift to let someone know their worth.  It is doubly so when just a few months later they pass away unexpectedly.

Camille died a few days ago from a brief illness, leaving behind a legacy of teaching, creating, and curiosity.  I appreciated her for her sense of humor, her directness, and for the fabulous artist that she was.  She leaves in her wake a body of beautiful artwork, family and friends who will forever miss her, and students who will move forward with the knowledge she bestowed upon them. She will be sorely missed, but I know she is at rest, basking in the north light.

25th Annual AIS National Juried Exhibition

I am happy to announce that my painting, “Leiper’s Light”, is headed to the 25th Annual American Impressionist Society National Juried Exhibition, Master Category.

Rockport Art Association and Museum

Rockport, Massachusetts, Cape Ann

September 27 - October 26, 2024

All AIS Members are invited to attend the Opening Week events.

All free of charge to current members except workshop and painting sessions. 

The Midsummer Show: Group Exhibition at Meyer Vogl Gallery

The Midsummer Show: Group Exhibition
July 26 - August 16
Opening: Saturday, July 27, 11am (brunch-y celebration!)

I’m thrilled to be one of five artists in this exciting group show at Meyer Vogl Gallery, Charleston, SC. My contributions to the show center on the light and color of the warmer months. I’ll be present at the opening on July 27!

From the Gallery:

There's something to be said for an exhibition of new works with zero guidelines or directions or boundaries. Says director Katie Geer, "I'm a summer girl at heart, and I love bringing fresh new works into the gallery during the season." The show will include new work by artists Anne Blair Brown, Susan Colwell, Laurie Meyer, Andrew Portwood, and Carrie Beth Waghorn. 

To see the artwork in this exhibition before anyone else, request a preview by emailing katie@meyervogl.com. 

Color Play with Acrylics! Online Demo, May 17 (Friday), 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM, Eastern Time

“It’s not just about what you see…but how you see it.”

I am excited to team up with Penn Studio School to present an online demo: “Color Play with Acrylics”. In this color-focused demonstration, I’ll show you various ways to mix and apply color that will make the light sing and the shadows dance! I’ll demonstrate how the fast drying time of Acrylics can aid in layering color and how the outcome can be as vibrant as oils. Color mixing can be daunting in any medium, but I will break down the process of building color with Acrylics into simple concepts and steps that ensure harmony.

I’ll also be showing various Acrylic techniques and sharing tips I’ve discovered to create dynamic marks and textures.

May 17 (Friday), 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM, Eastern Time

Cost: $55

**Demo is live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. The recording will be available to students for 3 months after the live demo, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.

Sign up here:Color PLay with Acrylics Online Demo

I Second That Emotion

The purpose of the painter is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him. A work of art does not appeal to the intellect. It does not appeal to the moral sense. Its aim is not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an emotion. –George Inness

I’ve been thinking a lot about the “notion of emotion” in artwork. Inness’s words are very impactful, although from my point of view I might have stated it a little differently, i.e., “A work of art does not necessarily have to…”, just to include the folks who DO want to edify, instruct, and appeal to a moral sense with their art, which is perfectly ok. 

I, however, prefer the kind of art that makes my tummy feel tingle-y (emotion) and invites me to linger over delicious color and mark-making, regardless of subject. If you are the same kind of artist, I guess the question is: how do we execute this magical, expressive art and awaken our viewer’s emotion?

I guess the easy answer is to share with your viewer the impression the scene has made upon you, according to Inness. That is good and well, but there is still a “how?” factor here. On my own journey, I have discovered some ways to achieve emotion through mixing and applying color and also in the physicality of laying down strokes. There are some deeper and more philosophical aspects also, but it is in practicing the “how-to” part that has helped me sidestep labored, over-rendered paintings and move toward spontaneous, emotive painting.

1. Swing. A. Bigger. Brush. At least in the beginning. If you start with a tiny eyelash brush and labor over all the detail, you will certainly get a nice academically correct result, but maybe not so much emotion. Bigger brushes promote spontaneity and energy, which translates to emotion. 

2. Hold your brush like you are a musical conductor holding a baton, cuz you ARE the conductor of your painting. Use a light touch at the base of the brush, then throughout the painting move the brush in different directions using your wrist, elbows, and basically your whole body. Step back and forth occasionally. All of this will create an energy that is palpable in the painting. 

3. Sculpt with your paint. Lay in shapes and use negative space paint to carve out positive shapes. I have long believed if you have the right shapes (puzzle pieces), you have the correct drawing and perspective. 

4. Lay it and leave it. If you keep “licking” over strokes, you will kill the spontaneity those bigger brushes are so valiantly trying to help you with (and you will probably muddy your color). 

5. Pre-mix color pools on your palette. This achieves several things: you can see pretty color emerging before you start painting (confidence), you have lots of paint ready to scoop and go (emotion), and you can work within these color mixtures so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel over and over from your primary colors (this last one is a GREAT way to get instant color harmony). 

6. Make color your own. You don’t have to copy everything you see. As long as the value is right, the color will be right. A few ways I own my color is by overstating or understating, using tonal underpainting to create a unified color base, and layering warm and cool to create vibration (emotion). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

7. Stop before you think you are finished. Set a timer for 30 minutes. Then stop. Check your values. Then paint in one, two, or three more 30-minutes sessions, then stop and sit with it. Does it hold together? Could you take something out rather than adding anything else in? Remember, less is more. As with music, the power is often in the pauses. 

I’ll be talking about and demonstrating all this and more in my upcoming workshops, Brushwork & Color: Make Your Mark. I’m so excited about this workshop theme I decided to hold two. The first is online, Wednesdays, June 5, 12, 19, 26, 2024, and then the second is in-person at our beautiful Bluebird Hill Retreat September 18-21, 2024. In these workshops, you’ll learn to use your palette and brushes to paint your impressions with emotion. If you want to get loose and have fun doing it, I hope you’ll join me! 

For more information, go to https://anneblairbrown.com/workshops-and-mentoring

You Do You

Being a painter, for some, can be an isolating and sometimes deflating experience. A lot of us are usually creating our work in solitude. We don’t always get feedback from fellow artists, but rather from friends or household members who have little understanding of our paintings or what it takes to create and put it out there. They might tell you that you should paint a certain (acceptable) way, or say things like, “I don’t get it”. We know they mean well, but as we say in the south, “Bless their hearts”.

Then there are the general and often soul-crushing comments, even from fellow artists, that sound normal but the translation is something like, “You have to do it this way as it has always been done…” or, "You can’t paint if you aren’t a perfect draftsmen”, or “You don’t have innate talent”. I disagree with comments like these, down to my core. I have been teaching for quite some time, and if I had a dollar for every student who has told me they got shut down by comments like these from teachers (teachers!), parents, relatives, and even fellow artists, I would be a rich woman. These students have told me that their painting shut-downs lasted for years…sometimes even 20 and 30 years. Wow.

Here is what I believe:

1. If you create in joy, it is “right”. Do not worry about perfection and do not worry about what anyone else thinks but you.  

2. If someone criticizes you, it is probably more about what is inside of them than what is inside (or outside) of you. 

3. There are rules in art, but rules can be broken. There is merit to knowing the rules before you can break them, but I say just break ‘em if that’s what you want. Might be a more interesting outcome. 

We all want to make good art, something to be proud of…but there is something to be said for growing where you are planted.  Embrace what you like about your art and improve what you don’t.  Art can be a conduit.  It could be a joyful expression of your inner self, or a way to expel your inner demons.  Whatever reason you have for creating, it should be your voice and your expression, not what someone else wants from you. There is nothing that says people have to “get it”, or even like it. If you like it, that is what matters. 

I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free. –Georgia O’Keeffe