Students Excel in Oil Class

Stacey Myers has been such a joy to have in class, she brings a lot of great energy to the class. She's never painted in oils before but has taken to it like a fish to water. Heres a closeup of her piece. Sunanda is doing a stellar job, with a little of my help toward completing a portrait. Way to go Sunanda.
Gary Bragg the ever self effacing humorist has the right steadfast attitude and continues to learn and progress even though he tackles rather complex landscape themes.

A Poet Among Us

I am blessed to have very interesting and talented students, but one of particular note is Vinod Deshmukh MD who brought as a present for me one day after class, a book of his photographs and poetry. I just wanted to highlight his work here and comment once again on the fine collection of original works he's assembled.

Oil Painting progress

Here are a couple of my oil painting students hard at work. Stacey is painting for the first time and loving it!

When realism crosses over to abstraction

These paintings called Ensemble in Golds and Silvers, crosses the boundary of abstraction and contemporary realism. In this my goal was to utilize the techniques of sumi-e and other contemporary artists such as Helen Frankenthaler of the Color Field movement. The area around Ft George and Talbot Island are my favorite haunts for marshes and driftwood subject matter. I enjoy exploring the effects of primordial forces of time on the earth and its subjects.

When Abstract Crosses Over

I have always enjoyed doing abstracts that are crossover from realism. I suppose this isn't the official definition of an abstract, but I am working on a painting now that does that, where it seems to be somewhat abstract but is clearly what it is, a piece of driftwood on the beach. I use a combination of sumi techniques, Color Field Theory similar to what you might encounter in a Helen Frankenthaler piece. I pre mix 20 colors for this so that they are ready to go dripping and pulling the paint through the wet previous layer. The interior designer Alissa Bennett, loved two earlier pieces I had done in my formative years and had a master bedroom available, so I let her hang the early ones Aqua and Silver 1 & 2, and offered to do a new triptych set for the master based on these two.
I took my reference from Talbot Island State Park, one of my favorite haunts. It is in process so I will post again when it is finished but here it is so far. I started on Sunday, and it is now Wednesday afternoon. I am supposed to deliver this no later than Friday to a show house in south Palm Coast.
Here are some shots of the original two ("Aqua & Silver 1 &2) that inspired the Ensemble series.

New Abstract Class at Cultural Center Ponte Vedra Beach

Finally a few brave souls trying to break out into the new territory of abstraction have signed up for the "Abstracts -Simple and Fun" class at the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach! The class starts 1pm -3pm Thursday March 3 and goes to April 14. I am looking forward to this class a it will be a chance to play with some new techniques and concepts.
Also the Watercolor classes at the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach are on for 10am Mar 1 -April 12
JCA watercolor Classes are on for Mondays 10am-12 noon Mar 7 -April 11 and Oil classes at JCA Mondays 7pm- 9pm same days.

Valentine Demo

In todays demo at the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach I painted some flowers as a belated Valentines Day gift to my wife. I think it turned out well. I like the loose handling of the washes. I should do more flowers!

The Proud Parent

I wish I could take credit for these beautiful watercolors, painted by one of my muses, Donna Sauer. She doesn't realize how good she is yet, but when she fully realizes herself-watch out! These are brilliant! We have been pushing to get away from a photographic rendition and more to a loose painterly style. I am noticing that.. Donna... a star is being born!

It's About the Light

Sorry for being late posting on this demo for the Reddi Arts class friday. Life can sweep you up sometimes! I love the way this one came out with the light and the reflection, the grasses. Notice the grasses, I employed the negative painting technique. It is where you paint the one object in then paint in between it. Also I painted this one up on an easel which made a new set of challenges! Its all about timing. It's like a dance, once you know the basic steps you can improvise. I was asked in class today at the Cultural Center PV Beach class, why I like the marsh areas around this area. It is as I described about the light, the luminosity that attracts me to this area. The grand open spaces here give me a chance to work on something that I love, that is recognizable, yet simple and luminous, more like a color field than a set of "Objects".

Making Me Proud

Sometimes you work and work on something and seem to have trouble making progress. Then something breaks through and you find your sweet spot. Jody Holt is making me a proud teach as she consistently produces clean vibrant luminous washes. The challenge here was to try simple rich color washes with different techniques applied to each one so as to make it seem like an abstract and play with the infinite possibilities watercolors affords one to play with color.
Bravo Jody. You make me proud.

The Cultural Center Students Work

Here are some of the pics for today at the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach
1. Donna breaks through on a beautiful flower, loose and juicy!
2.Barabra comes back and breaks through with a simple beach palm experiment sample.
3.Jody works on her color field theory paintings -gorgeous!
4. Janet returns and brings her work far afield to share, another breakthrough, just about finished!