Learning to see

An impressionist artist looks at the whole subject at once and paints a broad, visual experience of it. That artist cherry picks colour, nuance and focus. 

Artists who paint realism require an acute sense of observation. These artists start their painting with and item by item exploration of their subject.  Realism is all about accuracy. The most important factors are accuracy of the structure, and accuracy in brightness values.  

The eight key factors in achieving realistic results are:

• Precision - accurate drawing from observation.
• Values - brightness values.
• Contrast - contrast range in brightness values.
• Edges - sharp or soft.
• Transitions - in brightness values, colors, texture, edges, and temperature.
• Temperature - warm and cool colors.
• Colors - the object's fingerprint.
• Saturation - how sharp and rich colors are.

Realism requires an acute sense of observation of all of the above.  Painting in a realistic manner is like learning to see again.

I am proudly hanging  my latest painting in my studio. This painting was the result of a workshop with Angus McEwan.  It took me a month to complete it in between a couple of other paintings.

Untitled - 20" X 20"

I'm currently working on a painting of three blue canning jars. This painting started because I found some lovely tangerines with foliage at the grocery store and needed to find something they would look next to.  

Here is where I'm at.  The next stage is scary as I need to remove the masking fluid on the lettering. This means there is no going back with large washes on the body of the jars.  The jars and tangerines are on an old piece of wood. I can't wait to paint it and add some rusted nails to it.

I have three workshop coming up.

The next one will be of a lovely drooping sunflower. There are two spots remaining.

After that I'll be teaching a class on painting fur. Registration for this 6-week class will open for Kanata Art Club members on February 24th, for non-members on March 1st.

Lastly we will paint this fun koi fish on March 13.

Have a great week

Danielle