Art help « R Gregory Summers AIS

Giving it all Away

July 1, 2015 by admin

I was recently asked “what did it take to get to that next level?”

What? Rethink, reconsider, and recalculate that one! I’m here flailing around like a ship in a whirlpool. What “next level” are we talking about?

Looking from within, it looks as though I’m just spinning my wheels in the same old spot. Kind of like being around your children all the time, they never change. But when relatives come from afar for that rare, but sometimes “too often” visit, all you hear is “oh my how little junior has grown,” or “what happened to that little girl I used to bounce on my knee?” When you look at things on a daily basis, it is only the drama that gets noticed.

I believe it must have hatched as I bantered thoughts and ideas around with artist Jeffery Sparks as we talked of creating a group for artists here in the Midwest similar to the Hudson River school of artists, or the Southwest artists. he pointed out that we had to be good to help set an example. He believed we could be among the best in the region as we led this organization that is now called the Missouri Valley Impressionist Society. (MVIS for short)

Sure I agreed, but did I believe it? No, not really.

It wasn’t that I didn’t think I had the talent, I knew I had some, but being the best sounded insurmountable. I mean there are literally thousands upon thousands of artists just in this area. How in the world? No way!

So I put that pipe dream on the back burner, and just focused on painting, and me.

The next time anything like this came up was with my friend and mentor, Rick Howell. If you didn’t know Rick, he was a one of a kind guy, always giving, always caring, helping people, the land and all that inhabited it. He sat me down in his little artists’ retreat and gave me the “low down.” “It’s not going to be easy,” he said. “If you think you have worked hard at anything in yourlife before, you are mistaken.”

Rick told me about making a serious commitment, and passing that boundary of fear that keeps one from taking that step into the unknown. He talked of the proverbial “miles of canvas” that I had to put behind me before I even came close to those goals we wrote down.

What I heard in “Casa Estella” was not new stuff. But hearing it from this unbelievable artist who actually thought that I had the potential to be great was different! It’s one thing to hear words of praise and encouragement from friends and family. But Rick Howell was a professional with an amazing talent, and he began to help me to believe in myself.

Keyword “BELIEVE”

Belief is important. If you don’t believe in yourself, how in the world are you going to convince someone else ? But belief was not all, talent helps, now what in the world are you going to do with it?

Even with Rick behind me, I was still skeptical of all involved, and what it would take to take that next step. Could I do it? Could I commit so much of my time to these goals that we worked out around the kitchen table in a high plains desert? Commit so much time and energy, and money! I was working full time still as a master engraver. Itt was going to cost me quite a bit in salary to reroute into the world of fine arts.

But try to believe.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The time commitment, the energy, looking, seeing, feeling. Eeverything had to change. I did not realize this, but as I went along, this is what I found had to happen for me to even minutely close the gap between me and the upper echelon.

Did it begin slowly? I don’t know, but for me I had to change quite a bit. I had much to learn to take my art from the amateurish to the professional. I knew nothing of color, values, composition. Sure I studied in college, but that was what, 30 years ago, and we just began brushing on things when my career as a fine artist took a turn to the commercial side and family. So I’ve shelved the tales by Stephen King and replaced them with Carlson and Payne.

When I am alone my thinking turns to my art. I am now always questioning what I see, and how I might recreate it on canvas. I see things as I’m driving just around the block or to the next show and try to figure out how to mix that color up with my 4 color palette.

I squint all the time in the middle of a conversation seeing how things look in just a few values. If you see me kind of drift off, it’s probably not a flashback from the late 60’s. More likely I see something that caught my eye and I’m thinking how it might fit best in a horizontal or vertical format.

Is it a case of living, sleeping, eating art? Yes it really is, and I still feel like I’m not doing enough. At night I lay in bed working on inventory, and invoicing, and applications, and social networking. During the day it’s the same thing, but throw in the things that life puts before you, plus if possible a little painting.

I work on a balancing act because, yes, there are other things in my life that I love besides paintingmy wife Susie, and my wonderful family. I have friends and a home, and I still sculpt as an engraver on occasion, though that is becoming rarer by the minute. I do what I must first, then I do what I can after that.

It is a commitment, and it takes a good supporting cast around you. I know I could not have gotten this far alone. At one time I thought so, but for me admitting that I needed help was freeing. I’m not the great and powerful Oz that I once believed. (I think my parents kept trying to tell me this, but would I listen to them?) Well, this is something you must build and nurture constantly, starting in the home, the community, and then beyond.

All this just so I can paint. That’s really what I want to do, and maybe one day that will come. I now believe in myself, and I have seen a little glimpse of the potential within me. I am slowly, ever so slowly, beginning to paint the things that I love to get lost in when I visit galleries.

What does it take to become the best?

I have no idea and will probably never know. What I do know is that it’s not just having the talent.Talent is nothing if you don’t do anything with it.

I’ve heard forever “you’ve got to want something bad enough”. (sports cliché)) I always thought that it doesn’t make a difference if everyone wants the same thing, that doesn’t help. What in the world does it mean “they wanted it more than me?” No way!

What I’ve found is that what you do because you want something bad enough makes all the difference in the world. Maybe that’s what they really mean?

“If you can dream it, you can make it a reality. The possibility lies in your ability, enthusiasm and hard work to realize it.” Lailah Gifty Akita

I’ve changed the way I live, the way I think, the way I see. Everything and anything I can think of that might make me a better artist. I see it helping, and I’m enjoying the journey. You’ve got to do that because if and when the end ever arrives…

photo by Turner Vinson

…that’s it.

The END

Tags: Believe, gregory summers, Hallmark Cards, Jeff Sparks, kansas city art institute, Lailah Gifty Akita, Missouri Valley Impressionist Society., painting, Rick Howell, success
Posted in Art help, Informative, insightful | 16 Comments

Going Green

May 6, 2015 by admin

I do not write advice or tips very often on painting, and probably for good reason.

I’m just a beginner!

Though not the sole reason, that is a good one. The other is I don’t really like advice, probably something I picked up along the way, but growing up I always knew that I knew more than my parents or any of the establishment, so what could they tell me? It was not till later years I found that maybe I should have been paying attention instead of playing around.

Now you tell me!

But I’ve been asked a number of times in the recent months to write something about the “greens” of my paintings, so here I am. This way I think, or I hope, that at least those people will read this and be satiated by my banter.

My mother’s favorite color was green, so I have to like it. I’ve always said my favorite color was blue, but I’m not sure anymore. If there was only one color I could keep for the rest of my life and it had to be one that’s actually on the color wheel I might pick maybe a blue that was leaning a bit towards green, though a blue that has a tinge of violet in it is pretty nice too.

But GREEN? I don’t even have it on my pallet!

Many of you know already that I use a limited pallet of 4 colors and white. 2 warm colors, and 2 cools. Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarine Crimson & Ultramarine Blue.

First it was Phil Starke in the spring of 2011 that threw out most of my paints and left me with 7 to use, then in the fall of that same year when I began mentoring under Rick Howell, he whittled that pallet down to what I am using now. No greens, no earth tones, just the 2 reds, a yellow and a blue.

Now get out and paint!

I live in an area where most times of the year when you go outside to paint you are going to see green. Green grass, green trees, green water. It’s pretty much the dominant color.

So why no green on the pallet? Seems like it would sure make things so much easier and quicker just to go ahead and throw a Viridian, or a Sap green on the pallet. Maybe it would, but right now I seem to be doing okay without, and just in case, I actually have a tube of Viridian in my backpack and have for years. It’s for that time I might need some color I can’t get, or that extra punch that I’m not capturing with my typical 4 paints, but so far I’ve not pulled it out. I mean I love all those wonderful tubes of green that they have made up for every scene you could think of, but I’m still liking the greens I get from my primary colors.

It’s not just mixing the greens the way you like, but you really need to see them first. Phil taught me how to look and separate the greens, and push them one way or another. Different times of the year the same trees are a different green, along with different times of the day. Cool greens, warm greens they are what the forests are made up of, but just because you know it’s green, you don’t have to paint it that way.

It’s like everything else you see, and everything else you paint, comparing one tree to the next, one color to the next. Is the tree bluer, or does the tree have more yellow in it?

I love painting outdoors and if you go out in the spring and summer around my neck of the woods there is going to be a lot of green, and you want to keep it interesting, so push those greens one way or another seemed to make a lot of sense to me.

If you’ve read any of Carlson’s landscape painting books you know you have to learn the tree, and where it’s from and what holds it up. It’s not just leaves on branches, but knowing and understanding how they grow, and what makes them twist, and the unbelievable amount of weight that each limb holds up. Just seeing your subject is not enough, it’s the understanding that grounds it into believability. It’s like trees with larger leaves are going to reflect more light, trees with smaller leaves will generally be darker, the earlier the season the warmer the foliage. There is a lot involved, and I do find it helps to understand, but I don’t quite go into the politics of trees as Mr. Carlson sometimes does 😉

One could spend an entire life just painting trees, and I’ve seen master artists doing just that, and still they study and learn. I don’t know if I have painted a tree that I am completely happy with. I don’t know if I ever will, though I will continue to try.

When I mix up colors to paint, I don’t make giant piles of color, I mix a bit up and then start pushing one direction or the other. Lighter/darker, warmer/cooler. These are the things I continue to say to myself throughout my painting.

I have no formula for my greens, each time I approach a subject, there is no preconceived notion. I start afresh. I let the light dictate what I do, and what I mix up.

Each time is a learning experience, and know there is something wrong if it’s not. I can paint something a thousand times and still feel the beginner. There are not more shades of one color than another, it’s just that the human eye can pick out more shades of green because of where it is on the light spectrum.

I know, boring so I won’t go there.

Just get out and paint, really look at what you are seeing, and see how the light and surrounding objects affect that subject… and then push it one way or another to best suit your needs.

Sometimes it works, and then other times… scrape it!

Prairie Fire

Tags: compare, green, limited pallet, painting, phil starke, push, Rick Howell
Posted in Art help, Informative | 5 Comments

Return to Sender

May 21, 2014 by admin

You my dear friend are now a part of history, very pointless and inconsequentiial piece of history, but nonetheless this is the first.

This is my first ever “HOW TO” blog.

His Lordship

Yay!

What do you think about a “How to be an artist” blog? No way, too easy. That’s grab anything, stick it anywhere and call it art. Everyone does it, those lucky few make money at it. What I’m “How-To-ing” about is getting that wonderful piece of art you just created to the gallery on the East coast and back again. (or West coast if you are so inclined.)

It’s great creating art and selling it straight off your easel, don’t even have to worry about framing. But on occasion when that doesn’t happen, one must paint it, frame it, send to your gallery, or if it’s a good enough of a piece, enter into shows.

I am very fortunate to live an an area where if I were so inclined could be entering shows locally all year long and never have to ship my art elsewhere.

But that would be too logical.

I of course spend half of my time taking part in shows across the country, in places that are difficult to find even with my GPS.

art containters

How’s that old saying go by one of the original prophets… “Only in his hometown and in his own house is a soul without honor.” Sure, it can be interpreted a bazillion ways, but I take it “you ain’t no one at home, till you’ve made it somewhere else”. Kind of a drag, but it’s often the way it is.

So I send things via courier to places far and wide, which just so happens to be different than when you ship a painting when it sells. After a show if it does not sell, it must be returned, subsequently it must then be repacked by the gallery, labeled and shipped. The package or crate I use to ship paintings needing to be returned are not the disposable type you use in a sale.

What I want in my shipping package or container is:

Safety for the artwork: cushioned packing materials, snug fit
Sturdy: able to take drops, falls, kicks, stacking
Ease of access: not a mystery how to open and close
Mobility: light, easy to carry

I believe being on the receiving end has influenced how I build my containers. I have put on several shows/exhibitions and have had to unpack, and repack artwork, and it is not an easy task. Most containers are not made for reusing, things are easily lost, poorly labeled, and often piecemealed together. Artists are great at creating art, but many times they’ll wrap it in a T-Shirt and send it out for delivery. When on a trip my paintings are all mumbo-jumbo in the back of my van, among all the gear, frames, suitcases. Organizing your vehicle for a road trip is an entirely different thing and something I need to start thinking about… again.

Oh yeah, shipping…

…I like wood boxes! Some galleries do not allow shipping in these type of containers, and in those circumstances I actually spend money on a high end cardboard box made specifically for shipping art, but that is a bit pricey, though building a crate such as I do is not cheap.

Now how do we do it?

I’m not going into the boring detail of every move in making these boxes. I’m saving that for my book, in the meantime you can get the idea here, and press me on it later.

Materials:

1/4 sanded plywood (I like the sanded, less splinters in hands) ($18 for a 4×8 sheet, enough for 2)
8′ 1×4″ = shipping 1 painting, 1×6 = 2 paintings, 1×8 = 3 paintings ($8)
8′ 1×2″ for bracing lid
1″ thick sheet of foam insulation board (Owens Corning) ($15)
1″ & 1 1/2″ wood screws ($3)
wood glue ($4)
2 strong hinges ($10)
4 “T” brackets, 3 or 4″ ($6)
carrying handle ($7)

Now what?

Cut it and put it together. Artists are for the most part very good with their hands, and with those hands fill them with tools and get going. Measure the top and bottom plywood to be about 4″ larger than your painting. This allows for a couple inches of padding and the wood frame. The frame must be cut to fit the plywood, glue and screw them in place. Use the 1×2″ strips for the lid, cutting to size and glueing and screwing just inside the edge to create a frame. Attach this with hinges to the wooden box you had just built. Cut insulation board to fit inside the box and glue into place. I like to cut opening in the insulation and place painting in snuggly. Bend “T” brackets to fit around edges, mount on lid. These will be later used to seal crate. Should be just 4 screws holding things securely. Please drill pilot holes before you screw into the wood to keep from splitting. Use lots of glue, the thing can’t stay together too well, but you can try.

Does any of this make sense to you? If so you now have a nice safe container for shipping your art… if not you have now just spent $75 on a pile of lumber and hardware that couldn’t save even a fresco.

Really if you want a more detailed blueprint for building let me know. EMAIL

Make sure if there is a specific way packing needs to be repacked that there are instructions clearly marked. I like to have photos of the artwork that should be packed in this box with titles. I secure this inside along with artists name and address. Don’t assume they have all that info. Put all your return shipping documents in an envelope inside the container.

I mark on the crate what screws need to be removed. They do not always do the obvious or what you thought was the logical choice.

Shipping art is not a lot of fun, but it’s the nature of the beast, and how are you going to find out if it will “play in Peoria” if it never makes it out of Springfield?

Tags: crate, DIY, gregory summers, how to, how to ship art, instructions, learning
Posted in Art help | 3 Comments

A New Favorite

February 20, 2014 by admin

What do you like to hear when someone sees one of your paintings for the 1st time? “Thomas Kinkade move over”, “That looks

Flashed

just like a picture?” Okay, those are actually some of the things that are like nails on a blackboard. What I really like to hear is things that involve, “feel”, or “senses” of some sorts. When I go out to paint, this is what I’m trying to capture, not to bring back a pretty picture, but to bring back a feel or sense of what I shook my bones… so to speak.

But beyond that, there are those that follow your work and comment time after time with a thumbs up like on Facebook, or heart on Pinterest.

What I have found that is reassuring for myself is when someone tells me that they have a “new favorite”. Why I like to hear this, (well that is if they are telling the truth and not just placating me) is because each time I go out to paint, I do try to do my best but more often than not things don’t quite come out right. My ratio of good paintings to bad paintings is not what I had hoped for. But when you somehow miraculously come up with a winner, it’s there in my mind that I can’t top this, so why even try?

I paint because I love to create, and I love to create “paintings”. Paintings that express, paintings that intrigue, that are interesting, that evoke a feel or mood from the viewer. When I go to the art museums I am most captivated by those massive landscapes that are epic in nature, the majestic scenes that encompass near and far. Then at the same time, I could look for ever at some of the more intimate scenes that fill the painting with mystery and wonder. This is what I want to create in my work, and will continue to strive for it. It’s what I like, it’s what I want to see, and sometimes I get an inkling of that in my work and it excites me that I’m going down the right road.

When someone tells me they have a new favorite it tells me first that they had a favorite in the 1st place, that’s good, and then secondly and more important is the fact that I have improved on what I had previously done.

My goal is to create a masterpiece, I’ve seen them, not often but they are out there. It can be done, by me? I’m not sure. I don’t think I have what it takes at the moment, but with enough practice, maybe.

In a workshop with the AIS Master artist Kenn Backhaus he spoke of being a student of the arts, and now I understand why. I go out to paint from life, and when I do this I study the land, and decide what and what not to paint. I hope to always be a student of painting, learning constantly and working to improve with each piece. Taking those miles of hidden paintings and

Prairie Fire

learning why they did not work, and going from there.

It’s like history, and unlike my youngest daughter, I love it. “Those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it”

Learn from the failures, and revel in the successes. But not for too long, you’ve got a new favorite to create. Thanks for listening.

Tags: Facebook, Favorite, Kenn Backhaus, learning, Like, student, study
Posted in Art help, insightful | 2 Comments

Give me 4 for the Road

January 30, 2014 by admin

I really don’t talk about my art much here, or how or why I create it. Not sure why, I just don’t know enough about it to be out trying to act like an authority on something.

I try not to give advice, I find it better to speak of experience, and folks can take what they want from that.

So let’s talk art for a little bit, and specifically colors. I love them! Since my very first little paint set I just loved squeezing out the paints onto a pallet and mixing those things together. I have no idea how many paints that cheap little paint set had in it, but I know it had to have at least twice as many colors as I use now. I thought then that the more paints you had the better you would be, or at least the potential to be better increased.

Many people feel the same way, and some for good reason. They probably know what to do with that magic color they just found at the local hobby store. Me, not so fortunate. I bring home the most awesome tube of color that I could find, and like I was talking about the other day, you could tell in my next painting exactly which store I went to to buy that “perfect” color.

Growing up I painted some, but what I did the most was drawing. Pen, pencil. It’s what was around. I did not have a lot of

RGS circa 1977

disposable income, so drawing on anything I could find was the way I honed my skills. A paint by number kit for Christmas at some point was fun, and loved the results, but it was only a temporary detour from my love for the line.

It was my drawing skills and eye for detail that landed me a job at Hallmark in the 70’s, training to become the Master Engraver that I am today. I loved it, and it paid well. Taking 2D art and creating something 3 dimensional, giving it form, and depth, creating that illusion of reality with edges and shape.

Though it was the draftsman skills that paid the bills, I found painting a wonderful release from reality, a place where one could go for a time to escape the chaos of the world around. Taking a large white canvas and throwing color on it, step back and feel what develops. Finding shapes, colors, textures all mixing to bring my imagination alive.

At first I stayed away from painting what I saw, but rather painted what I wanted to see in a world of crazy fantasy inspired by the times. I don’t know if the times changed or it was me, but the imagination took a sabbatical and I began creating from reality. (which at times can be just as odd)

In this mixed up world of art where breaking the rules is the norm, and following them is like the worst thing in the world one could do, there was this rule that I always stuck to since the beginning of time…

“Do NOT to use paint straight from the tube!” Okay, Okay already.

I took this rule and etched it deep into my psyche and still to this day I get this feeling that if I put straight paint on my canvas someone is going to come up to me and put “cheater” on my forehead. And the number of paints on my pallet was limited only to how many I could find. That and the size of my pallet…

till 2011

In 2011 I met a man that would change my pallet, my art, and my life. A quiet man, who spoke with his art and his actions. He took that crazy art store of colors, literally shipped it to a needy artist in Africa, all save 4 simple colors. 2 cool colors, and 2 warm colors, and said “go little grasshopper!” And I went.

My pallet

“Why?” Is it easier with 4 colors, what are the advantages, and how about the drawbacks?

At the time I thought Rick was crazy telling me that I was going to be painting with only Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, and Ultramarine Blue. Sure I had heard the stories about “you can make every color using just the 3 primary colors”, but I thought that was like an Urban Legend or something… not reality. But I was about to find out. That or have the most gawd awful paintings the world has ever seen. (and there are some bad ones… not mentioning names)

I began my seemingly impossible task of creating art with my new pallet.

It was/is a challenge, but I must say after a while you begin not to miss the fact that you have no tubes of green paint on your pallet. I had to go so far as not even to put one in my back pack so I wouldn’t be tempted at first. I love some of those greens that they have out there, and when painting in the area I’ve grown up in, the summers cannot be recreated without every single shade of green being used!

What I began to see immediately in my art was something that I didn’t pay attention to before, (being self taught in this world

Rick on the Conejos

of color), and that was a harmony in my work. When they first spoke of seeing this in my paintings I had to step back and compare. And the more I became familiar with these colors, learning how to mix properly, making some of those colors that we find in our world, the more I began enjoying them, and the challenge of creating the art that I do with my limited pallet. It is very rewarding, and freeing at the same time for me. I don’t have to look to hard to see if I have all my paints before I leave on an outing. I just count them on one hand. Simple, even for me!

I use the same pallet for winter as I do for summer spring and fall (or is it autumn?) In each color I use a little bit all 3 of my primary colors. Whether the red I use is alizarin, or cad red depends on the temp I am trying to achieve at the time. But I always put a red, blue and yellow in all of my mixes. It’s that harmony I am still trying to achieve in my work, along with knocking down the tone a bit.

So is this another one of those “rules” that I have to live by, do or die type thing? No way! I really have no qualms about using a yellow ochre or a viridian sometime. I know they are very useful colors, and I’m sure my art would benefit by throwing in an extra tube of something or two, and I’m sure I will. Rick told me when he went to paint overseas he added another blue to his pallet. I wish I could remember which one, but if and when I travel across the water I’ll know.

In the meantime my goal is to become well versed at what I do. I have a long ways to go, and a short time to get there. No idea how short.

I love my 4 color pallet, it’s simple, easy to pack up, and I can still make a total mess of things with these 4 as I did with 44.

This would have been Rick’s “Golden Year” Born in ’57 and 57 years old.

Thanks Rick

LaSauses Turnaround

Tags: 4 colors, art, drawing, gregory summers, Hallmark, limited pallet, mentor, pallet, pleinair, Rick Howell
Posted in Art help, Informative | 2 Comments

Do You See What I See?

December 31, 2013 by admin

A star, a star, dancing in the night, with a tail as big as a kite.

The holidays are about over for this season, just New Years and then Ground Hogs Day is coming up, but then we’ve got a bit of a break. I had hoped to take this holiday time to get a bit of a rest from a long hard year, and spend some time with family and friends.

Did it work out the way I had planned? Did it work out that way for you?

I did spend more time with family, but the slowing down part never really happened. I enjoy painting so I try to get out and do it as regularly as possible, and at the same time

Dorian & I

I have been readying myself for the upcoming year. Can’t enter it without a running start can we? No way!

But as I traveled with family, sat around visiting, playing games and enjoying company I consciously found myself looking at things as I always do. Trying to decide how this could look better. What I could do if I were going to paint it to make it a more pleasant scene. It did not matter what it was I was looking at, and it didn’t really make much of a difference what was going on. Automatically my brain begins to compare and evaluate.

No I don’t “zone out”, well not to my knowledge at least. I just quietly look at things, try to figure out what their local color is, how I could mix it up with my pallet of 4 colors. How it might fit better on a page, landscape or portrait format. There are a bazillion things that run through your mind in an instant, some of them are actually pertinent to the situation, but then many… my favorite ones, are the ones that assess it’s composition and reproduction possibilities.

I have no idea if this is what all artists do, and whether it is a learned behavior, or more genetic. I do know that as long as I can remember I have been doing this in some manner or form.

“KC Scout”

Grade school had me taking scribbles from other kids and I would take them and transform them into interesting objective or abstract designs. Not a page a school notebook or textbook went without being adorned in some form or another. (much to the dismay of my parents who had to pay for damages) Walls, desks, table tops, stairwells, nothing was too sacred for me and my mini masterpieces!

Is this natural for the artist, or the creative mind? Is it natural for everyone? I can only speak for myself, and it was natural for me. But if I were to listen to some of my keepers, I believe “are you crazy?”, and “what were you thinking?” was quite often mentioned, so maybe it wasn’t something everyone did.

It is not just in the arts. My mind works in a manner that is constantly trying to improve something, maybe. Things just can’t be left alone would be a better adjective. Always trying to find ways to change things, hopefully to make them better, but not always the case. I love to fix things, create, destroy, alter, change… Things were not made to be left alone. Is it a “guy” thing? I know for a fact that the majority of men when presented with a problem will try to fix it, while that same case being presented to a group of women, they will talk about it… then who knows?

By that time I am long gone!

I love the challenge of taking any scene and creating the best composition possible out of it. I’m getting better at it, and I believe it’s benefited greatly from the constant appraising of the view before me, and then of course a bit of education. Finally getting a bit of “formal” training in the arts, and what it entails. Reading books by some of the Masters of the genre, Payne, Hawthorne, Carlson. At long last paying attention to those who know better and listening.

If only I had listened to my elders earlier, ha! Not me, I’m the type that must learn by trial and error, and error, and… right now I am trying to see less than what is there. My mentor did not go a session without telling me to “simplify!” Less is better, no paintings were ruined by having too little. I was notorious for including everything I saw into the painting. A typical beginners mistake I’m afraid.

I will always be a student of the arts.

Do you see what I see? I doubt it, we all see differently, and that is good. Our brains interpret things differently, the eyes see, the brain translates, and we create, and create, and create.

Tags: art, gregory summers, learning, mentor, plein air, pleinair, Rick Howell
Posted in Art help, Informative, insightful | No Comments

Let’s try Art

July 24, 2013 by admin

It’s strange I don’t always blog about art here, so I thought I would give it a try, just for a change of pallets.Shall we keep it general, or go specific?

Warm up on Crystal Creek

Let’s go with my latest projects, this is taking “so-so” plein air studies and making large paintings from them. 1st off, let me say I am not a pro at this, I saw a blog by Kathleen Dunphy’s about doing just this, and thought to give it a try. It makes so much sense though, I mean there had to have been something there in the first place that caught your eye, then you bring home a less than adequate study? What is up with that? I find that it makes so much sense to take one of those “rejects” and creating a larger working painting, even more so than a plein air study that came out great. Well, maybe… we’ll get back to that.

I’ve always loved painting large paintings. In college my average size was about 36″ x 48″. Okay, it’ s not big for a lot of artists, but for those who paint outdoors that’s kind cumbersome. So coming quickly back to the present before I get too lost in memories, the average size painting I now do plein air is approx. 18×24. My mentor thought this the perfect size for painting studies, and I was totally okay with that. Lately I have begun to paint smaller outdoors, mainly to help generate a little money to buy more paint. Seems that the smaller pieces

Me at Crystal Creek

have been moving a lot better in these times than the larger paintings. In this instance, I had an 11×14 plein air painting from a paintout with the Missouri Valley Impressionist Society at a place called “Crystal Creek”. A beautiful autumn day along a slow running stream in the woods. I had given a 3 hour workshop earlier that day along the Blue River, and quickly found my way here afterwards to join in while I still could. Many had left already, but I saw that they had still left the beautiful scenes behind them. Great! What I came away with was an okay study, I loved the colors, and the composition, but I thought it left a lot to be desired, and I tossed it onto the shelf. There it sat for months and months. I kept going out painting more, bringing good pieces that needed just a little tweaking into the studio and finishing them up. I would find older studies I really loved and finished some of them up, but an ever-increasing pile of paintings kept nagging at me.

Then I saw Kathleen’s blog and thought what a great idea.

I grabbed one of the 1st ones I came to, set it up next to an easel with a 30×40″ canvas on it, found an old reference photo, and “went to town”! To help keep things loose, after my initial block in, I would set my timer to about 30 minutes (as per Rick) and paint in spurts. Not spending too much time at any one setting so as to “overwork” the painting. I spent a lot of time looking through a mirror at it, getting away and studying it. There were things that I embellished that I swept over in the smaller piece. In enlarging the painting I did not approach it much differently than I do my plein air paintings. I did mix up larger amounts of paint, and used a #12 brush more than my favorite #8, but I did finish it up with the smaller #8. I quickly sketched in a few key lines of the painting, then began blocking in the values, keeping the cools in the cools, and keeping it warm guess where… you got it, where the warms are supposed to be.

I was very tempted to begin going into detail, there is so much you can do with a 30×40″ canvas, so so much!

But I resisted, and I believe I came away with one of my better paintings. What an exciting thing this was to me, it gives so much hope to all those canvases that had some good things about them, just didn’t quite “do it!” Plus now I have a large painting for the corporate buyer, and then a moderately priced piece for the average collector… either way, I hope that’s you.

Now whether an artist, or art lover, go grab some sort of canvas and smile.

Fall Enchantment

Tags: Kathleen Dunphy, Missouri Valley Impressionist Society., MVIS, painting, plein air
Posted in Art help | 4 Comments

The Artist

a little bit about Gregory Summers, and some stats