Stunning Plein Air Paintings

Annette Hanna will be teaching a Plein Air for Pastel workshop at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio (WIFAS) in July. Annette uses this vibrant medium to create visually stunning landscapes, and will teach you to do the same.

Read our recent interview with Annette to get a feel for who she is as an artist.

Q: When did your interest in art begin and how long have you been an artist?

A: When I was a child the first thing I remember wanting was colored pencils, not toys or dolls. I've been drawing all my life and painting for about 40 years in oils, and probably ten years or so in pastels.

Q: What do you seek to communicate through your art or your art instruction?

A: I seek to communicate human experience, whether that be knowing a particular person or seeing a breathtaking landscape. There are many beautiful things in this world and I hope to recreate and share many of them.

Q: What drives you as an artist?

A: I just have a compulsion to create an image that can't be denied. Give me a pencil, brush or pastel stick and time evaporates. I constantly observe and see things that I don't think others see and want to put them down on paper or canvas.

Q: What is a recent piece of art you created and what inspired you to paint it?

A: I passed by a scene recently that lasted about five minutes and was so striking that I knew I had to paint it.

Q: Do you have a favorite brand of paints, brushes, or canvas that you use?

A: In pastels I like Unisons, but also use nupastels and some particular faber castel colors. My favorite paper is Wallis Belgian Grey.

Q: What advice do you have for artists seeking to improve their work?

A: The best advice that I give all my students is to get a sketch book and use it as often as possible. Visit art museums, galleries and local art shows, and keep painting.

Q: What do you think is unique about Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio’s workshops?

A: WIFAS, run by Cary Jurriaans, an extremely fine painter herself, has consistently excellent instructors, a friendly and supportive atmosphere, and is located in beautiful and inspiring surroundings.

Man versus Nature

Most painters receive inspiration from their surroundings. Living in the country has inspired and influenced David Gluck’s paintings. Most of David’s subjects for his Still Life paintings are objects collected locally. The same holds true for his figurative work. David tends to paint the people he knows and is familiar with. 

David says that since moving to the country he has come into contact with many salt of the earth type people, people who know how to live off the land in a way that their grandparents and great grandparents did before them. They remind him of a lost generation of survivors, the pioneers of the past. The theme of man pitted against nature is one that continues to inspire David.

For example, last year, David was an Exceptional Merit Winner at the 2012 International Portrait Competition for this painting The Trapper. This painting depicts a man whom David befriended. When David knew him, the man did not have a job or home of his own, but he kept himself extremely busy collecting scrap metal (basically, a modern-day forager). In this painting, David depicts this man as an early settler-trapper, a grizzled breed of men that lived with few material comforts and braved harsh winters to seek a living from the woods.

Read what David has to say about his painting process:

Q: What techniques do you use?

A: I paint in a very traditional manner. My approach isn’t varied or complicated, but I do put an emphasis on textural qualities. I think one thing that always has and always should distinguish a painting from a photograph is the tactile quality of paint.

Q: Describe your process.

A: I would say at least half of a piece is in the planning. I always do a series of studies starting with thumbnails and preliminary drawings for tone and composition. I end with colors studies before beginning on the final canvas. I try to leave very little to chance.

Q: What is your major consideration when composing a painting?

A: Broad tonal relations are my primary consideration. I am a tonalist as opposed to a colorist, which means light and dark relationships are the crux of my work. I spend a lot of time working out a perfect shadow pattern, especially in my model’s face. It is important to have the features illuminated in just the right way to suggest a certain mood and psychology.

David Gluck will be teaching a Classical Still Life painting workshop at WIFAS this summer, June 3 to 7, 2013. You can learn more about his workshop on our website.

Oil Painting Materials Demonstration

Painting with a North Light

Qiang Huang, a prolific painter and art instructor, will be teaching a Still Life workshop at Whidbey Island FineArt Studio in May 2013. Qiang’s paintings show remarkable accuracy under lush brush strokes. This is partly due to his focus on light distribution as well as his manipulation of values, colors, and edges.

Many years ago, Qiang watched a video with David Leffel painting Still Life. David talked about the importance of using a natural north light when painting. Wanting to have as natural north light as possible to paint by, Qiang set out to find an artificial light that would replicate natural north light.

Qiang began to experiment with lights. He discarded using a fluorescent light because it does not have a continuous spectrum light like the sun, so it does not give the color accuracy of the pigment. Instead, Qiang focused on tungsten and halogen lights. He discovered that the best solution was to use Philips’ Natural Light Plus (Par 16 Flood), 60W and add color correcting light filters.

These blue tinted transparencies are easy to use. You simply clip the filter on the reflector of your lamp. Once you do this, you have created your own north light. You can read more about creating your own north light and ordering color correcting light filters on Qiang Huang’s website.

Qiang shared with us a little more about his painting.

What is your standard palette of colors?

My Palette: Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Transparent Oxide Red (or Burnt Sienna), Ultramarine Deep, Phthalo Blue, and Titanium White. I like Rembrandt oil colors, but other brands are fine too. I use Winton as well.

What type of canvas do you use?

I like to use primed and stretched canvas. I also use canvas panels from RayMar, or loose canvas. I do not use paper backed canvas panels. They are too absorptive.

What kind of medium do you use?

Most of the time, I don't use any medium. I use paint directly out of the tube. I occasionally use Liquin if I want the painting dry faster. I use mineral spirit to wash my brushes.

Do you use retouch varnish when your paintings are dry to the touch?

Yes, I do. I use Demar retouch varnish spray a week after the painting is done. If I have the painting more than three months, I coat the painting with a permanent varnish with a soft brush.

You can view more of Qiang’s paintings on his dailypainting blog.

Staying Focused with Gregg Kreutz

“Gregg Kreutz is a glass-half-full type of guy.”

“Gregg is a wonderful teacher and superb artist.”

“Gregg is the nicest, most humble, and personable teacher, while being a wonderful and gifted artist.”

“It was wonderful to see Gregg paint. He just smears the oil paint on, dividing it into light and shadow parts, and then pulls out the details.”

These are just a few of the comments students have made in regards to Gregg Kreutz and his teaching style. 

Gregg Kreutz is a full-time painter and teaches at the Art Students League of New York, as well as art schools around the United States. He is also the author of the book Problem Solving for Oil Painters. Gregg’s book is not a typical how-to art book. Rather, he describes principles and techniques that keep a painting unified and free of fussy details.

"Learning to paint is learning what things really look like," Gregg says. "Details are always trying to lure us to our doom, but you have to be strong and keep your eyes on the big issues. That's more interesting than saying 'make the sky darker.' If you're only copying the look of things, there is something dead or useless in that."

You can watch Gregg paint in this YouTube video. Over the course of three hours during a morning class, Gregg demonstrates how to paint the figure from a live model.

In addition to being a painter, and the author of a book, Gregg has also written three full length plays that are published by Samuel French. They have been and continue to be performed worldwide.

Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio has the privilege of hosting a workshop by Gregg Kreutz in April. This four day class will focus on the art of picture making; how a person, a view, and/or a collection of things can be turned into a unified whole. Through demonstrations and one-on-one instruction, Gregg Kreutz will explore different strategies to turn the seemingly random into a harmonious unit. 

Gregg will have encouragement for each student. For he says, "In any painting there's always something that's working. Expand on that, and don’t slip into this-is-a-disaster feeling."