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."