Discipline and Hard Work

Discipline and hard work. These are two essential ingredients to being self-supporting artist. Just ask Anne Belov. 

Anne tries to be in her studio by 9 AM every morning to paint. In her 35 years as an artist, Anne has painted landscapes, still life, and interior imagery. Her bold and direct brushwork results in captivating imagery that expresses the bond she feels with her subject. Anne says, “My paintings are about my life…where I live, work in the garden, sit in a comfortable chair to read. I refuse to be limited to one subject matter or even one medium. I have worked in watercolor, oils, printmaking (etching, lithography, and monoprint), egg tempera, and drawing.”

Hard work and discipline has kept Anne busy even with the recent slow-down in our economy. With slower sales, Anne decided to use her free time to push the boundaries of her creativity into new directions. Using Kickstarter, Anne ran a successful campaign to raise almost $7,000 in funds to self-publish a wordless children’s picture book, Pandamorphosis. The book was fueled by her obsession with pandas and her panda cartoons which she has been drawing for the past five years. She started a blog, Your Brain on Pandas, in 2009 to showcase these panda cartoons because she says, “My friends got tired of me chasing them down the street with a stack of cartoons clenched in my fist yelling, ‘Tell me they're funny!  Please!  Hey! Wait, you didn't read the one about the panda kindergarten yet!’”

Anne will be teaching a class on Egg Tempera for Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio in April 2013. Anne primarily works in oil on linen glued to hardboard. She uses traditional recipes for egg-oil emulsion rabbit skin glue gesso to create a more absorbent ground than acrylic or oil based gessoes. Subsequent layers of paint create the depth and luminosity that characterize her evocative paintings.

You can follow Anne on her art blog at http://nothingoverlooked.wordpress.com.

Sculpture with Edward Eyth and Tip of the Month

Did you know we will be having a sculpture workshop next year in June.

Edward Eyth 

Figurative Sculpture

Edward Eyth provides artists with insights attained throughout his extensive career as artist, designer, college instructor and director of the Richard MacDonald Masters Workshops for over five years.

His drawing and sculpture workshops include discussions and comprehensive demonstrations that provide participants with methods for genuine artistic advancement. Working from a live model each day, students come to understand and assimilate the habits and methods that facilitate a solid, consistent artistic process. A dependable studio process promotes self-reliance and an inherent freedom for unhindered creative expression.

In the three day program we do a new pose each day, and while it doesn't provide time for a lot of detail & refinement, it DOES motivate a faster process.  With the luxury of 5 days, we could still do three figures, but spend two days on two of the poses.  Or 4 figures, spending 2 days on one of the poses.
check out our website at: http://www.whidbeyislandfas.com/workshops/eeyth_2013.html

Tip of the month:

 Fast Gesso Panel:

You can easily mount linen to a board with gesso.

Just seal the board, paint gesso all over liberally. Then paint gesso all over,: the cut to size linen.

Lay it on the board both painted sides facing. use a brayer.

Paint Gesso all over the right side of the linen. Brayer again. Wash brayer.

Let dry, sand down and gesso again, sand again or leave the texture.

The linen will shrink a bit. After this process, you can use Gamblin Ground for an oil finish, or use it like it is. I like my substrates smooth and will sand and layer.

Cary

Wow what a wonderful workshop with Michael Klein, we all painted with natural light and the result is so different. Michael was a patient and dedicated instructor and we hope he comes back next year after his trip to Argentina.
See his website at www.michaelkleinpaintings.com and his video magazine : http://www.americanpaintingvideomagazine.com/

A Standard for Painting

American Still Life painter Jeff Legg will often tell his art students to just stop and really look at what they are painting and figure out how to paint it.  Jeff emphasizes three things in his art workshops:

1. Basic setup
2. Composition
3. Paint color and quality

These three things are pretty much Jeff’s standard for painting. 

Jeff Legg’s artwork is often described as "masterful, ethereal, and timeless." Every painting is an intimate conversation between artist and viewer. One believes you can reach into the scene and actually touch the objects.

In his art workshops, Jeff spends time demonstrating his approach and techniques. There is a lot to be learned from watching other artists paint. Spending time watching Jeff paint and discuss each step of his work brings a rich learning experience to the student in Jeff’s workshops.

Of his painting, Jeff states, “"My desire is to convey a personal vision through classical methods using the various visual tools and principals, not expressly to make a record, but to re-create the mood or feeling of the person, place or object before me." And he will teach you to do this also.

To get a sense of Jeff’s teaching style and technique, you can watch this video from a previous class Jeff taught at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio where he demonstrated techniques for still life painting.

Jeff’s work is represented by some of the nation’s most distinguished galleries coast to coast. He is honored as an Oil Painters of America Master painter and has won numerous prizes. We invite you to come to WIFAS and learn from this master painter next month. 

WIFAS Open Studio

The Whidbey Island Arts Council hosts an annual Whidbey Open Studio Tour. This year the tour will be on October 6 and 7, 2012 from 10am to 5pm each day.  We invite you to come make a weekend of art on Whidbey Island!

More than 50 artists will open their studios for a self-guided tour. Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio is participating in this Open Studio Tour.

Our studio will be open both days and we invite you to come out and meet Cary Jurriaans and Gordon Edberg, view their art work, and learn about the workshops and classes WIFAS offers.

The Whidbey Open Studio Tour is free. You can pick up a brochure on the island and then use the interactive map in combination with the yellow tour signs to help guide your way to each studio.

We look forward to meeting you!

Weekend with the Masters

September 10,2012

Just back from Weekend with the Masters, a fabulous 5 days put on by American Artist.
The first day I had a portrait workshop with Jeremy Lipking, absolutely amazing. Wonderful artist, hope he will come to Whidbey one day.

Demo in progress by Jeremy Lipking
Jeremy loves the long haired badger brushes, he has incredible control with them. His colors are soft.

The next day was Daniel Gerhartz. Also amazing, actually they were all incredible painters!See his demo:

 The next one was Carolyn Andersen, boy would I like to have her teach at WIFAS.

 The following are demos by Sherrie McGraw and Rose Frantzen. The painted on stage at the same time and with very different styes and techniques, it was hilarious....

 Rob is having a serious conversation or contemplating his whiskey....

 an beautiful Juliette

 Julie and Alexey, what a character!! and fabulous artist

 Last but not least Quang Ho, masterful and fun..

I feel enriched and lucky to have been part of all this,
Happy Painting, Cary

Sculpting with Simon Kogan

“Creating art is difficult. An incredible amount of understanding is needed: 

from knowledge of the history, tools and techniques of art to a knowledge

of  how we, as artists, fit into the grander scheme. It is in a state of honed 

but empty readiness that the mystery of creativity may find expression through 

us. If it does, it will be powerful, it will touch, and it will have life.  

It will then be worthy of the term "art".” 

So states Simon Kogan, acclaimed sculptor. Born in Russia, Simon studied under the renowned sculptor Isaac Brodsky. Since immigrating to the United States in 1991, Simon has been generous with sharing his artistic passion with others.

Not only does Simon teach classes on sculpting, he also shares free information on his website with those who may not be able to attend his classes (or those who just want to learn more about his work).

Using an old Italian institution of the bottega—the method whereby artists provided for the thorough education of the novice in his future craft—Simon also shares his work through freedownloads on his website. These documents describing his work are made as straight forward, as clear, and as simple as Simon can for others eager to learn. 

For example, in his “Secrets of the Trade” download, Simon has the following to say about sculpting tools:

The choice of modeling tool depends on the materials to be used for sculpting

Clay loves wood

Wax prefers metal

Oil-clay loves both.

Clay with grog or fiber doesn‘t like

the tool with teeth

and

doesn’t like its surface to be touched twice,

oil clay and wax do.

Hard wax loves sharp teeth.

Wood for the modeling tools

should be hard and

steel should be hardened.

Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio(WIFAS) has the privilege of hosting a workshop on sculpting by Simon in November 2012. Anyone interested in sculpting—with or without experience—is welcome in the class. If you just want to improve your figure drawing, Simon's sculpture workshop is a definite way to do that. Feeling the three-dimensional form helps all drawing and painting!