Masters of the American West Exhibition

That was fun!  I was impressed to see how able to critique you were.  What struck me most?  Yes, there were a few masters there but most were competent, top in the field painters - and getting there is do-able if you take the time and put in the effort to learn.  I hope to see some of you in the Masters show someday!

Tucker Smith, "Wyoming Sky"

Our field trip to the Autry Museum's "Masters of the American West" exhibition is Saturday, February 20th. Admission is $9.   Terry, Adria, Tim, Jen, June, Marcia and Mary are signed up to go. 

Map

Reference Books for Landscape

I recommend these books for painting landscape:

"Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting", by John Carlson.

"Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color", by Kevin Macpherson

"Landscape Painting Inside and Out", by Kevin Macpherson

"Composition of Outdoor Painting", Edgar Payne

Two New Product Lines - Alkyd and Acrylic

Two new paint lines have recently been released, giving artists more paint choices.

C.A.S. AlkydPro is a safflower-based oil paint to which alkyd resin is added to speed drying time.  All colors in the C.A.S. line dry within 24 hours or less. Drying mediums in the line can speed drying time to under two hours. Impasto and gel mediums are also available.  These are not water-based and require Turpenoid. Alkyds are great for plein air painting and for glazing techniques. In the studio I often use Griffin alkyd titanium white with traditional oils to speed drying time.  Oil paint and alkyds are mixable.  My main objection to using a full alkyd palette has been pigment load.  The C.A.S. line claims to have a professional rather than student grade pigment load.   Winsor Newton Griffin Alkyd has been the only alkyd available prior to C.A.S.   So, if you like oil paint but prefer the layers to dry more rapidly, AlkydPro might be worth a try.   

Winsor Newton Artist's Acrylic is replacing their Artist's Acrylic Colour line. The new line is packaged with a black label. Winsor Newton is my favorite acrylic line because of the buttery consistency and high pigment load. Recently other acrylic paint manufacturers have gone in the direction of increasing the open time of acrylics resulting in Golden Open and Chroma Interactive. Winsor Newton decided to tackle a different problem of acrylic paint - value shift. Winsor Newton claims their new line has no value shift from wet to dry. This by far has been my greatest problem with acrylics. They dry as much as 40% lighter and this makes it very difficult to maintain accurate values.  I have not been taken with the longer open time of Golden Open or Chroma Interactive because when I use acrylics, I use them because they dry quickly. If I require slower drying I use oils.  So, Winsor Newton's new line is a huge step in the right direction for me.  I hope they have maintained their pigment load! The secret in their sauce ...  the traditional acrylic suspension shifts from opaque to translucent as it dries and in so doing shifts the paint to a darker value.  Winsor Newton's new acrylic suspension starts out transparent.

Paint the Redwoods Prospectus

A worthy cause with the top 50 winners published in a catalog ... paint the forests of the United States. 

Charles Reid on Planning Lost and Found Edges

by Charles Reid

For those joining me on the contour line and color adventure on Tuesday afternoons this January and February, here's a sneak peek at where we are headed.  This PDF courtesy of www.artistsnetwork.com covers Charles Reid's approach to lost and found edges.  We'll be talking about this!

Late Renoir and American Painting Exhibits at LACMA

Two exhibits at LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) February 28th through May 9th, 2010.

Renoir in the 20th Century

February 14–May 9, 2010

Renoir in the 20th Century focuses on the last three decades of Renoir’s career, when, following his rupture with impressionism, he turned to an art that was decorative, classical, and informed by a highly personal interpretation of the Great Tradition. Renoir’s paintings from this period, which have never been studied and shown as such, are often misunderstood as they do not fit comfortably into the history of high modernism. This exhibition is the first monographic study dedicated to Renoir since the comprehensive retrospective of 1985 at the Galeries nationales du Grand Palais in Paris, and the first one ever mounted by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Offering an unprecedented look at Renoir through the lens of modernism, the exhibition bridges the divide that exists in many people’s minds between art of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries

American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915

February 28–May 23, 2010

From the colonial period to the present, Americans have been inventing characters and plots, settings and situations to give meaning to our everyday lives. American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915includes seventy-five paintings, from before the Revolution to the start of World War I, that tell these stories in scenes of family life and courting, work and leisure, comic mishaps and disasters. These daily experiences were all subject to the artist’s searching and revealing eye and many of the works on view are famous images known to almost every American. Major artists such as Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer, John Singleton Copley and George Caleb Bingham, John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt, are included in this important survey, the first of its kind in over thirty years.

My Painting Students Get Some Ink!

I had to opportunity to speak with Carl Love at the TVAL Open House and I enjoyed the conversation very much. The gallery is featured in his column in the Press-Enterprise.  We greatly appreciate the coverage.  Thank you, Carl. Let's get out and paint Temecula! 

"Local Artists Paint Bright Future"

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

By CARL LOVE

Special to the Press-Enterprise

'Are you related to Ralph Love?"

It's a question I hadn't heard in at least five years, but I heard it twice in one night on Saturday. It must have meant I was around artists, a rare treat in these parts.

Love -- him, not me -- was Temecula's most famous artist. There is the Ralph Love Plein Air Festival held in Old Town Temecula, but artists here are focusing on the Temecula Valley Art League's open house for its gallery at 41789 Nicole Lane.

Eighteen league members have about 100 paintings on display on the walls of the front room. It's one of a few local galleries, a sad commentary for an area that's become so urban.

Temecula fancies itself as a destination with its Wine Country, Old Town and balloon festival. Yet our shortage of galleries is not what you'd expect from a place that's trying to be sophisticated.

Doing its part to change that is the Art League, founded as a nonprofit in 1977 by Mary Davis, who was there Saturday.

This is the first time the group has had a permanent home, about 1,600 square feet to hold its monthly meetings, display art, conduct classes, host shows, and serve as a gathering place for artists.

One art teacher, Mary Mulvihill, said four of her students -- Adria Di Maria, Jennifer Morlan, June Kakowski and Tim Russell -- have work displayed here.

"There is something exciting about being in a gallery," she says.

Works in the front room included lots of flowers, animals, a few western scenes and some snow and beach paintings. Yet it was hard to find anything local from our Wine Country, Old Town, balloon festival, agriculture heritage and trademark subdivisions.

"We are lagging" in paintings of local scenes, Mulvihill says. So much so that Japanese tourists who visited recently had to be referred to Temecula City Hall, where works featuring local scenes can be found.

"If anybody is going to do it (create art of local things), we're going to do it," Mulvihill says.

Nobody knows better than Davis, an artist who won the community citizen of the year award in 1972. She also took lessons from Love, who she says worked in a room that was all black. An ordained minister, she said at times he also gave sermons while painting. You know artists; they can have their quirks.

"He was very religious, very quiet," she says. "What he said was the word."

Love, who owned a studio called the Art Shack, sold paintings for a fundraiser to get the art league up and running. She bought some paintings and is willing to display them at the new gallery.

"They are kind of priceless," she says.

No doubt he would have enjoyed the new space, which has almost tripled the Art League's membership since it opened. Membership is $30 a year and President Carol Landry, at 951-303-8100, has more information.

Landry has big plans for the Art League's new space, staffed by volunteers. Art walks and juried shows are held every month. A western wildlife art show is planned in May.

Bea Taylor is one local artist thrilled to have a spot to display her work.

"After 32 years we finally have a permanent place to show our art," she says. "It's wonderful that I can share my work."

Besides her art in the front room, Taylor also has her paintings displayed in the back rooms, including two in the restroom.

"I don't mind," she says happily.

When it comes to a permanent place to show their work after all these years of wandering, local artists aren't about to be picky.

Reach Carl Love at carllove4@yahoo.com.