Time-lapse, 30 sec, Triangulating Interior of a Provence Convent. One of the lessons from our @ProvenceArtExperience workshop April 2019, was how to draw this church's beautiful interior using triangulation. It is an awesome technique which artists can use to place a few objects like a group of trees and a pond, or more complex things like a portrait or figurative work. The idea is to use two landmarks as anchors and sketch in the direction towards a third point/landmark, making a triangle, now armed with three points you map out like star chart all the relevant points. This process elegantly solves issues with perspectives, foreshortening, and proportions. I think it is the best path to arrive at beauty. #figurative_art #figurativeart #drawingtutorial #drawing
Courbet’s Woman with a Parrot. This stars in my lecture Figure the Future, 66-min, link in the bio. Here on Instagram they shadow ban figurative nude art. I can post it on my page and followers can see it but they will not share it with their vast audience. There is also the sabotaging of the word figurative, anything with the hash tag figurative is now meaning representational but devoid of the nude. My talk is about how the great nude was present or preceded humanity’s greatest accomplishments in philosophy, science, politics, and individualism. I wonder if social media knowingly bans the nude to keep individualism repressed? But if we study history and connect the dots we can project that for an evolutionary advancement of humanity it is necessary to celebrate the heroic and beautiful nude. As it inspires balance, proportion, beauty, sensuality, and sublime states of being.
Provence Art Workshop, Sept 2020. Excited thinking about what to teach for the Provence workshop Fall 2020. And I think it would be great to explore color and light theory based on space! When we paint for instance a field of red poppies, way too many people paint the red the same, and it pretty much kills rhythm, movement, and any chance to excite the eye (the eye needs difference no matter how minute). Van Gogh, was a champion of varying the color through space. So out of his playbook, going back to the red poppies, if you add more blue as they recede and more orange as they come forward, you create a dance of variations of red, that will delight the eye, excite the mind, and capture the spirit. #artworkshop #pleinair #art
Yesterday we were scheduled for an electricity outage 9am-4pm. I got up early to cut out a wood palette fit to measure my French easel, grabbed Frida, and went for a drive on the justly named Palms to Pines Hwy. The cows reminded me of how rural the area is. About 30 minutes later I was in the 100 degree desert, making a loop I found a spot between Salton Sea and Borrego Springs to paint. High noon and not a shadow to be had. My students will tell you I veto painting things with no shadows, broke my rules, and decided to paint with the focus on the soft dusty arid colors. I painted for about 40 minutes, really it was too hot, Frida couldn’t wait to get back in the car. The rest of the drive ascending from valley to valley was gorgeous and I was grateful to arrive home to the mile high coolness of Idyllwild. #pleinair #pleinairpainting #sunrisehighway #palmstopines
