Demo at Artisan Santa Fe

I feel like I've been off the planet, instead of on vacation--with Christmas coming on the heels of our two-week Caribbean cruise!

I am busy creating pieces in preparation for my free oil stick demonstration, "Oil Sticks: The Secret to Brushless Oil Paintings,"at Artisan Santa Fe on Feb. 4th (1:30 p.m.).  I do hope lots of artists will check out this lesser-known approach to oil.

I will also be offering a three-day class on using oil sticks at my SpiritBird Studio in High Rolls, April 18-20.  Cost is only $200 for the three days, and includes some supplies.  Space is limited, so register early!

This is my latest piece, "Canyon Maple," 12x12.  I love how the oil stick and palette knife application work together to bring different textures to the piece!

Class Schedule 2012:

March 24, 2012  Painting Floral Landscapes   SpiritBird Studio, High Rolls, NM

April 14, 2012    Small Jewels (3”x4” to 6”x6” paintings) SpiritBird Studio, High Rolls, NM

April 18-20         Brush-free Oil Painting     SpiritBird Studio, High Rolls, NM

May 11, 2012     Paintings Irises (on location)   Hondo Iris Farm, Hondo, NM

June 18-22, 2012 Creative Composition    SpiritBird Studio, High Rolls, NM

Upcoming Oil Stick Demo at Artisan Santa Fe

Great news!  I have been invited by Artisan of Santa Fe to do a free art demonstration of my oil stick painting technique.  The demo will be on Saturday, February 4th, 2012, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at their Santa Fe store, 2601 Cerrillos Rd.  I hope lots of people come to share in this fun textural approach to creating almost brush-less oil paintings.

"A Day Like Today" was created with the oil sticks that I use, including some from three brands--Sennelier, Winsor-Newton, and Shiva.  I also added some touches of palette knife applied oil to give added dimension and texture.  The chamisas in the foreground almost glow in low light!

Correction and Wandering Off

AAAh!  I just realized I put the wrong date for the opening at Sacramento Mountain Weavers Art Gallery!!  The correct date is June 11th.

How easy it is to wander off and not post to the blog for a long time!  Getting a new computer that does not "speak" my photo language has really bitten me!  I still have no real capacity for easily editing my quick photos of my work.  I will attempt to post at least one a day for the next several days, to give some idea of what I've been working on more recently.

I have done a series of birds recently.  This one was among the first, and also the biggest of the lot at 30"x40".  It's done completely in oil stick.  The colors are a little washed out in this image.  Haven't figured out how to edit yet.  I love how the parrots are "talking" to each other!

Back to Myself

Back to Myself, 8"x8" oil on canvas

I haven't done oil stick painting in a while, so I did this small one this week, along with another horse for the upcoming Rive Gauche exhibit.  I've title it "Back to Myself," as I feel that's where I've come.  I DO love the texture and colors!!

(I haven't found a way to avoid the reflections from the palette knife painting on the sky!)

More Enchantment

The Land of Enchantment--sometimes I think that means all the airborne parts!  The wind has been pretty persistent this year--maybe even more than usual?

This is a 24x18 oil stick and palette knife that I painted plein air at the Hondo Iris Farm last week.  I finally repainted and finished it yesterday.  The composition was hopelessly busy--a limitation of being onsite, as I am tempted to put in too much information.  I've painted out the buildings above the garden.  The foreground irises also made a switch from violet to yellow (!), as I couldn't get them to "pop" with the violets.  I'm much happier now.

More Monotype Experiments

I was short of extra working time yesterday, but wanted to play with an idea about using oil paint on a black gessoed board to create a monotype image. Realizing that I needed some sort of flexible application, I tried using palette knife on wax paper to apply the design, since I was using a rigid support for the final product. I also had been working with alkyd paint earlier, so that's what I used.

Since it's almost spring, I had in mind a dandelion as the subject. The outcome was pretty pleasing, even if it doesn't necessarily look like a dandelion! The main thing I learned is that I want to leave more "edges" around much of my subject to gain more black. This photo, taken with my cell phone at night, is a little less sharp than I'd like, but I wanted to share it, anyway.

I may try adding to the surface today, to see what can happen. At any rate, I'm having fun!

Oil Sticks

I love painting with oil sticks. Also called paint sticks or oilbars, they are real oil paint but in a form that is so natural and immediate for me. They allow me to gain effects similar to what I can get in pastel painting. There are the added benefits of no brushes to clean, no wasted paint, and drawing fast and loose. I love the line and textures that I get!

The greatest drawback to oil sticks for me has been having to clean the tips of dried paint film before I could begin painting. I tried many ways of storing them to keep them from drying out, to no avail. Thanks to artist Lyn Lasneski, I have discovered a method of storing them so that all I have to do is dry them off and paint! It's so simple, I wonder why I never thought of it?? After use, just immerse the tips in water. Voila! No struggling to get the tips ready to use again!! Since they are oil paint, they resist any dissolving.

If you love to drawing and love textures, you might enjoy working with oil sticks. The various brands I have used are Sennelier, Winsor Newton, Shiva, and R&F. My favorites are the first three. Although they have dynamite colors, R&F tends to be too soft to suit my style.

As the commercial once said, "Try'em, you'll like 'em!"