En Plein Air

"EVERY DAY I DISCOVER MORE & MORE BEAUTIFUL THINGS. I HAVE SUCH A DESIRE TO DO EVERYTHING. IT'S ENOUGH TO DRIVE ONE MAD, MY HEAD IS BURSTING WITH IT." — CLAUDE MONET 

For the past 3 days I've been in Red Lodge, MT - participating in a painting workshop! I learned some, but mostly reviewed what I knew - & got some good painting hours in! Lately I've been SO busy with LIFE - that I haven't done any painting… This workshop was really good for me. It was refreshing to get out 'en plein air' & be challenged to study the ever-changing light, values, & compositions of landscapes.

It was fun workshop… Each day we met at 9am at Montana Gallery, on Main Street in Red Lodge. From there we'd drive out to the painting location & paint for a few hours, then break for lunch, & resume in the afternoon, & paint till the light faded. There were 7 artists (myself included) attending the workshop that was headed up & taught by Tyler Murphy. I loved meeting the other artists, it was inspiring for me to see other people's views on art & life — I met a lady (& her sweet dog, Panda Bear) who were from Texas. Another man & woman from Billings MT,  a lady from the Bitterroot Valley, & a lady from up state New York. Then there was myself (basically a local) & a guy from Joliet. 

Make sure you check out Montana Gallery — there is some crazy good art there. If you ever find yourself in Red Lodge, make sure you stop by! There's good art, good vibes & good people to be found at Montana Gallery. I've known Tyler for a few years, & have taken painting classes from him several times. They never disappoint, & are always lots of fun! 

Below are some pictures of my painting endeavors —

Quick studies of Mount Maurice, a flower, & distant Beartooth Mountains — 

This is me — painting a view of a distant Red Lodge Mountain. 

9x12 oil "Where The Creek Goes" …I was happy with this picture.

"Artist At Work" 9x12 oil on linen. 

A quick sketch at 10,000'ft atop the Beartooth Highway
The ever-changing lighting made it difficult to capture the colors…

-GB 

watercolor eye

WIDE OPEN. Slightly dramatized sketch of my eye…

Boy eyes are soooooo amazing. The depth, colors, & details are all so intricate, precise, delicate… Go look in a mirror at your eyes. Seriously. Really look, don't just glance. Check out the different flecks of color, the pupil, the blood vessels in the sclera, & the tiny muscles embedded in the iris. Eyes are so crazy awesome!! I'm thankful for the gift of sight, & the ability to see, & create art. ;)

-GB 

Polar Bear Painting Project

Look at their adorable painted bears! This was an easy project for the kindergartners - took about 35 minutes. 

You need: blue construction paper, acrylic paint, sharpie markers, & oil pastels.
(& of course - paper towels, brushes, jars of water, & erasers. But you should know that.) 

First we practiced circle shapes, drew the bears lightly with pencil, then we painted it all in, & added the snowflakes. While that was drying, students used oil pastels to draw the scarves - using two colors, layering them to create stripes. Then we used the sharpies to draw facial features, & lastly added a white highlight in each eye! The kiddos signed their names & we were finished! I absolutely LOVED the way these turned out. So much fun! 

-GB 

Craft Art Project —

Soooo, for a fun "crafty project", I had two students (ages 5 & just-turned-7) work on mixing primary colors. We used different sized plastic cups as stamps to create circles with black paint, then painted the insides with color. It was so much fun, & great practice for working on "painting inside the lines". We also tried to use complementary colors to paint around the inner circles.

The finished pieces were pretty cool - looked like modern art you might see hanging in a museum somewhere. ;) 

Sketches —

Here are some sketches from my Europe trip! All were done with ink pen, India ink, some pencil, & watercolors. I'm hoping to actually spend more time working on these pictures -  painting them bigger on canvas with oils. These are just fun studies. :)

"Azores Country Cottage" 9x11 watercolor/ink sketch.

"Cable Car Tracks, Lisboa, Portugal" 9x12

"Busy Intersection, Madrid, Spain" 9x9

"The Crooked Alley, Tangier, Morocco" 6x8

Inky Sketch —

This is a pen & ink sketch I did of a street in Madrid, Spain! It was so busy, there were people shoulder to shoulder on the streets… This was an interesting Y shaped intersection. I wish I could make the photo bigger, but if I did, it expands beyond side walls of the blog.

Working in monochrome tones had always been one of my favorites. I love charcoal & pencil!

Teaching Art - Composition

So my students have been learning about composition. It was really fun teaching this to my 3rd - 6th graders. Here are some examples I did for the classes. I used a pencil to sketch, a sharpie to outline, crayons for coloring.

Finding the visual sweet spots — 

First I drew 3 examples on the white board. (I had them mostly drawn before the students got there. FYI.) I talked about good composition, vs. poor composition. (See photos below.) I also brought in a bunch of my landscape paintings & sketches for more examples. I had these scattered around the class room for students to look at.

Then after going over the dos & don'ts of composing compositions -  I had students divide their paper into thirds, using a ruler. Drawing two horizontal lines & two vertical lines across the paper, creating a nice grid. The 4 crossing points in the grid, become the "sweet spots". These "sweet spots" are generally good places to put a focal point, a change in compositional direction, a point of dark contrast or highlight, or other point of interest. I majorly stressed as students were drawing their lines that they "keep their lines LIGHT" because of course, when your drawing is finished, you erase all extra lines. 

Version 1. Middle? No. When designing the composition of a drawing or
painting you need to make it interesting to the viewer. Try not the place your
focal point dead center.  It's boring. Artist's no.1 no-no rule.

Version 2. A little better… Here change happens in the composition
when the focal point hits a "sweet spot" in the composition.
But it's not quote there - the horizon line is too close to the center of the paper. 

Version 3. The keeper! This composition offers a pleasing balance
while being more dramatic & interesting then version 2. The horizon line 2/3rds high.  

Here's a couple things I said as students were drawing: 

DO overlap objects to add depth to your drawing. 
DON'T place objects that almost touch or are "tickling" each others edges. 
DO group objects creatively - have fun!
DON'T balance equally - this is boring.
THINK about where your horizon line is - should it be in the center of your paper? 

Below is a colored drawing I did. When I normally draw, I totally avoid creating outlines. In real life there aren't any outlines around anything, right? So why should there be outlines in realistic drawings? It instantly turns any drawing, no matter the style into a "cartoon". << that's something good to talk about with students too. 

I did several fast sketches, all styled like the one below, with different compositions & subjects in them. I had my student chose which drawing they wanted to do - then they copied my drawings, found the "sweet spots" & designed their composition. Then they all colored their drawings. (I dearly wish I got some photos of their work - but I always get so excited & busy, that I forget to get out my phone to take photos…) Something I need to work on I guess!

Below is a really simple sketch I did of different types of composition — I printed these out & gave them to students. All my little compositions were inspired by Edgar Payne. I asked students to look at the various landscape paintings I had around the room, & see if they could spot any of these compositions within my paintings.

Types of composition: 

If you found this helpful or inspiring, please leave me a comment! I would love any feedback! Thanks! :) 

Fresh off my easel —

Here's an impressionistic painting I just finished! 40x48 oil on homemade canvas. Lots of texture instantly creates an antiquated feel. "The Woman Ironing", originally by Degas. 

This shows the colors better & awesome texture that is throughout the painting. 

Teaching art: The Spectrum of Color —

Here is an overview of what I've been teaching my students recently. 

A full class of 27 students! Kindergarten - 2nd grade. 

Sunlight, or the light from an electric light bulb, seems colorless. We call it "white light." But, it truly contains the full range, or spectrum of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, turquoise & purples. When these colors pass from air into water or glass, they are slowed down & refracted by different amounts. 

A band of colors, as seen in a rainbow, is produced by the separation of the components of light by their different degrees of refraction according to wavelength.

Normally, when white light passes through the air, all its colors are bent back by the same amount so that they join together to make white again. However, if the rays are reflected while still inside the water or glass, they leave by different paths from those by which they entered. In this case, the colors are separated and can be seen as a spectrum with many colors bouncing around. 

The easiest way to produce a spectrum is with a block of glass called a prism. This has three flat faces running in one direction & triangular-shaped ends. However, if conditions are right, white light can also be split apart by other arrangements of glass & by water. A rainbow, for example, is caused by reflections & refractions of sunlight inside raindrops. It's so amazing!  

 Primary colors, secondary colors & tertiary colors.  

So then, how do we see color? 

The colors reflected by an object are those which give it its color. Something that appears white reflects all colors of light. An object that looks red reflects only red light & absorbs all the other colors. Something that appears black absorbs every color & reflects none. 

Three of the colors – red, yellow, & blue – are the Primary Colors, because they can be combined in different ways to produce every other color. A combination of two primary colors gives a secondary color.  
—————————————————
After talking about color, I had students paint/draw their own color wheels, using the primary colors. It was loads of fun! (See the pic above ^)  We were using acrylic paints. - not the craft kind - but the real kind. 

I used styrofoam plates for palettes, had plenty of paper towels on-hand, & used recycled greek yogurt containers for the water. Students painted with care, & used fine brushes sized anywhere from 3-5. 

I put old newspapers over the tables to keep them clean. I talked about how important it was to keep everything neat - only paint on the brush, palette & paper! Ultimate EVERYONE made a fantastic color wheel, had loads of fun, stayed relatively paint-free & learned some good stuff.  :) 

Here is a link to my Pinterest board: Teaching Art, where I have saved several printable work templates & homework sheets that involve the color wheel. 

-GB

Teaching art: Patterns & Details

As a part-time art teacher & artist, things are always busy for me! (Hence, the lack of regular blogging these past months.) Some days are fast & exciting, other days are more challenging, but it's always fun. I love what I do.  This post is on what I taught my Kindergarteners - 6th graders. Last week I found myself in a last-minute pull-off situation. Thankfully everything worked out really well, I had fun, students had fun, & everyone learned something. Here's what I taught—
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Prep work: Teachers! Go forging! Gather up leaves, pinecones, thorny wood, bark, driftwood, seashells & good-sized rocks; looking for textures or stripes. I arranged everything on the tables where students would be working. I made (& stressed) the rule "look with your eyes, not your hands" otherwise, the kids would have been all over everything. Here are some pics of things I used for drawing inspiration, in addition to everything I had. (Teaching art is the probably the only profession where you steal things from home & bring them to work!) I felt funny as I toated my huge canvas bag into the school - it probably weighed 30 pounds - all the rocks & wood.

Teaching art: Drawing Fabric

Today in art class students got their hands dirty! We were working with willow charcoal & drawing fabric. I brought in sheets, silks, stripy & patterned fabrics, & soft & fuzzy blankets - so that students could see how the light reflected off of each different texture. It was a fun lesson —

- I ran a string across part of the room, & hung the fabrics over the string (like a clothesline). I turned off the lights in the room, & used natural light. (The classroom has an entire wall of windows, so there was plenty of light for us.) Using natural light, that sparked conversation of how important it is to always try and use natural light, or at least work from one main light source - when drawing from natural light, you have a 2hr time span before the earth has rotated so much that the light is completely different then when you started.

I also talked about color - how light is essentially color. The light reflecting off of the fabrics, the colors of the fabrics, etc. If you want to read more on color please go here.

Students endeavors — they all  did really good jobs! This is a mixtures of 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th graders work.

Art I Admire —

Blue Canyon, by Edgar Payne (1883-1947)
What I love about it: The feeling of great distance. The hugeness of the rocks. The beautiful rich colors- you can never have enough purple tones within a painting! The composition & subject matter are great too. And I really like his brush style.

Cousins' Retreat, by Tyler Murphy. What I love about it: It's people, doing what they do! The highlights & contrasts are superb; it really captures that intense afternoon mountain sunlight. Just close your eyes are lay there... This painting is even more vivid, in person.

North Country Morning, by Josh Elliott  What I love about it: This kind of impressionism! There's almost a sense of urgency to it, but it looks so bright & real too. 

Glacial Carvings, by Josh Elliott   What I love it: Everything about this painting is EPIC. Bright colors & shadow tones. Mountains, snow in shadow, the bright sunlit colors… Mmm

I am always moved by bold, colorful painterly landscapes. This style is frequently found among plein air painters. Those who paint to live in the open air. Big fan of Jill Carver. 

Cheese! This piece of art was not titled, it's by Pecorino Ginepro. I have no idea how I found his website - But I really like all of his "cheesy" paintings, & have admired them for quite some time! They are really fun, he paints on wood, & always gets some nice textures. 

Ponte San Giuseppe di Castello, by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
There is NO getting around it. In my option, Sargent is the best ever watercolor artist! I simply LOVE his watercolors! He captures things beautifully. There are excellent complementary color uses; warm tones & cool. The composition is suburb, as is the placement of brush strokes... 

Painting in the Mountains

Recently I had the awesome privilege to be painted by three amazing artists: Daniel Keys, Tyler Murphy & Ryan Mellody. You should totally look them & their art up, if you don't know who they are. Here is Key's painting of me:

The whole experience was a lot of fun! We drove to the top of a nearby mountain range, then trudged about 1/4 mile off the road, near some cliffs. They painted me while I held the pose for about 3 hours. (It's a lot harder to do then you think it is!) Then I got to do some painting of my own too. And a large herd of mountain goats decided to stop by. Got some really good pictures of them. This is my fav -

Mountain goat next to Ryan's painting. 

-GB

Summer Art Academy!

The classroom I had, was on the 2nd floor of an old unair-conditioned building.
I taught four 1.5 hour classes a day, I was also outside teaching too.

This past week, has been a wonderful blur of excitement. God's blessings are so abundant! It was my second year of teaching for the Summer Art Academy. There were 75+ students at the camp, 26 of them were mine for the week! I taught Basic Drawing & Urban Art - A fun class that covered the challenging basics of drawing, while working indoors/outdoors, using various tools to achieve detailed, realistic & stylized sketches. Students used ink, pencil & charcoal for their drawing mediums. We explored the campus grounds, sketching buildings and landscapes. I focussed primarily on teaching composition: good vs. poor, shading & dramatization,  developing a critical eye, learning perspective, being selective & creative, while having fun! 

I believe I had about as much fun as all the students did! Teaching to a group of kids aged 8-14 is fun & challenging. A lot of work too. I had a classroom to myself, were I did about 1/2 my teaching, the rest of the time I was outside on campus grounds teaching. It was truly amazing to be part of so many kid's lives, sharing the gift of art! 

Students working hard, drawing what they see: buildings, statues, landscapes, etc. exploring the beautiful campus. 

Talented young artists, sketching away! 

-GB

Ps. Here be a link to last year's post on the Academy. :)

Drawing: A realization & inspiration to do more

ART - It's everywhere, isn't it?! Some art is good, some is bad. I think good art is a work that truly captures what excites people, a drawing or painting that holds memory, an adventure! I saw this poster & had to share it. You can never sketch enough. Draw everything & keep your curiosity fresh. Ya never know when inspiration will strike you! Sometimes I'll be driving & have had to pull off the road to do a quick sketch, or take a photo to reference later. Seek out beautiful places. I almost always have my handy-dandy moleskine journal with a few pencils, eraser & ink pen buried somewhere in the depths of my pocketbook. We all should draw (& paint) more often. I sure know I need to! Make time for yourself. We need to see the beautiful creation God has made for us. Sketching is fun, & exciting. It's a way to truly capture a moment, an experience that can't be repeated. It creates something special. A little memory that will last. 

• When you draw something you spend more time looking at the raw beauty of the object. 
• Open your eyes!
• Observe the small things. 
• Create a journal with your drawings that says "Been there, drawn that!"
• A sketch captures a moment, an experience that can never be repeated. 
• In taking the time to see, look & create (instead of taking a photograph) a sketch has the ability to bring back stronger memories. 
• A good sketch has the ability to elevate even the least picturesque location into something worth looking at & reflection upon. 
• Draw what you see & not what you think you see! 
• Drawings tell stories of our surroundings, where we travel & where we live. 
• Always have direct observation. Get out in the streets, explore your world. 
• Urban sketching is a raw & pure form of art that requires drawing from life. 
• Life! It is everywhere, draw it, rather then drawing something from a photograph or imagination. 
• When sketching your skills will become shaper, you will notice your surroundings with a new appreciation. 
• Drawing something forces you to really look at it. 
• Capture relationships! 
• Drawing a building or place isn't just capturing in on paper, its about getting to know it, to feel it, to make it your own. 
• There is always movement everywhere. Draw what you want and dismiss the rest. 
• Be selective. 
• Be creative. 
• Think outside the box. 
• Translate what you see into something that communicates to you & teaches you about yourself & your reasons for creating art. 
• Draw what you witness firsthand, see what is around you. 
• Find the beauty in the ordinary. 
• Don't draw it if it's boring. 
• Sometimes vagueness of details & usage of lines adds depth to a drawing or painting. 
• People love to watch you draw, most of the them secretly want to be drawn. 
• Lightly plan out the entire drawing, before diving in & getting caught up in the details. 
• Keep it simple.
• Start shading with the darkest places first. 
• Dramatize things. 
• Always date your sketch.
• And have fun!  

-GB

Art Workshop with Loren Entz

Here's a pic from a workshop I took recently. Loren Entz was the teacher. If you don't know who Entz is, you should look him up! He's a phenomenal artist & really great person. I've been fortunate to be able to take a couple workshops from him. I'm the second from the right, painting on my Open Box M easel. The class was a lot of fun! Below are some of Entz' work! Enjoy ——

"A Helping Hand" by Loren Entz

"Lazy Days" by Loren Entz

"Shipping Day" by Loren Entz

"Solid Rock" by Loren Entz

Draw what you see

  

Never go anywhere with out a pencil & pocket-sized sketch book. :)

Some fools.

 I drew these characters in my little Moleskine. 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
    fools despise wisdom and instruction. ~Proverbs 1:7 

C.S. Lewis on Art Appreciation

"A work of (whatever) art can either be “received” or “used.” When we “receive” it we exert our senses and imagination and various other powers according to a pattern invented by the artist. When we “use” it we treat it as assistance for our own activities. The one, to use an old-fashioned image, is like being taken for a bicycle ride by a man who may know the roads we have never yet explored. The other is like adding one of those little motor attachments to our own bicycle and then going for one of our familiar rides. These rides may in themselves be good, bad, or indifferent. The “uses” which the many make of the arts may or may not be intrinsically vulgar, depraved, or morbid. That’s as may be. “Using” is inferior to “reception” because art, if used rather than received, merely facilitates, brightens, relieves, or palliates our life, and does not add to it….

...We sit down before the picture in order to have something done to us, not that we may do things with it. The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way (there is no good asking first whether the work before you deserves such a surrender,  for until you have surrendered you cannot possible find out."

-C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis’s An Experiment in Criticism is brilliant. I'm reading it right now (along with a couple other books). I'm thoroughly enjoying it; it's almost like a big essay, where Lewis discusses how to interpret (& appreciate) all forms of art; including music, but it's chiefly focusing on literature.  Lewis explores just about everything, from multiple biased views. It's really been interesting.  

Mr. Lewis, has such a beautiful way of wording things, & of putting things into perspective. Lewis is ever proactive, tactful, biased, open-minded, old fashioned, far-seeing, very annoying & very wise, all at the same time. :)

What are you reading? 

How do you decide what you read?

Why do you like to read? And why?

Books are important. They are part of our heritage. When properly taken care of, they can be passed on from generation to generation. Books greatly impact how we think, & judge things. Our brains are like sponges.  Books & media can shape our lives. We need to be wary of what we are soaking our brains in. Hopefully not in a stagnate pool, filled with algae & muck, but in the cold clear flowing water of eternal life! (The Bible.) I enjoy reading for pleasure mostly. I love fantasy & historical fiction. (Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, I think. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, quoting Dr. Seuss to some extent.) But I also love good ligature. Dearly love it. The rich way things used to be written, the word-maven expressions, & how people communicated in general, is so much more elegant (& appealing), then today's generation of writers, (or texters). In a way, it's kinda ironic, because I'm terrible with words.  Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, C.S.Lewis, Elizabeth Gaskell, J.R.R. Tolken, E.D.E.N. Southworth, Emily Bronte, etc. Are some of my favorite writers. 

"Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can't see it. So quietly submit to be painted---i.e., keep fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station (you really know quite well enough what they are!), asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone. You are in the right way. Walk---don't keep on looking at it." ~The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Vol. 3: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950-1963

As an artist myself, I especially enjoy this quote. (Because I can relate to the painting part.) Sometimes, I can get stuck on a picture, painting on it for hours & getting nowhere. Eventually I might despair, & set it on the shelf for a couple months or so, until I feel re-inspired to finish the thing. But God never despairs, or puts things on the shelf. He works all things for His glory 24/7. We need to press onwards. "Further up, & further in!" ~The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis.

-Justin Sweet-

I also think this quote is also beautiful, because Lewis talks about submitting to God. Resting in the assurance of His plan; a grand mural, that paints a picture, so glorious, that we can't even imagine what it looks like! It's a picture of life. For freedom, Christ has set us free! He paid the ultimate price for us, so that we might live. We need to stand firmly rooted deep in His Word, repent daily of our sins & walk by faith in Jesus Christ, while taking every thought captive. We need to pursue all our work with gusto, at whatever point in life we may be at, & whatever the work may be. House work, office work, volunteer work, etc. Everything we do, should be done in His holy name!

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ... does not cry: 'Mine!'" ~Abraham Kuyper 1837-1920

With art being the topic, think about todays society, & how the general public perceives art. This nation was established on Christian principles, as our Founding Fathers were inspired in their creation of a culture where Faith would flourish. But it didn't last long, our nation today is gradually slipping further & further away from its origins, & heading down a course that will not only leave burdens on the backs of our children, but oppose the flourishing of that faith as well. The world tends to reject things of beauty. Go to your local art museum, or take a walk downtown (if you live in a city), most of the "art" looks twisted, abstract or just plain unexplainable. Those who prevail in the arena of “ideas” will ultimately control any culture.  Hollywood, CNN, the modern liberal arts, the green movement, our increasingly communistic government. Wow. Keep thinking about it. It's big, & getting bigger. We gotta wake up!

A good painting, shouldn't be something when hung on the wall, the viewer only sees for the first few days. (Like when you rearrange the furniture in your room. It's new for a day, then it's the normal.) It shouldn't just disappear, & blend in with the rest of the room. A good painting should always draw the viewer in, with renewed interest & appreciation for it. We shouldn't hang just anything on our walls, to fill the void space. We should place something meaningful & beautiful there.

Justin Sweet  Running to Aslan, the Great Lion. 

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." ~Mere Christianity 

Be creative, fresh & original. "Pursue things of beauty: whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ( Phil. 4:8) Be yourself, today you are you! That is truer then true! There is no one alive who is you-er then you! (Dr. Seuss again.) 
No matter what we do, or where we go, isn't it always awesome to look back &  say- I was out there, I was alive, I did that. God made all of us exactly like we are, with talents, & weaknesses. Embrace your gifts, create a memory, do something special. Enjoy life. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a painting is worth a lot more. Generations will reap what we sew; we can pass on a curse or a blessing to those we will never know. (Deut. 11:26-28) Let's leave a history that generations to come will be proud of!

~GB