"SOME PEOPLE PAINT TO MAKE A LIVING...

I PAINT TO MAKE A LIFE."

Model & final portrait together are pictured below after a great Sunday afternoon 3 hour demonstration by CA based painter Tony Pro at The CA Art Institute [ www.caartinst.com ]. A packed house took full advantage of the open house session to hear how this master does it. Pro is a relaxed and easy commentator on how he delivers his world class work [ www.tonypro-fineart.com ]. Students big problem, "Not being able to draw". Tony is a major featured artist this month in the FALL 2009 edition of American Artist WORKSHOP magazine ["Seeing the Color of Light"] AA also has an issue out now on home studio design that is great.

Frames make it all look so great....

Who knows why these gold frames came to be called "Hudson [River] Valley frames & most plein-air I have seen is showcased this way? Maybe it is because this kind of gold "halo" makes a painting look so much better than the artist thinks it is. I do. I am trying to finish and make all the notes I can from the 2 Gruppe brushwork books I am into so I can complete the remaining 8 "Marshfield" collection of paintings I did [see below please] using teh lessons learned from this masters books. Now if I could just find his book on "Color" - expensive on line. Then I move on to a few days next week in near-by Santa Barbara. Photos and canvas all will be posted here - and thank you again for your comments & input. B

The "Marshfield" Collection

The 3 paintings below are favorites. I was on a trip to MA to visit my mother in law. Every day I would paint a fast landscape in the early morning, and be home with her for lunch so she could see what I had done. Below are my 3 favorites, all with different challenges. I did 11 all told, and plan to finish the rest & post shortly. Before I do I want to finish 2 great brushwork instruction books by Emile Gruppe. Check your local library. I am still hunting his great book on "color". He was recommended to me by a passer-by/artist I met while I was painting in Green Harbor, MA. They are amazing! I'll use what I learn from the books & apply them to finishing this "Marshfield" collection.

It's a start...

Lovin' painting in early morning Port Clyde, ME. While I am not at all hanging up the talents as a career network, cable and corporate TV producer/director [www.rlrpg.net], I am, for some unreal and super lucky reason, the master of my own fate in lots of ways. I am a life long painter thanks to my dad and 7th grade art teacher in Hartsdale Jr. High [thanks Ms Patie], now painting outdoors on trips back east away from my southern CA home, and locally in and around southern CA. The paintings let me have a special kind of "diary " of instant flash backs of what it was like to stand in the sunrise, next to the sea, or late in the day at some really neat places. For sure every outdoor painter will tell you the people are always great - especially if they come later in the process and can really see something they recognize on canvas. This blog stuff is a first - but like in painting - it's important to take risks for sure. - B