Humiliation, Sacrifice, Resurrection

Though Jesus was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be possessed by force. On the contrary, he emptied himself, in that he took the form of a slave by becoming like human beings are.

And when he appeared as a human being, he humbled himself still more by becoming obedient even to death - death on a stake as a criminal!

Therefore God raised him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name; that in honor of the name given Jesus, every knee will bow - in heaven, on earth and under the earth -

and every tongue will acknowledge that Jesus the Messiah is the Lord, Jehovah - to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus said, "I AM the Resurrection and the Life! Whoever puts his trust in me will live, even if he dies; and everyone living and trusting in me will never die.

Workshop: Value and Color

Dot Courson Workshops - Pontotoc, MS

13-16 April 2011

Just returned from teaching a 4-day workshop in Pontotoc, MS. The well organized event, hosted by Dot and Jackie Courson, was a big success.

Jackie and Dot Courson

Here's the class. All names are listed L>R: Bottom Row: John Pototschnik, Marty Fath, Deborah Brasfield, Lisa Busby, Kay Watts. Second Row: Joan Weaver, Susan Patton, Judith Proctor, Linda Hall, Grace Buchanan. Third Row: Dru Jolly, Karen Gipson, Dot Courson, Alycia Stegall, Daphne Works. Top Row: Susan McNamara, Beth Dean, Judy Nocifora, Marilyn Dzielak, Jacque' Sligh, Linda Dees. Not pictured: Todd Wade, Sharon Works.
The focus of this workshop was Value and Color. There are many elements that go into the creation of a fine painting and I discussed each of these in the opening lecture...Concept, composition, drawing, values, color, technique, and even presentation. But, for this workshop, we spent considerable time on value and color. I wanted to show each participant that it is value (light to shadow) that actually establishes the mood of a painting.

To demonstrate this truth, I showed examples and created the painting (shown above) using just raw umber.

Later on in the workshop, color is applied to the raw umber monochromatic to complete the demo. For this painting I chose to use ultramarine blue, cadmium red, and cadmium yellow pale. These three primaries were used to mix the palette for this painting...a square quadratic consisting of orange, yellow green, blue, and red violet.

Beth Dean's plein air monochromatic using raw umber

After first working in the classroom creating a monochromatic, on the second day we spent the afternoon outdoors creating another one from life. This whole process was a big eye opener for many of the class members.

Back in the classroom, Kay Watts has just begun applying color to her monochromatic painting

After an afternoon of painting outdoors, we all enjoyed an evening meal at Dot and Jackie's lovely home...on their deck by the pool

After a thorough dose of value, we next moved to color. Illustrating my lecture with many examples of what can be achieved with a very limited palette, the class was eager to apply the principles taught. They did a great job. I was so proud to see them take the lessons taught seriously, and wholeheartedly attempt things they had never tried before.

Grace Buchanan"s completed painting

It was an honor teaching this wonderful group of enthusiastic folks. Thanks to Dot and Jackie Courson for organizing such a wonderful workshop.

If you would like to enjoy a similar workshop experience, I have only one more workshop scheduled for this year. It is 2-4 June in Wichita, KS

This link will provide all the information:

Kansas Academy of Oil Painters

Hope to see you there

Salon International 2011

I'm sorry for the late Blog post. I just returned from the Salon International sponsored by the Greenhouse Gallery in San Antonio, Texas. There were over 400 paintings selected for this show from a total of more than 1200 submissions. The work was incredible. My thought was, I need to get with it. I love being associated with such quality. I find it really pushes me to absolutely strive for the very best I can do.

Best of Show

Don Williams - "Guard Rail" - 28"x 21" - Oil

Mark Smith, Jim Janes - Co-owners of the Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art

Daniel Greene - Show Juror, critiques paintings for some of the artists on Saturday morning following the Friday night awards ceremony.

I was fortunate to be seated right beside Daniel Greene at the Friday night banquet. He is an artist of amazing credentials. Undoubtedly a teacher, one only needs to listen to a couple of his painting critiques to learn this truth. During his teaching career he has taught over 10000 students...incredible! I also found it interesting that he and his wife, Wende Caporale, also a very accomplished artist, have totally separate studios. "Do you ever critique each others work?", I asked. "I critique her work", he said. "I never have her critique mine because I don't take criticism too well." Now, that's an honest answer.

A full house of banquet guests enjoyed a nice meal on Friday night during the Awards Banquet held in the gallery.

Here I am with one of two paintings I had in the show.

This one is called, "Cornish Promontory".

On Saturday morning, Daniel Greene went through the show, and for a fee, offered a personal painting critique to any artist brave enough to have the flaws in their painting exposed to all those in attendance.

Mr. Greene is an absolute stickler for sound, solid drawing. He does not tolerate anything less. He also continually stressed the importance of a nicely designed value structure and thoughtfully executed edges. These four points were constantly emphasized: concept, drawing, value, and edges. Choosing a frame consistent with the artist's concept was also stressed. There were several paintings mentioned during the critique that had a lot of stuff going on in them...very busy. That was not the problem, but in each case the artist had chosen a frame that was also very busy, so it gave the viewer no rest.

Finally, I was surprised how many times Greene critiqued the size and placement of the artist's signature...just further evidence of how he considered every single part of a painting, from start to finish, as very important and worth the artist's uppermost attention.

Jack Richeson $ Co., Inc. Award

Gavin Glakas - "Dusk" - 21"x 21" - Oil

Merit Award (Landscape)

Cecy Turner - "Palo Duro Overlook" - 20"x 30" - Oil

I was pleased to see my friend, Cecy Turner, win such a prestigious award.

Here's my new friend, Cuong Nguyen, with his painting. He is from Vietnam, now living in California. He absolutely loves being in America. He came here with nothing and is now an award winning artist.

Southwest Art Magazine Award

Cuong Nguyen - "Michael" - 30"x 24" - Oil

Merit Award (Figurative/Narrative)

Clement Kwan - "Square Dancing" - 24"x 20" - Oil

There were so many paintings in the show worthy of awards. It was just incredible to see the quality of the work. When I learned Daniel Greene made all this selections in just a few hours, I couldn't believe it. I would have found this job almost impossible...selecting a handful of paintings from a total of 415 works in such a short time...Wow!

Several times during the announcement of awards on Friday night, Mr. Greene said he would have been happy to have painted this or that painting. I do think a lot of his selections were compatible with subjects he would personally paint...but hey, he was the judge...and deservedly so.