Innholdsfortegnelse for August - September 2020/ No. 134 i International Artist

As we were working on this issue of International Artist, we received the news from the Portrait Society of America on the untimely passing of chairman Edward Jonas. Throughout his more than 40-year career, Ed was recognized as not only an exemplary painter and sculptor, but also as a pillar in the portrait art community. “Ed was a true visionary, an intellectual giant, a most creative and compassionate soul,” says Dawn E. Whitelaw, Portrait Society’s vice chair. “He lives on through monumental works of art and in the hearts of everyone he nurtured along the way. We have lost an extraordinary man.” When Ed founded the Portrait Society more than 20 years ago with Gordon Wetmore and Tom Donahue, the goal was to foster the talents of artists working in…

ENTER OUR NEW ART COMPETITION CHALLENGE No. 120 Favorite Subjects See your work published in International Artist magazine and also receive a 4-page Editorial Feature in American Art Collector, the prestigious magazine read by collectors and galleries looking for new art work in the world’s biggest art market. Winners and Finalists in our competitions don’t just win awards to hang on their walls. The real value of entering and being one of the winners is that your work will not only be seen by hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide but also by leading galleries and collectors in America, the biggest art market of all. Our Grand Prize Winners receive a 2-page spread in International Artist magazine and a 4-page Editorial Feature in American Art Collector. Publicity at this level…

Introducing the latest addition to Raymar’s line of watercolor panels. Raymar’s new rough watercolor panels are crafted with Fabriano Artistico 140lb paper in traditional white. The mould-made paper is mounted to Raymar’s rigid ACM panels (aluminum composite material) with a conservator’s grade pH neutral adhesive. The result is an archival watercolor support that does not warp or buckle. Fabriano has been famous for its fine art papers since 1264 and was the choice of Michelangelo. This exceptional Italian paper is a natural warm white without any optical brighteners. The textured surface allows for loose, expressive painting and speckled effects. The surface is ideal for watercolor and versatile for use with tempera, gouache, pastel, acrylic, ink, charcoal and graphite. Mounting watercolor art can be a difficult and time consuming process. With…

As we all deal with these difficult times of pandemic, economic crisis and far too many personal tragedies, I take solace in the words of John Crowe Ransom: “I am shaken; but not as a leaf.” Together we are all facing the overwhelming experiences of death, fear and isolation. Yet, we are also comforted by the many amazing stories of strength, heroism, hope and resilience. Personally, this time at home has forced me to streamline my needs and learn how to do without certain things. I think to myself, “I am creative, and I can do this!” While some of us are enjoying long days in the studio with limited outside obligations, others are faced with working amid great distractions. Artists with rented studio spaces have not been allowed to…

Susan Lyon We are Born of Love, oil, 30 x 24" (76 x 61 cm) INSPIRATION The model for my painting is named Ashlie; she has two young boys and was close to seven months pregnant when I painted her. I have been painting her in different works for about three years now. As a portrait artist, I have to fall in love with my model. Sometimes a person can be really interesting looking, but they have a hard time posing. She was excellent at holding still and we have worked together often because she brings an artistic energy to the painting sessions. In my mind, I had an idea of mother nature or an earth goddess figure. We played around with lighting and poses until she turned her head…

Did you know? Learning from the masters is an important step in an artist’s career, both early on in their studies and later as a master themselves to learn or review new techniques in painting. Master copies play an important role in artists’ lives and are seldom seen outside the studio. The idea is to do a fairly exact copy of a master work that you admire in hopes of learning the way they achieved and completed it. Master copies can teach the artist a lot about techniques that an Old Master discovered and used during their work, and they often become a showcase for the skill of the contemporary artist. If you see a well done master copy by a living artist, you are looking at the skills they…

I haven’t always been an artist. Most of my professional life was as a teacher in the public school system. I was trained to draw in the style of the Old Masters while in college. I knew then that I wanted to create beautiful paintings but painting in the abstract expressionist style was the focus at the time so it was a “do your own thing” philosophy. I was disappointed that we didn’t learn technical painting skills so I am largely self-taught. I learned basic color theory by teaching children how to mix colors, paint and problem solve. I was trained as a printmaker and was associated with Malaspina Printmakers now on Granville Island, Vancouver. Through printmaking I learned about using transparent colors and blends. I started painting to fill…

Experiment with underpainting. Try creating a very expressive underpainting in one or two colors with large brushes. Allow paint to drip and don’t try to over think it. An expressive underpainting is the foundation on which the subject will rest. This will allow you to abstract the subject further. Don’t think realistic colors. Flowers, figures, faces and landscapes can be any color you want them to be. Don’t get stuck on the actual color of the subject. Choose the opposite color or something totally out of the ordinary. Draw the subject first. I like working from my drawings and rarely use photos. The drawing loosens up the subject and eliminates detail. I love a “blind contour” approach to drawing. This is the type of drawing where you hardly look at…

My style could be described as impressionistic realism that focuses on atmosphere and mood. My work inspires an emotional response to nature and beauty, which hopefully results in timeless, enduring artwork. The paintings beg for a closer look and reveal subtlety in color, poetic impressions and mystery. To me, painting is not about a certain medium. I love both watercolor and oil, and I paint from life often. Generally, my paintings have a tonal quality to it, often referred to as a “limited palette”—although to me that makes no sense because I am using the whole spectrum of colors. The goal is to utilize value rather than color to emphasize form. Value is thought to be the most important element of color. Of course, a sound structure must also be…

One of my big problems when getting into my teens was that I was quite a bore. I knew when I was talking with a girl, she would ease away from my presence with: “Well, I gotta go now, Harley.” But, in life, things we think are negatives can have pluses connected. Being such a person gave me a lot of extra time to practice the piano and draw, draw, draw. As the years carried on, I dived deep into my art so much that my personality no longer entered my mind. It was my art that counted, learning and developing day after day. I eventually worked with great artists who helped show me how to strengthen my own approach in art. This you’ll find interesting: A grand artist who…

Jen Sterling Maryland, USA, Tahitian Pearl, acrylic, 12 x 12" (30 x 30 cm) Grand Prize Grand Prize is a four-page editorial feature in American Art Collector magazine Energy and Emotion Abstract artist Jen Sterling describes her artwork as “bold, colorful, inspiring, energetic and apologetic.” It is artwork that is “meant to spark a reaction, inspire proactive action, lift a mood,” she adds. “I want you, as the viewer, to feel the energy and emotion I had while painting it.” Her inspiration can come from almost anywhere, and having her phone on her at all times lets Sterling snap photos or take notes if an idea comes about. “I hate to lose a single spark,” she says. “I even keep paper and pen by the bed so that I don’t…

The Portrait Society of America has made the exciting decision to host our annual The Art of the Portrait conference via a live webinar, August 27 to 30, 2020. This online event will offer many of the popular programs that you have previously enjoyed as well as a variety of exciting new opportunities including: Exclusive Tours of the Studios of and A wherewewill be going for a Guinness World Record (you won’t want to miss this unique experience). Critique Session from your pre-submitted work. A virtual Face-off with and A color, value and chroma in skin tones class with Networking class and tips for coming out of the pandemic a sane and better artist. Painting Workshop with A class on painting hands with…

John Johansen (1877-1964) was a great artist who lived and worked in the National Arts Club in New York City. His portrait of Mr. Frick at the Frick Collection is a fine example of his work. As an artist who worked exclusively from life and sketches for much of his career, he found the transition to utilizing photos as reference confusing and difficult. He once told his protege, Everett Raymond Kinstler, that he simply couldn’t “read” a photo. So uncomfortable with using photos for reference, he sometimes would add a line just below his signature on completed works: “From Photographs.” As a student of Everett Raymond Kinstler for more than 25 years, I have learned that there is no substitute for painting from life. That admonition was repeated in almost…

My painting style has always been very direct. I approach every aspect of a painting with the intention of producing the result in each brushstroke. The challenge of capturing a subject with spirited yet accurate brushstrokes can bring freshness to a painting, which is difficult to find in works produced using other techniques. This style has appealed to me since my first days in art school. The painting process becomes a rhythm of careful observation, on-the-spot paint mixing and confident execution. The flow of this process, if utilized correctly, lends an extremely efficient approach to even the toughest compositions and subjects. I find myself continually intrigued by eye-level compositions. The graphic, though somewhat limited, nature of this perspective really lends itself to the bold style I prefer. Because of this,…

I am an abstract artist working in both soft pastel on paper and large format acrylic paintings on canvas. I have come full circle in many ways. When I was younger, my focus was primarily figure drawing and portraits. I drew and painted very realistically for many years. I became “stuck” and frustrated with copying photographs, so I began to experiment with working abstractly. I had always been attracted to abstract but had no idea how to begin. Out of frustration I cut some photos up into small pieces and began to draw the small segments. This helped me discover how I could develop abstracts based on realistic subjects. It also helped me to simplify and find abstract shapes. My non-objective pastel abstracts were the result of this experimentation, and…

STAGE 1 USING A PREVIOUS DRAWING AS INSPIRATION I have chosen a blind contour drawing of daylilies and hostas for my subject matter. This drawing was created last summer and is part of a collection in my sketchbooks. I often combine more than one drawing for a completed work. STAGE 2 I CREATE AN UNDERPAINTING ON PAPER I use a wide brush to create a loose and fluid underpainting on Rives BFK 250 gsm paper. I use fluid acrylics in Prussian blue and raw umber, allowing the paint to drip in areas. I dry with a hair dryer. STAGE 3 DRY THE PAINTING I use a hair dryer in all stages to flatten and dry the paper in order to continue working. The paper does buckle a little when wet.…

In every issue of International Artist we will feature a Painting Workshop from one of New Zealand’s best artists. Colour mood is a result of the colours you choose to have in your painting and it usually means a restricted palette. It’s also the result of the value key—what range of darks and lights you use. “Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.”— Wassily Kandinsky Choosing a colour idea With an infinite range of colour mixes to choose from, how do you go about choosing the best one for your subject? There is no one right solution. You simply need to try ideas out and see what feels right for you. Saying that, there are some basic ideas that you can begin with. The three aspects of colour…

FULL COLOR DIGITAL PRINT-OUTS Use the Official Entry Form over the page ONLINE Visit our website to upload digital files of the images you want to enter and pay for them using our secure server. www.internationalartist.com To upload your entries you need to prepare your image files to be at least 400 pixels at the shortest edge. Once you are in the Official Online Entry page simply select which challenge you wish to enter then follow the prompts and finally pay the entry fee via our secure server. There you can also see other entries received along with past winners of our competitions. CHALLENGE ENTRY FORM SCHEDULE AND CLOSING DATES HINTS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR ARTWORK Set your camera to the highest quality available. Shoot your paintings dead square on and…

Could an agent help you be a professional artist? » If you are a professional artist, then you only need to paint. And that’s a very good reason to have an agent. You’ll be surprised at how much your agent can do. » Create a schedule of clear and achievable tasks to do every day. » Your agent should also have their schedule. Do what you must to make sure you complete each daily task on your list. » Don’t go to bed until it’s done. » Your agent also does their daily tasks. A professional artist is a self-employed businessperson. » It’s impossible to be successful at business without paying ahead of earning. » An artist is no different. » This still applies when you have an agent! In…

Part 2 3 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL STILL LIFE COMPOSITION Mastering composition will really take your still life painting to another level. There’s just one little problem. Still life is perhaps the most difficult when it comes to composition because we must arrange everything from scratch. Whereas with landscape and figurative art there is something presented to us and we arrange and edit those given elements into an artistic design. Don’t get me wrong both ways are difficult and take a lot of skill and understanding. In still life, however, it’s best to have some sort of design process in place to start from because we are starting at ground zero. Otherwise, we end up just throwing a bunch of things on the still life stand hoping to find something…

Sometimes life seems to move so fast, that if I can just capture a moment, a little piece of this world, maybe it can help slow things down to a pace that I can appreciate. I don’t know why I seem to want to hold on to things that are so momentary. I guess I just want to take closer look at what we sometimes fail to notice. That’s why I paint. However, what things look like is only part of the picture. There is certainly more to a scene than just what we see. It’s easy to forget that as a painter. When I’m on-site, I feel connected to what’s going on around me because I’m part of it. When working in the studio, part of the process is…

Drawing. I begin with a contour drawing of a flower or several flowers and plants. I draw from life and rarely use photos now. The drawing is more of a shorthand version of the subject. It is expressive and begins a more intuitive process. I never use the drawing “as is.” I combine elements from several drawings for one composition. Placement of main elements. I move main elements to create an asymmetrical composition. I think about where I want to place the emphasis within the rectangle or square. I think about value and where I want the darkest and lightest part of the composition to be. I usually strive to put things off center. Fluid and expressive underpainting. I use a wide brush and apply a fluid and expressive wash…

I have always been asked how I can draw the way I do and my initial response is by endless practicing. You may only ever see my finest artworks, but you will never see the ones that were started, but were put aside due to not meeting the standard I want to achieve. This, I consider to be a part of the development in becoming refined as an artist and with how I approach each drawing. For me, to understand what types of pencils work best for various outcomes is one of the most important aspects in creating an artwork. For instance, what to use for colour and what brands work well together for layering purposes, to help build depth, or what pencils are good for the finer details, are…

There is a wonderful satisfaction in the simple act of making marks on a piece of paper. Whether it’s a detailed study of an interesting object, a quick sketch to solve a practical problem or a mindless doodle while talking on the phone—there is great satisfaction in the way the eye, the brain and the hand work together. In this article we will look at the importance of drawing and its interrelationship with painting. A common misconception is that drawing and painting are independent disciplines. For me drawing doesn’t stop where painting begins. The whole painting process relies heavily on the discipline of drawing, from big expressive brush marks, charcoal and pen lines, to fine, calligraphic rigger lines—the success of these marks rely more on the ability to draw than…