Innholdsfortegnelse for October-November 2021/ No. 141 i International Artist

Welcome to the October/November issue of International Artist. In this issue you will find six demonstration articles in an array of mediums. We have oil, watercolor, gouache, pen and ink and acrylic represented, showing you stage by stage how to create dynamic works of art. Where else can you get this much artist vision, technique and overall community in one place? In addition to improving our passion in art, International Artist is also about helping artists get publicity. Our Art Competitions are made specifically for you to gain publicity in the world of galleries and collectors. Did you know our Grand Prize winner is a fourpage article in our collector title American Art Collector? Your winning art, bio and story in American Art Collector will put you in front of…

See more from the artist: @davidcowdryart /davidcowdryart…

Water is the basic element that defines W watercolors as a medium, and understanding how we can preserve it, release it or limit its movement is key to controlling how we make our marks. There are two basic variables we need to pay attention to—the viscosity of the paint we mix up on our palette, and the wetness of the surface of the paper as it receives each brushstroke. How these two mixtures interact creates a vast (and compelling!) set of results. Add in the details of the brush, and we have almost all the effects we can get out of watercolors. Let’s start with the paper. After our first strokes, it’s helpful to recognize that the paper’s surface immediately starts the process of drying. There are four basic stages:…

REFERENCE PHOTO For this particular painting I wanted to juxtapose a Colombian brass object with a blue enamel pot, and harmonize it with the delicacy of grapes both green and black. At the application of the local colors, I decided to exchange the cherries for an elongated bunch of black grapes to tight up more the composition. The silken core of the pomegranate and the color and fuzz like appearance of the peaches intensified diversity of textures, while the soft coolness of the white napkin contrasts harmoniously with the dark somber background, thus alluring more to the viewer. STAGE 1 DRAWING ORIENTATION Placing drawing in a balanced area of confinements of canvas, being careful not to place any objects of interest neither in center nor on lateral extremes canvas. Also…

REFERENCE PHOTOS Salt Creek Recreation Area is where I took the reference photos. It’s located about 15 miles west of Port Angeles, Washington. The scenery around the area is breathtaking. I was first introduced to Salt Creek Recreation Area during a plein air competition a few years ago and painted at this location many times. The reference photos were taken during low tide, around noon time. The color is not as dramatic compared to the sunset, but I was drawn to the contrast of the cool light and the warmth of the foreground elements. The people on the beach and the reflections gave this scene a sense of scale and serenity. STAGE 1 VALUE STUDY I started the painting process by doing a few value sketches to find the right…

It can be difficult sometimes trying I to find a suitable painting subject. A trick that always works for me is to simply walk outside and look at the ground. Tiny patches of stones, plants, weeds, ferns, etc. can all make great painting subjects. What we need to do is take the time to look carefully and consider what we are looking at as simply an abstract arrangement of shapes, colors, lines, tones and textures. You don’t need to be in an exotic location—a suburban front yard, vacant block or council park all have small patches of interesting elements. Although this is a simple subject, the suggestion of subtle fronds, stones and twigs build up interest and give the appearance of intricate detail. The great thing about these subjects is…

live in Vancouver, Canada, a I beautiful city surrounded by nature. The contrast between the architectural man-made buildings and the wilderness of ocean, forests and mountains around it are a source of endless inspiration. In an attempt to record as many beautiful fleeting moments as I can, I have begun drawing the city and surrounding landscapes with ink, a medium well suited to capturing light and darkness, and expressing fine detail and broad expanses. When starting a new subject in ink, I often use the same approach and techniques. Once I know what it is I plan on creating, my next step is to begin to figure out how to simplify the subject. This can feel daunting at first since I’m often depicting a city or forest scene, both of…

Since its inception International Artist has been a magazine for artists by artists with a focus on painting and drawing techniques. We also spotlight workshops, art materials, artist studios and more in the pages, giving our readers the insights on how they can learn and create their own artwork. It’s a wonderful community that’s been created through the pages, and we are always excited to connect with our contributors and readers. In our December/January issue we are launching a new feature dedicated to answering all your questions about the art industry. This column will be written by Vanessa Rothe, a respected artist, author, gallery owner, instructor and curator, based out of Laguna Beach, California. Her focus will be on providing you the knowledge she’s acquired from her years working in…

ENTER OUR NEW ART COMPETITION CHALLENGE No. 127 Seascapes, Rivers & Lakes 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…

Is investment different from collecting? » Understand what buyers really do and selling will be more effective.» To sell art depends on client buying behavior typically exhibited, which can be influenced.» It’s the role of marketing and salesmanship to do this influencing.» It’s essential for an artist or gallery owner to understand what’s going on. Investing implies there’ll be a return on the expenditure of money. » This applies if someone invests in shares, bonds or a financial arrangement.» There’s a value for which the investment can be redeemed at any time.» If the value is more than an original outlay an investor gains on redemption.» This return may be money or monetary value, but there are other kinds too. The return may also be regular financial payments, such as…

What you paint is a reflection of what you notice, and what you Wnotice is a consequence of your conscious and unconscious visual strategies, some learned and some automatic. In the previous issue’s article we looked at how images are constructed in the brain, both from the information that comes from the eyes, and from the predictive models handed down from the brain. We considered how vision is different from the camera and whether artists see differently from other people. Now let’s look at how image processing actually happens in the brain, and how we can recruit our eyes and brains to give us what we need to produce a painting. TONE AND COLOR ARE PROCESSED SEPARATELY According to Dr. Margaret Livingstone, the visual brain processes luminance (or tonal information)…

Diana Kirkpatrick INSPIRATION My inspiration for this piece was the loss of innocence. I have created many pieces with these themes in mind and attempt to convey through my work an emotion we can all relate to. This particular drawing comes from a series I worked on called Endangered Species. I selected the model because I felt she had an ability to connect with that theme, while the coyote represents the loss of belonging. PROCESS I worked with a model in my studio, posing her, setting the scene and then taking many pictures. I work from both life and photography. I use a sanded charcoal process which allows me to capture a large range of values. This is a very time-consuming process, and each drawing takes many months to complete.…

I paint landscapes because everywhere I go, views of this world astonish me. By painting them, I expand on that astonishing experience and can also share it with others. I do not copy what I see, but focus on creating a parallel experience on canvas. A strong painting has internal coherence, and formal matters—the intricacies of color interactions, for instance—take precedence over representation for me. My studio, equipped with a large palette, consistent light and tons of paints, brushes and easels, is best for this work. On site, gouache paints and camera come into play first. While photos save details that may be useful later, my tiny gouache paintings clarify my interest. These little paintings, as the hundred of them in my book, Gouaches, attest, are not just studies or…

At first glance, one of Italian artist AMarco Grassi’s oil paintings might leave the viewer with an overwhelming sense of astonishment combined with a feeling of hesitation. His art unites an extreme hyperrealism with a touch of surrealism. Natural and lifelike human figures—full of emotional burden with the emptiness of inanimate materials, such as marble or pottery—provoke an uncomfortable feeling of ambiguity. Grassi’s paintings have the power to constrain the viewer to reflect upon human nature, full of contradictory and antithetical elements. In fact, the characters seem almost alive, with their natural skin tones and texture, a twinkle in their eyes and delicate poses, yet their bodies are transfiguring into cold and inanimate alter egos, without any spirit nor personal expressions, unavoidably transformed into a shell, beautiful on the outside…

Flowers in my head!” That was “Fmy first nickname on Instagram, and it 100 percent reflects my inner world. I have been obsessed by the delicacy of petals—the play of colors, intricacy of light and shadows—I love everything about flowers. Every spring I start my flower hunting. My garden is the biggest inspiration for me, and when it is not enough (and usually it is not) I reach neighboring green markets searching for muse there. I love painting from my own pictures, and I take dozens of them. When I choose my next subject I always look for some sophistication and even imperfection, some play of light or interesting angle that captures my eye. Once a choice is made I do some adjustments on the picture itself to bring it…

I am an artist who is lucky to live I in beautiful Northern Ontario, Canada. It’s a place of windswept trees, lakes, white mountains and pink rock shorelines and wildlife. These influences have shaped my artist style. I have only started taking art seriously in the last 10 years. I’ve progressed from the occasional sketch and painting to developing series of paintings for solo art shows and artwork for juried art competitions. It is just amazing to sit and paint on the shorelines of Lake Superior while watching a red sky sunset and listening to the waves crashing on the rocky shoreline. It is an experience to stand on one of the lakeshores of Killarney Provincial Park during a foggy, misty morning. You can just imagine one of the artists…

Whenever I’m walking around outside I’m always keeping an eye out for my next drawing or painting. It doesn’t matter if I’m on my way to the grocery store or heading to work, I’m on the lookout for a composition or lighting that stands out to me. Luckily for me I always carry a camera with me, and I snap pictures of anything I find inspiring. In this case I was walking around the neighborhood known as Gastown in downtown Vancouver when I spotted some buildings that I knew I had to draw. I will usually snap multiple pictures, trying to find the right angle and composition as well as any details I think will be important to my drawing. This makes things easier for me when I start sketching…

Upon seeing this beautiful tree covered in red berries, I decided that it would make the perfect setting for a painting with a small bird in it. I didn’t want to choose a colorful bird as there were already enough colors in the tree. I had quite often seen a wren in the hedgerow outside my window, so I decided upon that and sat patiently waiting. Eventually I got a couple of photographs of the wren. Unfortunately, not of great quality, but good enough that I could work from. STAGE 1 THE SKETCH First using my many reference photographs, I created a detailed pencil drawing sketch onto watercolor paper of what I intended to portray in my final painting. STAGE 2 THE DRAWING Once I was happy with the composition…

scan for VIDEO Your tastes in painting may change Yover time, but one thing that’s always sparked my imagination and inspired me is the idea of using both abstraction and realism in the same painting. There’s something so special about having painterly abstract areas which let the mind spread its wings, seamlessly blending into focal areas of crisp detail. It’s very similar to when a jazz piece regains the melody or rhythm after some loose riffing. In this painting I’ve used abstraction in the foreground and background, throwing the paint around and letting it do its thing, and then tightened up on some careful detail in the boat itself. To achieve this I use a really large brush in the background, literally throwing paint on, having a loose idea of…

A female face has always been a compelling mystery to me. And here we are, my oil portrait of a lady. There’s a simplification of her hair as it goes into the background. A few highlights on her forehead bangs. The brushstrokes on her face were careful and not fussed. The simplified black and white drawing shows the important aesthetics brought to her face. Simple specific shadow under nose around her eyes. The shape of her lips. The flows and turns of her cheeks and jawline. Accuracy and not photographic. All those areas show as much of her character as she’s allowing; the rest she keeps to herself. She is alive. Every time you look at her, she looks back and is beginning to understand you.…

Kathleen S. Giles New York, USA, Perfect Peony, watercolor, 17½ x 22" (44 x 55 cm) Grand Prize is a four-page editorial feature in American Art Collector magazine The Gardener The watercolors of New York-based artist Kathleen S. Giles tell a story or capture a moment in time, and she finds that the best way to do this is through realism. “When I first started painting I didn’t have the skill to paint the way I do today. I fluctuated between trying to be realistic and going with a looser washy style. I was often encouraged to loosen up. If I tried to paint that way, I was never happy with the result,” she says. An avid gardener, Giles loves flowers just as much as she loves capturing their unique, delicate…

Vincent Miller, founder of International Artist magazine, is our Chief Judge for our challenges. He has judged art for more than 40 years worldwide, including in the USA, Singapore, Australia, Canada and the U.K., to name just a few countries. In addition, he is an artist and sculptor himself. Mr. Miller works with many of the greatest living artists and art schools. He supports great art by judging our challenge program. If your art is selected you are among the elite in the world to be selected by Vincent Miller. We welcome you to submit your entries for the next challenge judging. SUBMIT YOUR DIGITAL ENTRIES ONLINE; IT’S SO EASY!…

SCOTTSDALE ARTISTS’ SCHOOL: You are the SAS Beaux Arts 2021 Signature Artist. Tell us about this. TIM HORN: I feel extremely honored to be the signature artist and happy to contribute to this wonderful institution. The painting I chose to donate for the event is titled Two Bedroom Ranch. It’s a scene I came across a few years ago while driving around the Sacramento River Delta—a unique agricultural area, two hours from San Francisco, with a labyrinth of waterways and levees. The levee roads offer an elevated perspective on the surrounding landscape, and one can see a greater distance. When I saw this particular house, I liked the contrast between the strong geometric shapes and the large organic shapes, as well as the strong light and large shadow shapes. I…

In my last chairman’s letter, I wrote about some of the challenges that face an artist painting I portraits on commission along with a number of considerations that can be made to help make the process a successful one. Everett Raymond Kinstler was once quoted as saying that anyone entering the profession needs to have the “thick hide of a rhinoceros and a good set of bowels.” He’s not far off! Here are a few more suggestions that may be helpful as you pursue your love of painting people. Two’s company, three’s a crowd. I have always encouraged a sitter to bring someone with them to see their portrait. A spouse, a loved one, a friend or a coworker can help so much during the unveiling process. None of us…

I was recently commissioned to paint the I portrait of Clarence Eugene Sasser, recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest military award for valor. He was only 21 years old when he received this special distinction for saving the lives of wounded men in the Vietnam War, despite the pain of his own injuries. The Medal of Honor was presented to him on March 7, 1969, by President Richard M. Nixon at the White House. It was such a privilege to meet Mr. Sasser, and I was given two hours for the portrait sitting at the Texas House of Representative’s office near his home. Before he arrived, I had chosen the room where I would have him pose. Thankfully there was a large north-facing window that…

Iam following a family legacy for my I father, one brother and two of my sisters, who are (and were) full-fledged artists. Always surrounded by them, I was not going to be the exception. I create paintings finishing the painting before it starts. The minute I began to conceive a composition, whether there are objects that attract my attention or that I want to look for a particular theme, I began to finish my painting in the back of my mind. In the very depth of my soul I have already engaged in a very sublime relationship. I spent lots of time considering the setup, arranging and rearranging objects until I am satisfied with the selection of objects and the compositional organization. I do select and arrange my own props,…

Painting is about storytelling and Pan emotional connection with my audience. A painting is not just a pretty rendition of an epic landscape, a quiet still life or a powerful portrait. It is important for me to know what inspires me about a particular subject and what kind of connection I want to establish before I start the painting process. Once that vision is established, the next step is the simplification process. I narrow down the composition using three simple values (dark, medium and light) and shapes in various sizes (big, medium and small) to generate different thumbnails or value studies to explore composition arrangements. This experimental stage usually takes about 10 to 20 minutes, but it is one of the most crucial parts of the painting process. The value…

STAGE 1 PENCIL DRAWING I use a mechanical pencil for my initial drawing. Here I am trying to capture and depict as many details as possible. I may also use a kneaded eraser to soften hard lines. STAGE 2 FIRST LAYERS Here I am doing first layers wet-in-wet using quinacridone red. It is very important to leave intact highlights where necessary. If you do cover them accidentally you can wipe them with the help of a clean towel-dried brush. STAGE 3 COLOR ENHANCEMENT At this stage I am continuing layering using quinacridone red and quinacridone rose. Also, I’ve started outlining veins. STAGE 4 WORKING ON SHADOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS Now it is time to enhance shadow areas. I used opera rose for highlights and mixtures with emerald green for shadows. STAGE…

This moment was captured by the Old Mill in Kagawong, TManitoulin Island. On this particular day, the water was still and the sunrays were reflecting off the rocks in the water. STAGE 1 PREP AND COMPOSITION OF THE PAINTING First, I prepped this 36-by-36-inch gallery canvas with three layers of gesso. I then sanded between each coat of gesso in order to get a smooth painting surface to work on. I did a rough pencil sketch to see the layout of the rocks. I used what I call my mud colors (Raw Umber, Payne’s Gray, Bone Black and Titanium White) to block in the basic shape and shadows of the rocks. At this point, I will not touch the painting for a couple of days. The canvas will be set…

I was born and brought up in the early I ’70s in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. From an early age I enjoyed artwork involving wildlife. When the weekend came or during the school holidays I could happily be found in the natural history section of the city museum painting the birds and animals in the collection, and if I wasn’t there I would be at the Glasgow Green Stables sketching the city’s famous Clydesdale horses. Like so many other artists I had another creative passion in my life, that of music, and especially stringed instruments. So much so when I completed my formal education I trained to become a professional violin restorer. This career I followed for 15 years, and during this period of my life artwork took a…

Before starting to make any of Bmy work, I’ve already visited a location at different times of the day and during different seasons, gathering sketchbook studies, photographic notes and written reflections, which are used when I start a new painting in my studio. This research allows me to get acquainted with the subject and the emotions that it evokes. Memory and reality merge and allow color and texture to come from many instances rather than one specific encounter. Extreme use of light and dark are an important part of my practice, and I use a mix of drawing and painting to extricate hidden meanings within the subject matter. I work predominantly with paint brushes on gessoed solid wood panels with charcoal and acrylic, using a limited palette of cadmium yellow…

There aregreat creations in the arts Twhich never leave me. I can name many but will mention two: Mona Lisa and the Rach 3. I’ve sat and gazed at dear Mona since I was 7 years old. Each time totally absorbed seeing her magic aura. Same with Rachmaninoff piano Concerto No. 3; Vladimir Horowitz on piano. I blissfully listened to it for over half a century. I realize I should be discussing visual art, but bringing forth music further illuminates how our needy minds are endless in the arts. So important are works by today’s brilliant artists that have captured me each time I looked at them; masterworks driven by remarkable talents with abilities to create art both personal and original. Your art can have that. Humans in Arts Like…

The young lady in this portrait was so very memorable, outgoing with her thoughts and feelings as we talked about everyday life. I’ll add that her “everyday” was not ordinary. I wasn’t able to find out what she did for a living but sensed she should be in the acting business, because various and intriguing personalities naturally beamed from her. Then as she sat for me, she seemed more subdued. At the same time, her charisma inspired my every pastel stroke. When I finished with the portrait, a final touch in her hair, her “original personas” returned. Her spirit filled the room. She was most interesting, especially about her dreams of where she was going. All of which will remain with me. And here, you see her as she was…