Innholdsfortegnelse for June-July 2023/No. 151 i International Artist

Welcome to the June/July issue of International Artist! The summer season is beginning to fill the air, and plein air painting abounds. For everyone in the studio, I am hopeful you have a beautiful window or door to get some well-deserved sunshine. This issue’s Art Challenge genre is cityscapes, and our winners are an eclectic combination of oil, acrylic, pastel and colored pencil, all creating depth and beauty in this colorful challenge. We had over 200 artists submit their art so that our founder and fellow artist Vincent Miller can select the top eight winners and finalists. We have over eight demonstrations and master painter articles this month from around the world. Several of these feature mixed media artists—flip to page 98 to see how Australian artist Sally Edmonds combines…

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…

In today’s world, post the tremendous upheaval that recent events have thrust upon our lives and professions, many of us have reevaluated the way we live and work. Decades of how we navigated our lives were well ingrained and, in some ways, on autopilot. Most of us approached life, education and career paths in similar patterns established by our parents and even our grandparents. Among the somewhat recent changes that have been embraced by young people is how they seek and receive their educations. In the United States, experts say that homeschooling has been on a steady rise, increasing by 10 percent since 2016. University enrollments in the United States have been in steep decline for more than a decade, and only in the fall of 2022 did higher education…

My client, Will, traveled from Texas to sit for his portrait at my studio in Northumberland. I always commence each painting with sittings from life, and having him in my own studio allowed me the luxury of knowing my space and lighting and having all my kit close at hand. In addition, Will had thought through his clothing so we only had to choose a pose and the gestures of the hands in advance of the first sitting. STAGE 1 WARMING UP: After the initial setup is complete, I work sight-size to lay in a very rough base of information, which acts as a guide for future plans. This is effectively my sketchbook, which slowly disappears under subsequent layers of paint as the work progresses. The first layer is always fun…

The focus on my work is generally geared towards my theme, “the art of conversation.” I attempt to capture figures in modern day culture as they go about their daily lives. Many of my figures are in conversational scenes. To me, a scene without figures is lifeless. My job is to create the visuals that tell a story, real or imagined. In these pages I will show you my process to create believable figures in a café scene. I was in Paris in September of 2022 with three wonderful artists/friends for a week. We painted plein air all week. This painting was done from a compilation of photos, memories and plein air pieces from that trip. One of the core elements of my work is impressionism. I love to see…

My work follows the academic process closely. I’ve adapted the academic process to my personal way of working, and I’ve created a process that always works for me. When I paint, I focus on three main things: design, drawing and paint application. I consider design to be the most important part of a painting. Before I start painting, I make sure that my composition works. Good design is the foundation of every good painting; that’s why this step can take up to a month for each piece. Every time I have an idea, I try to make a simple drawing in my sketchbook. If the sketch works, then I start working on my iPad to develop the idea. There I plan the colors, the value structure and the shape design.…

Wandering around with a few painting materials, an easel and a folding stool is a great way to force yourself to observe, analyze and adjust the subjects that appear before you. I recently conducted a workshop in New Zealand where there is no shortage of interesting things to paint. The few examples here show the finished painting and the rough, preliminary sketches used to shuffle around the elements of the subject into a satisfying composition. The sketches are small and completed in a couple of minutes. They are invaluable tools for testing the arrangement of shapes, tones and sometimes colors before committing to a sheet of watercolor paper. The paintings are done on 300gsm Arches cold-pressed paper using a limited range of colors and half a dozen brushes. Painting on…

My kind of art is a fusion of figurative expression. Utilizing the grayscale nature of charcoal alongside colors in acrylic, I create contemporary paintings that discuss situations in African society. The skin is an essential thing I love to create, which requires focusing on details. It’s also accompanied with vibrant colors. I then bring it all together by incorporating bubbles—this is meant to “capture the moment” and convey a sense of temporality. My art tends to create a dialogue with viewers, calling their attention to catharsis and making them wonder how on earth it was made. I make use of acrylic, graphite, charcoal and carbon on either Strathmore, alabaster paper or canvas. I proceed by finding models and helping them understand the concept so they can get into character and…

American Art, 1750-1950 | Historic & Contemporary Native Art | Historic & Contemporary Western Art | Contemporary Realism from Top Artists Across the Country AmericanFineArtMagazine.com • NativeAmericanArtMagazine.com • WesternArtCollector.com • AmericanArtCollector.com Advertising (866) 619-0841 • Subscriptions (877) 947-0792 WHERE DO YOU LIVE? WHICH READER ARE YOU? PRINT AND DIGITAL DIGITAL ONLY Subscribe Now and Get A Whole World of Art in your Mailbox or in your Inbox 6 times a year FOR OUR BEST DEAL ON 6 ISSUES SUBSCRIBE ONLINE AND SAVE (ALL PRICES ARE IN US DOLLARS) 1. Register your subscription. Click on the subscription area and enter your details 2. Your account. Once you have subscribed you’ll be able to revisit our site and look up the status of your subscription. MONEY BACK GUARANTEE If during the period…

We Do What We Need Part of our lives is fulfilling our wants and needs. Think about that: with whom we spend our lives, who our friends are, food, entertainment, where we live, etc. And yes, what we “do.” And doing our dream can happen at any age. I have 100 percent proof of that—from children to a good number of my students well into their 90s. My Pathway My head is swimming with art and knows very little about digital (other than to edit images, to type and to push the “send” button). My family and friends are with me, and I’m content in guiding my life along the artistic pathway. I now happily send this thought to you, dear friend. Recognizing Here’s a good one: If two hundred…

Scan for larger reference image: For artists, inspiration can strike anywhere at any time. In this section, we’ll present a different photo prompt in each issue for artists to use as inspiration for their next piece. Rather than a reference, this photo is meant to be interpretive. It’s a jumping off point—a means to spark creativity and get the imagination going. Capture the image exactly as you see it, or take elements of it to create something entirely new. Submissions can be fully completed artwork or rough sketches. Every approach is the right approach. In the following issue of International Artist, we’ll highlight several Editor’s favorites (including your Instagram username), along with the next photo prompt. Chosen submissions also receive a free six-month digital subscription to International Artist and an…

This June/July issue, we’re unveiling the winners and finalists for our first ever Cityscapes Competition. For years, our bimonthly art competitions have been a cornerstone of International Artist magazine. We love seeing all your submissions come in month after month, and with each issue, a different subject to explore. The cityscapes genre has been on our minds for a while, so it’s been wonderful to see it come to fruition and witness the enthusiasm pour in over this fascinating subject. One artist might paint an electrifying nocturne aglow with the bright lights of a metropolitan city, while another might capture a quiet alleyway in a lesser-known part of town. Read about all of the challenge finalists starting on page 6. Speaking of city scenes, oil painter Michele Byrne has a…

ENTER OUR NEW ART COMPETITION CHALLENGE No. 137 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…

This past winter, the Portrait Society of America hosted our third annual The Future Generation Competition, and in February, we announced this year’s talented group of winners. This competition was created to acknowledge the work of emerging young artists, who are 18 to 25 years old. Our late chair Edward Jonas believed that early recognition in art competitions can have a great impact on a young artist’s career, as it did for John Singer Sargent, who at the age of 23, won Honorable Mention at the Paris Salon for a portrait he painted of his teacher, Carolus-Duran, thus launching his portrait career. Different from our annual The International and Members Only Competitions, which are open to all ages, this contest was created to recognize and celebrate the work of young,…

The moment you look at a Jon Ching painting, a feeling akin to magic overcomes you. And not just because of the wonders of nature he depicts, but the ways in which he uses his imagination to combine them—tropical birds with feathers of honeycomb and crests of vibrant blooms, jellyfish whose tendrils transform into hydrangeas, or a seahorse sprouting branches of newly budding leaves. In Ching’s work, feathers become flower petals, tail fins become flames, and fur becomes fungi. Ching grew up on the island of O‘ahu, Hawaii. Like most kids, he didn’t fully grasp the innate beauty of his home growing up. Only after a perspective shift, moving to California for college, did he start to realize how special Hawaii was—and by extension, his love of the wider world…

Artists are looking to paint solvent free for many reasons. Some have specific health concerns, while others are looking at reducing their impact on the environment. Cobra Artist Water-Mixable Oils offer a solution that enables painters the ability to enjoy the traditional working properties of oil painting, without the need of harmful solvents. There are many myths surrounding water-mixable oils. The most common is that they contain water. Cobra Artist Oils do not contain any water. They are a true oil paint, with a linseed oil binder and only quality lightfast pigments. They are an archival material with excellent pigment-to-binder ratio. They do not dry faster than a traditional oil paint and exhibit all the working properties of a traditional oil. They can be mixed with any other oil paint…

I have often had people tell me that my paintings look like they could be photographs. While I certainly take this as a compliment, I also see it as an opportunity to explain that there is actually a lot more going on below the surface. It’s the underlying design or composition, the selective editing of information that takes the painting from merely a well-executed copy of a photograph to a true work of art. The photorealistic aspect is really just a thin veneer of three-dimensional reality on top of a two dimensional, abstract design. Inspiration for my paintings comes as a flash of light or spark of color that I see in the world around me. It may be blooming flowers in the spring, the changing leaves in autumn or…

My world is dominated by birds. I live with six of them at home and my work focuses solely on birds. Because I am surrounded by them on a daily basis, I know that each one has its own very individual personality. They deserve to be seen as much more than a decorative subject in art, and I approach each piece as if I was painting a portrait of a person. I try to bring out the true character in each artwork, and my choice of reference material is critical for this. Second to character is color and then composition. Each is important, of course, but these two are secondary. I hope to create the impression of a connection between the observer and the bird. I usually prefer to work…

There is something captivating about the way the water moves and interacts with the shore—a sense of movement and life. Painting waves and beaches in acrylics can be a challenging task, but with the right techniques and a deep appreciation for the subject, it can also be incredibly rewarding. Two months after I created the “Painting Waves” course (shown in the previous issue of International Artist) I decided to add this bonus chapter, including all the new learning I had done myself, learning from master artists like William Trost Richards, Ruo Li and Roy Tabora. STUDENT CRITIQUES 1 Elena Sokolova Sunset breaks, acrylic with oil glazing on canvas, 15¾ x 19½" (40 x 50 cm) Bold colorful work Elena, as usual. Just two things I’d like to tweak. The gradation of…

Len Swec Connecticut, USA, Barcelona Balconies, acrylic on hardboard panel, 20 x 16" (50 x 40 cm) Grand Prize is a four-page editorial feature in American Art Collector magazine Noticing the Details Acrylic artist Len Swec works in the genre of realism, depicting a variety of scenes that capture different elements of life. In one painting, you might find a simple interior of an empty room with a lone white chair; in another, a group of patrons chat casually in a bar; others feature train depots, crashing ocean waves or a narrow alleyway. “I haven’t focused my art on particular subjects or themes; I enjoy the creations of so many fine artists from around the world that I like to try my own hand at the subjects that come from their…

Before heading out to paint with gouache, I like to prepare the surface of a few pages or panels with different priming colors. Pre-priming a surface is a time-honored practice among oil painters, but it’s also a helpful strategy for water media painters in gouache, casein, acrylic or any other opaque medium. These base colors act like “pictorial hot sauce,” spicing up the top layers and encouraging creative handling. A LIGHT RED SURFACE IS EFFECTIVE FOR LANDSCAPES For centuries artists have used red or pink priming for landscapes, because the reddish color provides a lively complement to the blues and greens that are prevalent in most sunny landscapes. I like to use an iron-based red-earth pigment such as light red, burnt sienna or Venetian red mixed with white to get…

I love painting the simple beauties I of the desert and magnifying them in each of my paintings. It’s, in a sense, putting them in a spotlight to show the viewer these hidden, delicate beauties found in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. Most of my landscapes spotlight a more close up subject in my painting, like a saguaro, Joshua tree or ocotillo. I usually paint from a photograph that I have taken, or I like to collaborate with photographers and combine our talents. I paint on canvas, ABS board and museum board. I simply start with some guidelines and sometimes some rough sketching on my surface. I always start with my sky, working down to the foreground. I am a simple painter and only use oil paints and mineral spirits.…