Thursday, March 31, 2011

Dynamic Viewing

I just found out about the dynamic viewing feature introduced by Blogger. You just type the word "view" at the end of the URL in the address bar above and then the blog appears with a drop down menu offering different ways of seeing the posts, including a mosaic or flip cards of thumbnail images from the whole site. This sure beats going through the whole blog page by page to browse the images. Try it. Might not work if you have an older browser.
Here's what the flipcard option looks like:


Thursday, March 24, 2011

Sunlight through fog

Here's a link to an article about William Ritschel and his ability to capture the iridescent effect of sunlight through fog, a condition often found on the west coast of the US.
virtual art academy



Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Fundraiser for Japan








Tsunami painting by Oscar Favre. One of many donated by artists for an  auction raising money for Japan.

Here's a link to the project website:
http://tsunami.cfsl.net/

Neil Pinkett

Neil Pinkett, Crashing Waves, Sennen Quay.

This image of the sea overflowing a seawall reminded me of the horrific scenes of the tsunami in Japan.
Neil Pinkett is from Cornwall, England; another coastal region that has inspired seascape artists.
Neil paints with a knife in order to convey the rugged power of the Cornish landscape.
He is gradually progressing towards bigger works. 
Larger works have more impact and stretch a painter's technique.
You often have to learn to paint with the whole arm and body rather than just the hand.
Generally it's best to start small and gradually work your way up to larger canvases over time.
neilpinkett.co.uk



Monday, March 14, 2011

Josette Nicolle










Top: Affrontement, 80 x 80 cm
Bottom: La Vague Folle

Josette Nicolle is an a painter from Brittany, France. This is a coastline which has inspired many artists for two hundred years or more.
Foam and spray are chaotic but still have form and shadow. Most of it has been suggested with expressionistic brushwork but there are also small areas of precise detail which give the impression of reality. It's not necessary to reproduce photographic detail over the entire canvas. In fact, doing so usually destroys the sense of a real, moving subject.
In the top painting the random nebulousness of the spray is nicely contrasted to the crisp, defined edge of the wave as it runs up the sand.
The medium is acrylic and oil. Acrylics are used in the initial layers of the painting. You can't paint acrylic over oil. Acrylic paint is often used as an underpainting as it's cheaper and much faster drying.