Another great day in Telluride! I stuck to painting in town again today, there’s really so much here. I also need to start thinking about tomorrow’s “Quick Draw” competition and find a spot. We’ll have 90 minutes to complete a painting for judging and then live auction. This will be the first test of sales here, which I hear are pretty good. The town boasts celebrities like Oprah and Tom Cruise, who was spotted by a friend in the market. PLEASE, PLEASE Tom Cruise buy one of my paintings in this show! Imagine, being able to list him or Oprah as a collectors. Sweet.

Speaking of sweet, both my paintings today are a bit riotous in the color department and done on the same corner, looking in opposite directions. Although I don’t generally enjoy painting architecture, I do like painting man-made stuff because the colors are stronger than I often seen in nature.

Here’s my first, morning effort. The always affable Keith Wicks was just across the street from me, in fact that’s his truck in shadow. Keith is a great humanitarian. He founded the Sonoma Plein Air event, a fund raiser for local art programs. He also co-founded this event, a fund raiser for the local Sheridan Opera House, which itself hosts many non-profit events for the community.

Fir Street, Telluride - Oil on Linen - 12×16 (AVAILABLE)

After a nice rest, I did this afternoon painting. Fourth of July in Telluride is supposed to be quite an event. A great small-town parade, that apparently everyone tries to participate in, including local Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the coalition forces in the First Gulf War. One year the artists road in the back of a pickup truck, waving their paint brushes.

Fourth of July in Telluride - Oil on Linen - 10×8 (AVAILABLE)

I need to pick one painting for the competition by tomorrow night. I’ll try to post whatever I do in the morning…but, of all the paintings done so far, which is your favorite?

Ten fellow artists gave me their opinions of yesterdays paintings, thank you! Great feedback. Here’s today’s efforts. Went back to Trout Lake in the morning, then spent the afternoon at the first stop on the Telluride gondola.

I struggled with the reflection on this, repainting it at least 3 times. The wind kept chnaging, so one moment reflect sky would show (with wind), the next a perfect reflection. This version is in between.

Trout Lake #2, Oil on Linen, 16×12 (AVAILABLE)

A gondola connects Telluride with Mountain Village, another town. This is the first stop, which is basically the top of the peak between the two towns. Not much here, other than hiking trails and a restaurant.

As you can see, this is an unusual composition. This is how it looked. It almost looks like two paintings, with the trees in the middle separating them. What are your thoughts on this one? Do the two halves need to be better integrated?

Telluride Gondola, Oil on Linen, 16×12 (SOLD)

Thanks again everyone for giving me crtiques this week. I need to turn in my final paintings for the show in a couple of days.

Started the day by just exploring, no particular destination. After getting a feel for the area, I decided to find a North-facing view with water, so I could paint a combination of shadows and light. I ended up at Alta Lake, a lake accessible through 5 miles of offroad. Before you reach the lake, you drive through an old mining town.

I did this first painting in the morning. I’m pretty happy with this one. I think it conveys a good sense of the morning light.

Alta Lake #2 - Oil on Linen - 10×8 (SOLD)

This was my second effort. I focused on the sky and clouds (a favorite subject), and tried to keep the trees and hills secondary. It surprises me how dark the sky is at this altitude. I used Ultramarine Blue and a little Permanent Rose. The color turned out well, but I had to add too much white, so next time I’ll start with Cobalt Blue with Permanent Rose, since it’s already in about the right value.

Alta Lake #1 - Oil on Linen - 8×10 (AVAILABLE)

After completing these two, I checked the map again and noticed that another lake was nearby. Trout Lake was much more accessible, less than a mile off the main road. When I got there, two painters who allowed me to share their shade. I began this painting with rich washes of transparent color, alternating Sap Green, Ultramarine Deep, and Veridian Green. The top of the highest peak had this wonderful red/orange color, and kept alternating between shadow and light. I waited for the light to put in the color you see. Even though there are reds there, I think it falls back okay. That was a concern. The clouds cast shadows on the trees, which made for a nice separation of values.

Trout Lake - Oil on Linen - 12×16 (AVAILABLE)

Since this is a competition, please offer your opinion of these paintings. Thanks!

I’m out of the chaos of New York City and in laid-back Telluride, Colorado today. The flight in from Denver was a very small prop plane, and while I don’t feel completely safe in them I did get a great view of the surrounding areas to paint. There’s a lot here: red rock canyons, meadows, steep mountain peaks (with just a bit of snow left) and a colorful downtown. The town is really beautiful.

I had to leave NYC at 4am this morning, so was pretty tired by the time I got here. Only one painting done, which is more than I’d planned actually since we weren’t supposed to have our canvases stamped for the show until tomorrow. I’m ready!

There are many colorful alleyways in town, and it’s possible to compose paintings with glimpses of the surrounding terrian. Here’s one I did today. I realized later that I didn’t photograph the final painting, but this is close enough.

Telluride Alley - Oil on Linen - 10×8″ (AVAILABLE)
By the way, as I’ve done during other plein air competitions like this one, I’m going to post the final completing paintings, and ask for your help to pick the best. Apparently, I can only submit one to the competition, whereas all the paintings can be hung in the show July 3/4. Thanks in advance for your help!

I packed my paint-stained chapeau yesterday in Rigby, Idaho for my green accountant’s visor here in New York to fit the part for my speaking engagement. This instant switch from artist to marketer/banker will provide a nice rest before the pressures of Telluride Plein Air kick in Thursday. What, banking, no pressure? Sure, but different.

I had some great discussions today with the “rock stars” of Web 2.0 + Finance. While Jason Knight (co-founder of Wesabe) looks more like “The Rock” than rock star Keith Richards and Colin Henderson of The Bankwatch, Michael Stipe, we got plenty of Satisfaction dreaming about the future. The web is exciting, once again! Hell, if Web 2.0 implodes like 1.0, I can always fill my days with canvas coloring until Web 3.0…or Web 2.1, or whatever.

Realizing I wasn’t far from the Art Student’s League of New York, I decided to work off dinner’s proliferoles and see one of the most historically important institutions in American Art. The halls where Robert Henri taught and wrote “The Art Spirit” (the greatest book about art ever written) were empty and closed, but hopefully tomorrow I can sneak out of work and browse the classrooms.

Leaving inspired, on my walk back to my hotel, a man asked for a quarter for a slice of pizza, and for half a second I thought that New York City wasn’t nearly as expensive as I remembered. Inspiration can cloud reality, if only for a few blocks in The Big Apple.

‘night.

P.S.

Having been now to two Ovanes Berberian workshops, and realizing that lots of readers plan to attend as well (some this week), I thought I’d provide some suggestions for a successful workshop:

• Most days, Ovanes doesn’t get out to look at his student’s work until 2-3pm. I tended to paint quick color studies in the morning, and take a long lunch break (with nap!). When I returned to paint larger studies around 2PM, he was there to help. Leave your early morning work by your easel so he can see those as well.
• Although the materials list you’ll get says to take very large canvas, I don’t recommend it. First, you’re painting still life studies under trees and the light is shifting all the time. It’s much better to paint lots of smaller starts and show them to Ovanes. If you want to paint larger, setup outside the apple orchard: if you’re facing Ovanes’ house, this is the area to the far left, near the parking area. This area has a lot less light variation and will give you the time to paint large.
• Due to the shifting light, I suggest you paint everything in shadow/mid-tone, and then add your lights in the last 10% of the painting. This works well for flowers, but less so for the table top and background, which you may need to scrape and repaint at the end to avoid chalky or muddy colors.
• Apparently, Damar Varnish was left off the materials list. Remember, if you want to tone your canvas like Ovanes, bring Phthalo Blue, Black, Linseed Oil (1/8) and remaining 50% Damar Varnish, and Gum Spirits Turpentine (don’t use an odorless substitute in your medium).
• Again, I would take lots of 8×10 - 9×12 to paint quick color and block-in studies, and a few larger (12×16 to 16×20) to paint a few finished pieces.
• The suggested materials lists a LOT of color. You really don’t need them all, and if you’re not familiar with them, will likely not have success. I suggest you bring one warm, one cool for each color hue. If you’re really a beginner, suggest bringing Cad Yellow Light, Phthalo Blue, Quinacridone Red, Black and White. He’ll describe this basic starting palette in the Monday morning lecture.
• Ovanes’ assistant Vickie Reese offers a tour of her nearby studio on Thurs. While her studio is great, this is actually a great time to get Ovanes’ time. He’s shy, so typically when everyone piles into their cars for this tour, he’ll come out when there are only a few dedicated folks left. I got lots of quality time with him then.
• When Ovanes does come out, follow him around and listen and watch him paint on other students canvas. Sure, you want him to critique your own work, but it’s just as valuable to witness his work with others.
• Bring several paintings (3-4) to the Friday afternoon (5PM) critique. He spends a lot of time on these, and the information is really valuable. You’ll probably get more time in this critique with Ovanes than you will during the week outside. Also realize that Ovanes will be much more critical of the better painters, and will offer less praise. He tends to want to really push the better painters forward, and offer lots of praise to novices so as to not discourage them.
• For the Tuesday and Thursday night demos–be prepared for a late night (12-1am). The demos are really amazing. John tapes each one and makes them available in DVD format by the end of the week.
• Want to see what the still life setups look like, click the photo above for a movie.

Have you attended an Ovanes Berberian workshop? Please chime in with your own tips using the comments feature. Want to prepare for your workshop in advance? My sponsor, Virtual Art Academy is run by Barry John Raybould, who also studied with Ovanes. His online, self-study courses are great. Click here to learn more.

Update: To get on the email list to attend a Ovanes Berberian workshop, contact Ray Morrison:

BERBERIAN WORKSHOPS

1838 YALECREST AVE

SALT LAKE CITY, UT 8410

Email ray@trioeditions.com

I have never used my blog to rant against someone, but today’s the day. I’m that angry.

I just had the worst customer service experience in my life. I booked the Casa Sant’Andrea Hotel in Venice, Italy with Orbitz, using a $50 off coupon code. Everything went fine until I received the confirmation email, which said the hotel was in Rome! I immediately canceled the reservation online. When I went back to the site to find the correct hotel in Venice, it gave me the same hotel, and the map showed Venice, not Rome as well. Turns out the hotel I booked was in Venice, even though the confirmation email from Orbitz said “Roma”.

Okay, time to rebook and let Customer Service know what happened. I deserve my coupon back, right? I canceled because of a mistake on their end, an at best misleading email that said the hotel was in Rome. I called their toll free number. Long story short, in 30 frustrating minutes I was transfered 4 times, each time someone telling me something different. Back and forth between Customer Service, who was supposed to re-instate the one-time use coupon code because of the error, then back to Booking who said the code wasn’t valid. Yikes! To make things worst, the customer service reps where clearly out of India, so there were plenty of language problems during this fiasco.

It goes without saying I’ll never book with Orbitz again. When I told a few other world travelers about my experience, they nodded as they too had terrible service with Orbitz. Unfortunately, this hotel only books through Orbitz so I had to bite the bullet and rebook. Let’s hope when I get to Venice the hotel will be there and I’ll have a reservation.

Check out this link to learn more, from someone who is collecting horror stories like mine and organizing a boycott. Okay, that off my chest, time to think about art.

Follow artist blogger Elio Camacho is offering workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area. The workshops are 5 hours a day, one day per week (either Saturday or Sunday), spread out over 8 weeks. I think this is smart. Spreading out the days like this allows you to work on advice he’ll give before the next week. From his site:

Morning Tuition is $350.00 for 8 weeks 9 am to 2:00 (5 Hours) pm each Saturday or Sunday. Each class will start with a demonstration, followed by individual instruction at each student’s easel.

Evening Tuition is $250.00 for 8 weeks from (2:00-3:00 critique the previous weeks evening works) we will paint from 3:00pm till just after sunset. This class is great for students wanting to learn to mix paint quickly and catch the fleeing light. During this class I will set up with students and paint the landscape alongside them. Students are encouraged to paint but can also sit back and watch as I handle the challenge of painting the rapidly changing light. This class will NOT be as hands on morning sessions.

You can sign-up or inquire using this form on this site.

Today wasn’t terribly productive as I’m starting to wear out. I did one scraper because I started too early in the morning and the light chnaged too quickly to finish. At least I got two stages done. Probably could have finished it the next day, but I rarely do that (short attention span Click here to see stage one, and here to see stage two of this unfinished, scraped study.

I’m much happier with my second effort, which Ovanes helped with towards the end. Here’s part of the initial blockin. I kept the colors in the approximate value range and kept the color “articulate”…that is, not muddy, easily read as a green, red or a certain mixture…At this stage I did some warm/cool variation for each object, but generally kept that towards the end.
.

Here’s the painting at the next stage, some block-in color, and I’m starting to add some warm/cool color combinations. As you can see, I removed the green tin on the right (see original drawing above) as I felt it distracted from the composition and I wanted to keep things simple. Ovanes will often stress constantly, create warm/cool variations of color to create a nice vibration for the eye. He said this is the main thing he learned from master Serge Bongart.

This is the finished study. Ovanes really liked the colors in the top middle ( red flower and the colors behind it). He advised that I simplify the background (which I did) as well as the lower left red flower. I’m happy with the sense of light in this painting, in particular the far right flowers and the warm/cool colors in the vase in shadow. I may add some bits of light to some of the flowers, as I like the sharp bit of light on the far right yellow flower.

Still Life Study - Oil on Linen - 12×16 (Available - $250)

Update: To get on the email list to attend a Ovanes Berberian workshop, contact Ray Morrison:

BERBERIAN WORKSHOPS

1838 YALECREST AVE

SALT LAKE CITY, UT 8410

Email ray@trioeditions.com

Permalink Comments (4)