Demonstrations and other art items you might be interested in
Rio Grande Art Association Demonstration February 2005
excerpted from the Rio Grande Art Association The
PALETTE Page 7
FEBRUARY PROGRAM REVIEW …
by Frieda Thorsen
Jeff began his presentation by describing the
beautiful landscapes he brought to show us. “Every painting is a story
describing what a magical place this is. Art is distilling what the mind is
feeling.” Describing his technique, Jeff said, “I’m not an impressionist.
I try to get into the depth and detail of the background, not the foreground –
that’s tedious. I don’t want to put in every blade of grass. I try to
capture the feeling of space falling away from you…
my compositions are less structured, I have room to create and improvise.”
His experience with water media and pastels as evident in his
demo in oils of an aerial view of
Cabezon. The vertical 18x24 piece was first sketched with charcoal, then using
pastels Jeff laid
in the dominant colors – Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Phthalo Blue and a little
orange. Using linseed oil, he liquefied the pastels on the canvas to get
the values and block in the dominant
areas and shapes. He explained that the pastel underpainting won’t interfere
with the oils because it’s thin.
Regarding materials, Jeff prefers small round tip brushes for
oils because the big ones lose too much paint in the brush. He uses primarily
Grumbacher and Liquitex paints. The palette for the demo was: Yellow Ochre, Cad
Yellow, Cad Orange, Cad Red, Chrome Oxide (the only green he likes), Phthalo
Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber.
He uses a lot of linseed oil poured right onto the
palette and adds pigment to it. He started by making three puddles on the
palette, one primarily white for the lighter values, one light blue (Cerulean,
Ultramarine, a touch of Phthalo and white), and a pink puddle for the sky at
horizon level.
Probably drawing upon his training in watercolors, Jeff began
with the sky and the lighter values. “The sky is a balancing act, there is a
gradation from light to dark as you go up.” He next worked on the shadows
in the cliff areas using Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue and Cad Red. As the
value in the background shadows lightened, he added more Ultramarine. Jeff noted
that capturing the cool values of the bluish shadows in the New Mexico landscape
going into space is a challenge. Then, using primarily Yellow Ochre, he
painted the flat surfaces of the mesas in the middle ground. Raw Sienna
and orange were used for the foreground flat surfaces. A little green was
integrated into thebackground for the distant mountains.
Jeff finished the demo by feathering the sky. He likes to use a very thin fan
brush to carefully and gently push the paint around and blend the transition of
color, taking the brush strokes out.
Jeff commented that this painting would probably take 20 hours to complete.
After the demo he will let it dry for one or two days and then apply the detail.
Here is the final painting, a 24" x 18" oil.