Friday 27 August 2010

Bill Guffey and Virtual Paintout on Canadian TV


Congratulations to Bill Guffey and his Virtual Paintout project which last night featured in an interview with Mark Kelley on the Connect Programme on CBC News (Canada).  I guess this month's location of Prince Edward Island generated some interest!

Click the link and then slide the bar over to just about the 00:49:15 mark to watch Bill's part of the show.

Monday 23 August 2010

Lois Griffel - Painting Impressionist Color

new self-published book by Lois Griffel
Lois Griffel - author of Painting the Impressionist Landscape: Lessons in Interpreting Light and Color - has a new book.

It's called Painting Impressionist Color and it's a self-publication.

To be honest I was very much in two minds about highlighting this book as:
  • her website says very little about what it covers - this is what I found
Painting Impressionist Color will show that Impressionism is not, and has never been, a separate painting method. It is the foundation of all contemporary realistic painting. It will help you enhance the color in yours no matter what your style or approach. With hundreds of images and 10 demos, I hope you will find my new book to be the perfect addition to your Impressionist library.
Lois Giffel - Books
  • I don't know precisely how it moves on and varies from her first book which had a similar topic as its subject
  • there's no sample on the Google site
  • the Lulu site very much gives an impression that there is no sample preview BUT if you persevere and keep clicking through to page 5 you can then see a sample of some of the pages
  • the Lulu site says
This is technical book on painting with impressionist color. There will (sic) be many full color illustrations. 
To be fair, one could say exactly the same thing about her first book!  Wherein lies my problem.


Michael Chesley Johnson (A Plein Air Painter's Blog) has a blog post about it New Book from Lois Griffel.  He doesn't answer any of the questions above but does remind me of what I already knew.
Lois was the director of the now-gone Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, for many years, having worked closely with the previous director, Henry Hensche. (Hensche took over the School from another legendary artist, Charles Hawthorne.) Lois, also the author of Painting the Impressionist Landscape, is well-known for her use of impressionistic techniques and has a national reputation as a plein air instructor.
To be fair the contents pages in the Lulu preview do provide the contents pages covering 4 chapters.
  • Chapter 1:  Tonalism and Impressionism - highlighting the differences between the two methods
  • Chapter 2:  The Foundation of Good Painting - appears to focus on basics which you can find in many art instruction books
  • Chapter 3:  Putting It All Together - includes a section on how digital photography and software can help you paint in an Impressionist style
  • Chapter 4:  Demonstrations in various media (the focus is on oils)
I'm still left with a nagging feeling that some of the content may recap some of her first book - which I already own.

It's certainly a lesson in the need for good marketing material which explains the features and benefits of a new book when promoting a self-published book - especially for a book which costs more than £30.

You can see other books I recommend in The Best Books about Landscape Painting - which includes her first book.

You can also read about Michael's workshop with Lois Griffel on his old blog

Saturday 21 August 2010

Virtual Paintout August - in Prince Edward Island


The place which the Virtual Paintout is visiting in August is Prince Edward Island - off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada and very close to both Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
Prince Edward Island (PEI or P.E.I.; French: Île-du-Prince-Édouard, Scottish Gaelic: Eilean a' Phrionnsa) is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population (excluding the territories). The island has a few other names: "Garden of the Gulf" referring to the pastoral scenery and lush agricultural lands throughout the province
Prince Edward Island - wikipedia
These are the links to:
...drag the little Yellow Man onto the map, let go while he's over a blue area, and start exploring. Find an interesting subject/area. Change it all you want. Or paint it straight up as you see it. Instructions are in the sidebar to the right. Any questions, ask 'em in the comments or email me directly.
Bill Guffey - The Virtual Paintout: Prince Edward Island
The image of the lighthouse in my screen capture from Google Maps Streetview is....
20 minutes east of Souris. East Point Lighthouse is situated on the extreme eastern end of Prince Edward Island where the mighty tides of the St. Lawrence and Northumberland Strait meet to create a show of nature's force. As one of the Island's itinerant lighthouses, the East Point Lighthouse has been moved several times due to poor positioning of the light and continuing erosion of the coastline.
Lighthouses of PEI
The rules

The rules are simple but must be adhered to:
  • participation for this virtual paintout finishes on 31st August 2010
  • the location must be a picture from Google Streetview (not a photo linked to the spot) 
  • each artist must now include the URL of the location that the artwork is based upon
  • the image has to be at a resolution of 72 and no larger than 1000 pixels on the widest side
  • you cannot post to the blog direct - you have to send your pic to Bill Guffey 

    Links:

    Monday 9 August 2010

    Mitchell Abala has a new blog

    Mitchell Albala's new blog

    I'm very pleased to be able to add  Mitchell Albala's new blog Essential Concepts of Landscape Painting to the tutor blogroll in the column on the right.

    Here's a list of his blog posts to date analysed by topic - although my categorisation is slightly different from that used by Mitchell

    Composition and Design

    Landscape Colour Relationships
    Materials and Mediums
    Video Lessons
    Working Plein Air 
    Working with Photo References
    See also my post on this blog and Book Review: Landscape Painting about his book Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice

    His books is likely to become a modern standard for learning about how to paint a landscape and I'm sure all those looking to improve their landscape artwork will enjoy his blog posts.