BBC4 Tales of Winter: The Art of Snow and Ice

Tonight, BBC4 is repeating an excellent programme Tales of Winter: The Art of Snow and Ice which explores how the onset of winter has been depicted by Western painters across the centuries. The programme will be available on BBC iPlayer shortly after it is broadcast at 7.30-9.00pm.

If  you don't live in the UK and would still like to see it, I suggest you take a peek at YouTube and view the same programme in six films of 10 minutes.

The programme comprises several commentators, many of whom are wrapped up warmly and clutching reproductions of the paintings as they revisit places the artist knew and review how similar the painting is to what's there today. I'm a complete sucker for programmes like this and I'll definitely be watching!

Tales of Winter - The Art of Snow and Ice

• Part 1 of 6 covering the very cold winters in the 16th century - including Brueghel's painting of Hunters in the Snow - the first ever painting of a landscape under snow - with comments by Grayson Perry and Jonathan Jones and a cartoon based on it by Peter Brookes

A Frost Fair on the Thames at Temple Stairs (c. 1684) by Abraham Danielsz Hondius (Abraham de Hondt)

• Part 2 of 6 - this features paintings of London and the Thames during the Little Ice Age
• Part 3 of 6 - covers Jacques-Louis David's paintings of Napoleon's campaign in the Alps and The Abbey in the Oakwood by Caspar David Friedrich and the impact of winter in the Alps on John Ruskin - and his paintings of the glaciers 

The Abbey in the Oakwood by Caspar David Friedrich

• Part 4 of 6 - continues with 
• Ruskin's painting of waterfalls including "Le Cascade de la Folie, Chamonix" 
• before moving on to the Impressionists' absorption with the colour of the snow effect "the illusive colour of the shadows in snow". The programme visits Vetheuil where Claude Monet lives when impoverished and where his wife became severely ill. It shows you the house he lived in when he had to choose between paint or medicine for his wife. 
• It also include paintings of winter by the American Impressionist  painter Childe Hassam.  
• Next it considers what is probably the first ever photograph of falling snow - "Winter, 5th Avenue" (1893) by Alfred Steiglitz and other photographs of "The Terminal", "The Flat Iron Building" and "The City of Ambitions"
• Part 5 of 6 - focuses the contrast between rural and urban winters. Giovanni Segantini painted the Swiss mountains in all seasons including winter.  George Bellows, one of the Ashcan painters, paints the raw, bitter, cruel New York winter in The Lone Tenement and John Nash, a  Royal Academician and serving solider fighting in the Artist Rifles Batallion, paints the bitter winters of the First World War

Death (1898-99) by Giovanni Segantini (1858 – 1899)

The Lone Tenement (1909) by George Bellows (1882 - 1925)

Over the Top - 1st Artists' Rifles at Marcoing, 30th December 1917 by John Nash

• Part 6 of 6 looks at the work of Nevinson and highlights the pla ing of a football game in winter and a wonderful photograph of Stonehenge under snow by Bill Brandt while Don McCullin comments on what's involved in photography in winter.

I guess my only criticism of it is it presents a curiously Western European/American view of landscape painting in winter - and misses out the very significant contributions made by the Scandinavians, Eastern Europeans, Russians and Canadians.

Susan Abbott - sketching and painting plein air

I caught up with this post The Travel Bug by Susan Abbott on her Painting Notes blog.

You can see her recent watercolour sketches of Paris on her blog A Painting Year and on her website (see below) - plus her plein air oil paintings. What I really like about her watercolour sketches and paintings is how she has a very consistent and recognisable colour palette and the way in which she keeps all her colours fresh and never muddy!

Plein Air Watercolours by Susan Abbott

For those planning plein air painting this summer check out her blog posts about painting plein air which she wrote last summer:

• Plein Air 101 - provides a number of tips for effective working plein air
• Plein Air 102 - covers her kit for watercolour and oil painting plein air

Bill Guffey's plein air painting kit

Following on from the last post about an artist's plein air equipment. here's Bill Guffey's kit which he explains in this post - My Plein Air Equipment on his blog Bill Guffey.

See a larger version in Bill's post

You can see larger images of the kit on his post - just click an image in his post to see the larger version.

I hope this gives you an idea of what, how and why I pack what I do to go paint in the great outdoors. If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll see if I can answer them for you.

Bill is a Kentucky artist who paints in oils.  He's a member of the American Impressionist Society and an associate member of the Oil Painters of America. You can see Bill's paintings on his website http://bnguffey.com/

He founded the Virtual Paintout blog for those painting from views seen via Google Paintout.

Links to more posts on this blog about Bill Guffey:

• Bill Guffey and Virtual Paintout on Canadian TV 27 Aug 2010
• 'Virtual Paintout' wins The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup 07 Jan 2011
• Bill Guffey paints a winter landscape plein air (video) 30 Jan 2011
• Plein air painting demo by Bill Guffey 27 Oct 2011

Albert Bierstadt - Approaching Thunderstorm on the Hudson River

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston triggered today's post.  They're closed today because of the imminent arrival of Hurricane Sandy on the northeastern seabord of the USA.

Instead they posted a painting from their collection - Albert Bierstadt's (1830-1902) Storm in the Mountains - to their Facebook page 

So I went hunting for more images appropriate to the current weather situation and came up with yet another Bierstadt painting of a storm - this time Approaching Thunderstorm on the Hudson River

Approaching Thunderstorm on the Hudson River by Albert Bierstadt
Oil on paper mounted on board
48.9 x 34.29 cm (19¼" x 13½")
Public collection

Bierstadt produced some absolutely epic paintings during his career as an American landscape painter - in terms of both size of subject matter and size of his paintings.  You can see a very long slideshow of some 200+ paintings by Albert Bierstadt on Wikipaintings.

Winslow Homer's Studio at Prout Neck

This is a slideshow of photos of Winslow Homer's Studio at Prout Neck in Maine - plus a Vanity fair article on the studio and his painting habits  It would seem Winslow Homer was pretty smart as to the timing of paintings to satisfy the seasonality of people's interests

West Point, Prout's Neck (1910) by Winslow Homer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It looks as if tours of the studio where he settled in 1883 are about to start.  This is an extract from the Portland Museum of Art's website relating to The Year of Winslow Homer

Walk in Winslow Homer's footsteps.
The Portland Museum of Art is pleased to offer tours to this National Historic Landmark beginning on September 25.
Reservation details »

In addition, the Museum is having an exhibition Homer's Prouts Neck Home (22 September - 30 December 2012)

To celebrate the opening of the newly renovated Winslow Homer Studio at Prouts Neck, the Portland Museum of Art presents Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine. This extraordinary exhibition showcases 38 masterpieces that the great American artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) created during the final decades of his life, when he lived and worked in Maine.

For more about Winslow Homer see my website - About Winslow Homer - American Artist

A review of Thomas Moran

An art blog - Poul Webb Art Blog - has recently posted a series of five posts about the great landscape painter Thomas Moran (1837-1926).  These highlight his watercolour sketches and oil paintings of the American West.

Born in Bolton in Lancashire, Moran became one of the renowned painters of the Hudson River School.  He's best known for his panoramic paintings of the American West and the Rocky Mountains.  He's also known as: "Father of the National Parks" and "the Dean of American Painters".

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1904) by Thomas Moran
30 x 60 1/2 in. (76.2 x 153.7 cm), oil on canvas painting
Collection: Honolulu Museum of Art
Thomas Moran [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

He's been on my list of painters to find out more about for some time.

So here's an introduction for me as well as any of you who haven't studied his work before.  I'm not quite sure where the images come from - but there's an excellent selection of images of Moran's paintings in the following posts.  If you click them and open in a new tab you can see larger versions.

I'm particularly impressed with his plein air watercolour sketches done on the spot.

Here are the links to

• Thomas Moran - part 1 - an introduction and overview of Moran's life and important works
• Thomas Moran - part 2 - Watercolour and gouache paintings on paper made during the Yellowstone Expedition and subsequently (early 1870s)
• Thomas Moran - part 3 - Oil paintings on canvas, board and paper plus watercolours of Yellowstone and Yosemite - plus Nevada, Florida and other parts of Wyoming -- and Lower Manhattan
• Thomas Moran - part 4 - Watercolour and oil paintings of landscapes in : USA: New Jersey, Florida, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Denver, Yellowstone Plus Scotland and Venice
• Thomas Moran - part 5 - Oil paintings of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Tetons.  Plus waterfalls and geysers everywhere

If you want to get a mental fix on Moran, note that his dates are virtually identifical to those of Claude Monet (1840-1926) - although their painting styles were very different over time.

I've set up a "resources for art lovers" website on Squidoo - About Thomas Moran - American Landscape Painter.  It's got the basics in it - but I'll be continuing to develop it over time.  If you know of any excellent online references re Moran I'd be glad to hear about them

You can see more of my "resources for art lovers" websites about individual artists in About Artists

View of the Thames by Childe Hassam

View of the Thames (1889) by Childe Hassam
watercolour

I'm very fond of paintings by Childe Hassam but only came across his painting of the Thames very recently.  I wasn't even aware he'd ever paid a visit to London.

Behind the boats is a view of Charing Cross Railway Bridge with Embankment Gardens and Cleopatra's Needle on the right and the Houses of Parliament in the background.  The Thames Embankment would still be very new when this was painted.

The mixing of pigments on the paper is very attractive and lifts what are ostensibly grey buildings and grey water into some far more interesting.  Why shouldn't be water and sky be yellow?  It seems entirely appropriate.

I spotted it partly because I saw some boats very like this last Saturday moored in the River Thames outside Old Billingsgate Market

Boats participating in the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant Flotilla

Paintings of water in March by Willard Metcalf

I've not come across Willard Metcalf (1858-1925) before.  He's an American artist who became renowned as a landscape painter.  Here are two landscapes by Metcalf for the Spring Landscape series.  They both include water and neatly demonstrate the contrasts in landscape scenes which occur in March in the USA.

The Frozen Pool, March (1909) by Willard Metcalf
66.04 x 73.66 cm

Brook in March (1923) by Willard Metcalf

Facts about Willard Metcalf

• Willard Metcalf studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Académie Julian, Paris.
• Metcalf was the first American painter to visit and paint at Giverny
• He's regarded as a painter within the American Impressionism movement
• He was one of the Ten American Painters who in 1897 seceded from the Society of American Artists - known as "The Ten"
• In 1893 he became a member of the American Watercolor Society, New York.
• He taught at the Art Students League, New York.
• He was involved with the artists' colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut.

The Spring Landscape series will continue next week with paintings of April.  Do send your recommendations to me by leaving a comment on this blog.

The MAM Award for Best Picture (Place) on an Art Blog 2011

Pacific Passage
© Robin Purcell (Robin Purcell - Watercolours in the Plein Air Tradition)
14" x 14", watercolour

I'm pleased to announce that Robin Purcell (Robin Purcell - Watercolours in the Plein Air Tradition) won The Making A Mark Award for Best Picture of a Place - on an Art Blog in 2011.  This prize aims to celebrate and highlight excellence in creating pictures about places in our environment

I nominated her for the award as part of my Annual Making A Mark Awards - and was very pleased to see that she won.  I think her watercolour paintings are fantastic.   Do take a look at her blog post about her Point Lobos series

Also take a look at the other artists who made the short list in VOTE for the Best Artwork on an Art Blog in 2011

Links:

• Nominate the Best Artwork (Place/Landscape) on a blog in 2011
• MAM Awards 2011: Landscape Nominations for Best Artwork

Remnant Snow - Winter Landscapes #1

Remnant by Casey Klahn
small pastel

This is a pastel painting of a remnant of snow by Casey Klahn (The Colorist).

Casey does fabulous landscapes in pastels and has been juried into exhibitions by the Pastel Society of America.

He also produces some of the most epic photographs of snow I see each winter (he lives in the north of Washington State near the border with Canada!).  Here's one from last year round about this time - which includes the route to his studio. he has to break in when the door freezes shut!

This artwork first appeared in this post Remnant - and came complete with musical accompaniment.

How to get your paintings of Winter posted on this blog
If you are

1. active in blogging about your art 
2. you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes. 

then all you have to do is

• drop me a line (see side column for email) with a brief explanation about your painting (if this is not already in your blog post), 
• identify and reference the URL of the blog post in which I can see the painting 
• and (this is important) use Readers Winter Landscapes in the subject line of your email (This is so I can find it in the masses I get each day!) 

Places to Paint: This blog features and shares good places for painters to paint. Please note that I'm also interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Winter. Tell me if and why other painters might be interested in this place.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".


[Note - the count in the title only applies to the winter landscapes submitted by art bloggers]

Jackson, New Hampshire - Blogger's Autumn Landscapes #5

Autumn near Jackson, New Hampshire (2006) by Stapleton Kearns
24 by 30 inches

I often read Stapleton Kearns's blog.  He's a professional landscape painter and he has a lot of very sensible things to say.  His blog is always an interesting read.

I spotted this Autumn Landscape on his blog and asked him if I could post it on this blog - and he kindly agreed.

Turning to Winter for a moment, Stapleton is running a first Snowcamp at Sugar Hill in New Hampshire is already full.  He's running two more weekends (28-30 January / 4-6 February) in 2012 - for those who want to have a workshop about painting snow.  It's "set in an old wooden inn on a high ridgetop in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the views from the property are unbelievable". I hope we get to see what he paints at Snowcamp!

How to get your paintings of Autumn posted on this blog

This is the fifth in my series of Autumn Landscapes by art bloggers.  If you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes

• drop me a line (see side column for email), 
• reference the blog post in which I can see the painting 
• and (this is important) use Readers Autumn Landscapes in the subject line of your email (This is so I can find it in the masses I get each day!)

Places to Paint: Please note that I'm also interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Autumn.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".

Dale Hollow State Park - Reader's Autumn Landscapes #2

Autumn Oak by Bill Guffey
18" x 24", oil, plein air

Bill Guffey was plein air painting in Dale Hollow State Park last Saturday - at the end of October - and captured a golden scene.

Places to Paint: Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park is located in south-central Kentucky in the Cumberland River basin on the Obey River.

Bill lives in Burkesville Kentucky and you can see more of his paintings of American landscape on his website

How to get your paintings of Autumn posted on this blog

If you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes, just drop me a line (see side column for email) and reference the blog post in which I can see the painting.

Places to paint: Please note that I'm interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Autumn.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".

Plein air painting demo by Bill Guffey

Bill emailed me to say he's put a plein air painting demo up on YouTube - and here it is - enjoy the brush strokes in time to the music!

If you are also doing videos of yourself painting landscapes plein air - or even in the studio do let me know.

This plein air oil painting demonstration was filmed on October 23, 2011 at Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park in Cumberland County, Kentucky.

The painting is 24" x 20" and was completed in about an hour and 20 minutes. I knew traveling to this location was going to be a race against the sun and time. The camera battery ran out about 10 minutes before the painting was completed. A shot of the finished painting ends this short film.

You can see more of Bill's work on http://billguffey.blogspot.com/

Wolf Kahn - on painting and being a landscape painter

"A painting with content" (Video 2)

"I was trying even then to do something I'm still trying to do - to get away from description and at the same time still be a landscape painter"

Wolf Kahn

This a two part interview with Wolf Kahn - the renowned landscape painter who works in both oil and pastels.

The two videos from 2008 are from New Art TV

In the first he talks about the earlier part of his life and how his artwork developed and was influenced by the philosophies and contemporary art movements of the fifties.



This is the second part of the interview with Wolf Kahn in which he describes how he got launched and started to sell seriously

"I'm constantly trying to get away from the deliberate...and intentionality"

Wolf Kahn

Thanks to Debora L. Stewart (Contemporary Asbtract Pastels) for alerting me to the videos

Links:

• Wolf Kahn website - pastels and paintings 
• These are links to the original pages on New Art TV
• Wolf Kahn Part 1 of 2
• Wolf Kahn Part 2 of 2

The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O'Keeffe and the New Mexico Landscape

The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O'Keeffe and the New Mexico Landscape is the title of a a video piece created by composer and multimedia artist Nell Shaw Cohen.  

This piece features a chamber music score and footage of the New Mexico landscapes where painter O'Keeffe found inspiration.

Nell left a comment on Georgia O'Keeffe's landscapes of northern New Mexicoto tell me about it.

I took a look and was entranced.  Now I appreciate much better why it was that Georgia O'Keeffe made this part of northern New Mexico her home for so many years.  How could one fail to be stimulated by that landscape?

What was also surprising was to learn about O'Keeffe's relationship to music - and all the various places where Nell went to film the landscape for the video.  You can read and see all about this in the blog which she created as a record of the making of this film - Nell Shaw Cohen Composer.

Here are the links to the posts about specific places and landscape

• Day 1: Denver to Taos; the road to the D.H. Lawrence Ranch; San Francisco de Asis Church
• Day 2: “Abstraction” at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; arrival at Ghost Ranch
• Day 3: Ghost Ranch and vicinity; the White Place
• Day 4: Tour of O’Keeffe’s Abiquiu home; 1977 documentary
• Day 5 & 6: Return to the White Place; Pedernal with storm clouds; a break in Santa Fe; more at Ghost Ranch
• Day 7: Last day of filming; the Black Place

Here's Nell on the topic of her film.

"The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O'Keeffe and the New Mexico Landscape" was funded in part by an Entrepreneurial Grant from New England Conservatory's Entrepreneurial Musicianship Department. The score, which was inspired by the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, was composed prior to the conception of this video. I filmed on location in New Mexico in June 2010, and edited and animated the video over the summer. The video received its premiere screening, with a live ensemble performing the music, in November 2010. I am seeking additional screenings (with live performances or pre-recorded score) and gallery installations for this piece.

I believe that painter Georgia O'Keeffe (1887--1986) achieved an important artistic ideal: to create new meanings, previously unrealized connections, and heightened ways of perceiving the world and filtering experience. I seek to do the same with "The Faraway Nearby": to offer new insight, new ways of experiencing the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, and her source material -- to bring you into her world as I imagine it.

"The Faraway Nearby" is about seeing. When I look at O'Keeffe's paintings of New Mexico, I am reminded of that remarkable landscape in a way that feels almost more immediate and more meaningful than the reality. I see the abstract shapes, colors, and compositional ideas that informed her interpretation of the visual world around her. I see the relationship to place that was immensely important to her, which she forged while hiking for endless hours through desert badlands. This piece is my attempt to create an immersive visual and musical experience that captures these qualities.

Sherrie York draws and prints the landscape underfoot

Sherrie York (Brush and Baren) is a fine art printmaker who primarily produces original, hand-pulled relief prints in woodcut and linocut of the environment where she lives.

Most of the images reflect my ongoing curiosity about the natural world: wildlife, wildlands, and sometimes not-so-wild places, too.

Longing
Reduction linocut - 10 colors
Edition of 10 | Image size 12" x 16 "
Hand printed on Hosho paper.
copyright Sherrie York

I think her work is totally stunning and I'm impressed by it every time I review her website or blog. Sherrie has a huge talent in terms of draughtsmanship, the ability to see pictures where others wouldn't think to look and a wonderful sense of colour which enriches without being overwhelming.

Sherrie is currently featuring as the Artist of the Month at the Pikes Peak Library Distric.  As a result of which she gets to have an exhibition - and to be on TV!

This is a video which was made for the latter which explains:

• how she became to become interested in the landscape underfoot
• how she produces her linocuts of her enivironment using the reduction method and up to 12 colour printing (using a baren)

PPLD Off the Wall: February 2011 from PPLD TV on Vimeo.

Sherrie York: Art Underfoot

I recommend you go take a good look at her blog and website if you like what you see in the video.

You can also purchase small prints through her Etsy store, Rio Salida Art. 

Links:

• Sherrie York - website http://www.sherrieyork.com/index.html
• Sherrie York -Brush and Baren blog http://brushandbaren.blogspot.com/
• Sherrie York on Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/shop/riosalidaart

Bill Guffey paints a winter landscape plein air (video)

This is a two hour plein air painting session in January by Bill Guffey reduced to eight minutes.  He's painting a winter landscape of woods and water in the snow.

Quick two hour painting effort
at Salem Park in Cumberland County, Kentucky
on January 22, 2011. Oil on oil primed linen panel

If you have published a painting video of you painting plain air do let me know.

Places to Paint: Linda Blondheim in Florida

Summer at Fair Oaks Farm (2010) by Linda Blondheim

acrylic 24x36 $2300

Fair Oaks Farm in Evinston Florida is Linda Blondheim's favourite place to paint

I've been asked many times where I love to paint the most? I've been painting in the tiny hamlet of Evinston Florida for about 15 years at various farms and on Orange Lake. Evinston is located between the two cities of Gainesville and Ocala. About three years ago I discovered Fair Oaks Farm in Evinston.

Fair Oaks is my very favorite place to paint and to be. It has all of the qualities that are appealing to a plein air painter.

Continue reading on Linda's blog to find out more about Fair Oaks Farm in Evinston Florida

Links about Linda Blodheim:

• Linda Blondheim Studio Linda's website
• Art Collector's blog Landscapes of the South 
• Linda Blondheim Art Journal provides notes on a painting journey
• Linda's book North Florida Muse

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

• Lois Griffel Workshop - Day 1
• Lois Griffel Workshop - Day 2
• Lois Griffel Workshop - Day 3
• Lois Griffel Workshop - Day 4
• Lois Griffel Workshop - Day 5

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

• Value Divisions in Landscape 
• The Not-So-Simple Art of Simplification

Landscape Colour Relationships

• Convincing Color Relationships Between Sky and Ground 
• The Harmony of Neutrals 
• Nickel Titanate, the Coolest Yellow 
• Should I Shoot Slides of My Work?

Materials and Mediums

• Advantages of the Alkyd Medium

Video Lessons

• Video Lesson: Color Strategies in Plein Air

Working Plein Air 

• Optimal Orientation of Subject and Artist in Plein Air

Working with Photo References

• The Tyranny of Photo Reference

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.