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.

David Curtis demonstrates "A Light Touch: Landscapes in Oils"

In this video, David Curtis is back to painting in oils and this time the 'light' is all about a lightness of touch which he likes to use when painting in oils.



Notes I made while it was playing focus on:

• he likes to use scrubby strokes at the beginning of landscape paintings
• palette focus on main colours used for his landscape palette
• capitalise on the light and getting the patina of light right
• getting the highlights marked in at the beginning of the painting
• seeing the picture as a whole in terms of shapes of light and shade
• a constant focus on tones and getting the register of light and dark right
• the importance of developing your memory when painting plein air
• the importance of NOT honing in on one area - which you might like a lot - for too lomg

Books and DVDs by David Curtis

You can find a new section about David Curtis in my "resources for artists" website The Best Books about Landscape Painting  

These are my Amazon Associate links to David Curtis's books

United Kingdom

• The Landscape in Watercolour: A Personal View (Atelier)
• Capturing the Moment in Oils
  
• Light and Mood in Watercolour
  
• NEW BOOK published May 2010 Painting with Impact
  

United States of America

• A Personal View - David Curtis -The Landscape in Watercolor
• Artists living in the USA can also buy DVDs (Region1) of this artist.  Here's a link to A Personal View: Landscapes in Watercolour with David Curtis 
• A Light Touch: Successful Painting In Oils 
• Capturing the Moment in Oils
• his new book published September 2010 Painting with Impact

David Curtis - Light in the Landscape

This YouTube video Light in the Landscape by David Curtis is all about painting light in the landscape.  In 2 minutes and 44 seconds it gives some top tips for painting plein air in oils.



Books and DVDs by David Curtis

You can find a new section about David Curtis in my "resources for artists" website The Best Books about Landscape Painting  

These are my Amazon Associate links to David Curtis's books

United Kingdom

• The Landscape in Watercolour: A Personal View (Atelier)
• Capturing the Moment in Oils
  
• Light and Mood in Watercolour
  
• NEW BOOK published May 2010 Painting with Impact
  

United States of America

• A Personal View - David Curtis -The Landscape in Watercolor
• Artists living in the USA can also buy DVDs (Region1) of this artist.  Here's a link to A Personal View: Landscapes in Watercolour with David Curtis 
• A Light Touch: Successful Painting In Oils 
• Capturing the Moment in Oils
• his new book published September 2010 Painting with Impact

Landscape Painting Videos by David Curtis

This week I'm going to be posting some YouTube videos of David Curtis painting landscapes - which will be of interest to all those looking to improve their landscape painting techniques.

David Curtis is a well known UK landscape artist. In 1992, he won the first prize in the most well known watercolour competition in the UK Singer and Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition and has also won many other prestigious awards for his art. Essentially a "plein air" and figurative painter, he works in both oil and watercolours and is a Member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of Marine Artists.

He's also the author of a number of art instruction books and has been co-author of a number of instructional DVDs.

Rather than create one very 'top heavy' post I've set them up so that one will be posted each day and I'll provide a link in this post to them as they get posted each day so if you want just one bookmark post this is it!

The first one is "A Personal View: Landscapes in Watercolour" which I found really exciting as I watched.  I've got his books and really like his watercolours but watching how he puts paint on paper was a HUGELY stimulating experience!  A recommended view for all aspiring plein artists using watercolour.

Painting in Cornwall, David Curtis illustrates his approach to watercolour. Boats in an estuary and the village of Cadgwith viewed from the beach are painted on site. A further scene of a wooded bay with boats is painted in the studio, using an oil painting as source material. 

Update:  Links to Other Short Videos on YouTube:

• David Curtis - Light in the Landscape
• David Curtis - Light Effects in Watercolour

Books and DVDs by David Curtis

You can find a new section about David Curtis in my "resources for artists" website The Best Books about Landscape Painting  

These are my Amazon Associate links to David Curtis's books

United Kingdom

• The Landscape in Watercolour: A Personal View (Atelier)
• Capturing the Moment in Oils
  
• Light and Mood in Watercolour
  
• NEW BOOK published May 2010 Painting with Impact
  

United States of America

• A Personal View - David Curtis -The Landscape in Watercolor
• Artists living in the USA can also buy DVDs (Region1) of this artist.  Here's a link to A Personal View: Landscapes in Watercolour with David Curtis 
• A Light Touch: Successful Painting In Oils 
• Capturing the Moment in Oils
• his new book published September 2010 Painting with Impact

How to draw a tree by Edition Handdruck

My friend and ace artist/draughtsman/printmaker Martin Stankewitz (Edition Handdruck) produces delightful plein air pen and ink drawings and then fabulous monotype and giclee prints from the drawings and sketches.

Martin is very fond of drawing trees and recently he's been sharing his enthusiasm for drawing trees in a number of different ways

He's been very busy creating a whole set of resources and different ways in which people can share what's learned.

How to draw a tree is a visual summary of my experiences in drawing and sketching trees from life.

Rather than teaching a drawing method the little booklet shall encourage the reader with example drawings, mainly in pen and ink, to own explorations and to use the own handwrite.

The text concentrates on important aspects of tree drawings as proportions, trunk and branches and how to depict foilage of trees.

How to Draw a Tree

These include:

• a blog called How to draw a tree
• a book about How to draw a tree

How to Draw a Tree - the blog

the book cover of 'how to draw a tree'

PLUS a whole suite of 'how to draw a tree' sites aimed at helping people improve their skills in drawing trees.

• How to draw a tree - tree drawing
• How to draw a pine tree
• How to draw deciduous trees
• How to draw coniferous trees
• Forest diary - keeping a nature sketchbook

To give you a taster, the first of these includes:

• Learning by doing - tree drawing from LIFE
• Three critical points in depictions of trees
• Rythm and patterns in foliage
  
• Some tricks that help to get a convincing tree drawing
  
• How to draw the trunk of a tree
• plus some examples of how he applies basic principles in his own drawings in different media
• and some examples from well known artists from the past and the present

"How to Draw a tree" is a gold nugget of art education - and in my view is it's well worth investing some time in studying what he has to say. I need to improve my tree drawing and I'm going to be reading it from end to end more than once!

motifs from Martin Stankewitz's 'how to draw a tree' information websites
copyright the artist/printmaker

Martin is German and he lives in Maulbronn in southern Germany. However his English is excellent and his advice and information is very easy to understand. He also includes a 'translate into English' option on all his blogs.

Overall, I think his resources are a really refreshing change from all the normal 'how to draw a tree' books which seem to be produced these days. I highly recommend exploring all the resources Martin has to offer.

Other landscape blogs by Martin include:

• Edition Handdruck - for the original fine art prints he produces
• Wandern und Zeichnen - hiking and drawing
• A year in the vineyard

Plus you can purchase his original monotype prints or buy reproductions of his fine art prints

Art postcard Tree landscape by editionha
postcard printing by Zazzle.com

Artist & Illustrators Landscape Painting Competition

Artists and Illustrators' Magazine (in the UK) is running a competition to win one of 10 copies of Mitchell Albala's Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice

Sadly it's not a competition which involves submitting your work

Instead it's one of those competitions which involves 'answer a simple question' and then deciding whether or not you want to be added to their digital mailing lists for different sorts of information which they'd like to send you.

It's a jolly good book and if you are short of funds I'd recommend having a go - the deadline is 29th April.

You can read my review of this book on Making A Mark Reviews.... in Book Review: Landscape Painting by Mitchell Albala

Summary review: This book will become a new classic manual of landscape art.

It takes the core concepts and skills required of those creating any type of representational art and interprets and relates how these apply and work within the context of landscape art. It's an in-depth guide produced by somebody who is an experienced educator. It's written and designed by somebody who is an excellent communicator. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of everybody who takes landscape art seriously - whether they paint plein air or in the studio, whether they are a student or an experienced artist and whether they are self-taught or are an artist who teaches landscape art.

You can also find out more about The Best Books about Landscape Art by reviewing my information site.

Art Instruction: Drawing and Painting Landscapes in Watercolour

The Practice of Drawing and Painting Landscape from Nature in Water Colours was written by Francis Nicholson in the early nineteenth century.

Its title page is very precise as to its aim and the potential benefits for the reader:

• exemplified in a series of instructions
• calculated to faciliate the progress of the learner
• including the elements of perspective, their application in drawing from nature and the explanation of the various processes of colouring, for producing from the sketch the finished picture
• with observations on the study of nature
• and various other matters relative from the arts

The first edition sold out.

This second edition was published by Thomas Davison, Whitefriars in London in 1823 - and subsequently found its way into the New York Public Library system

The language is obviously somewhat stilted to that which we are used to today. However for those who are prepared to put in the effort to reading this book you'll find it long on explanation and that it includes images to help explain the instruction. All in all quite a contrast to the art instruction book of today. This is one for those who prefer their art instruction books to not be dumbed down!

Read this book for FREE

This book has been digitized by Google and is now available to download as PDF or EPUB files - for FREE! Alternatively you can read it online.

The contents page is displayed on the right. I like the titles of some of his chapters such as "Accidents in Painting" and "Licences in Drawing". I've only dipped into it so far but it looks very interesting. It includes for example a detailed explanation of how of how to use a Claude mirror ('the blackened convex mirror') on page 21 and 22.

The contents page in Google Books includes hyperlinks to the different sections.

I also found it interesting how many references are included to landscape painters from the past. It gives you an insight into the thinking behind landscape drawing and painting at the time as well as useful tips on 'how to'. His language (starting on page 33) when he doubts the advice of Sir Joshua Reynolds on drawing vs painting and quotes Michael Angelo (sic) in support of his view had me grinning from ear to ear!

Reviews: If you write a review of this book on your blog do let me know and I'll highlight your review on this blog.

Sir Francis Nicholson

I tried to find out a little bit about the author Francis Nicholson and concluded that he was in all probability Sir Francis Nicholson (14 November 1753 – 6 March 1844) who was a Yorkshire born landscape painter who worked in both watercolours and oils but grew to focus on landscapes in watercolour.

He was also a founding member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours now known as the Royal Watercolour Society. It's not every day that you get to read a book by a leading member of such an august body!

Art Instruction: Landscape Painting in Pastels

Pastel Landscapes by Deborah Christensen Secor

Deborah Secor is publishing a book online via a blog called Landscape Painting in Pastels.

Deborah is well known to many in the pastel world. Besides being a practising pastel artist, she's also a pastel art tutor, writes for the Pastel Journal and was for some time a very popular Moderator of the Pastels Forum on Wet Canvas.

Her art instruction book is not available in traditional print format and Deborah has, very generously, decided to make it available for free. Part of it is based on articles she has written for and published in the Pastel Journal.

I contemplated selling this book, but in the final analysis I decided that it was better to give. Jesus tells us, "Freely you have received, freely give." So I will. I hope you enjoy and benefit from it.

Note that information contained in the blog may be downloaded for personal use only. Readers are forbidden to reproduce, republish, redistribute, or resell any materials from this weblog in either machine-readable form or any other form without specific written permission of the author. For permissions and other copyright-related questions, please email your question to: deb@deborahsecor.com

So if you want to read her book you need to follow her blog - and I recommend a subscription. Needless to say this blog has been instantly added to my Google Reader and the tutor section of the blogroll in the ruight hand column of this blog! :)

Book content

Deborah's book will cover the following topics. One chapter per week will be posted. Those chapters shown in blue are already live.

Landscapes in Pastels

Section 1 Materials

Chapter 1 Pastels and Other Materials
Chapter 2 Surfaces and Effects
Chapter 3 Getting Started
Chapter 4 Letting Value Lead

Section 2 Landscape Subjects

Chapter 5 Aerial Perspective
Chapter 6 Mountains
Chapter 7 Sky
Chapter 8 Clouds
Chapter 9 Night
Chapter 10 Sunrise, Sunset
Chapter 11 Trees
Chapter 12 Foliage
Chapter 13 Foregrounds
Chapter 14 Rocks
Chapter 15 Shadows
Chapter 16 Water and Reflections
Chapter 17 Gardens
Chapter 18 Snow

Section 3 Color

Chapter 19 Color Theory
Chapter 20 Color Experiments
Chapter 21 The Green Problem
Chapter 22 White Done Right
Chapter 23 The Photograph Problem

Section 4 Experiments

Chapter 24 Free Yourself of the Photo
Chapter 25 Value and Color
Chapter 26 Make a Puzzle Painting
Chapter 27 Value/Color Chart
Chapter 28 Imagine a Painting
Chapter 29 Colored Grounds
Chapter 30 Limit your Palette
Chapter 31 Limit Time and Palette
Chapter 32 20-Stroke Painting
Chapter 33 Temperature

Section 5 Moving On

Chapter 34 From Studio to Plein Air
Chapter 35 Criticize Your Work

If you appreciate what Deborah is doing with this blog can I suggest you leave a comment on her blog and let her know.

Note: Deborah Secor's paintings have been selected for inclusion in several books devoted to the pastel medium: The Pastel Painter’s Solution Book; Pure Color: The Best of Pastel; Painting With Pastels, by Maggie Price. She aso has two video workshops available on DVD or streaming at Artists Network TV: Get Started in Pastels: Deborah Secor Paints the Landscape and Painting Outdoor Shadows in Pastel with Deborah Secor.

TIP: Foliage and Sky Holes

Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers) writes about When the Light Comes Through the Trees on The Pastel Pointers Blog and references John F. Carlson's theory of how to tackle values in the landscape (see Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting)

pastel painting by Richard McKinley

(see more on his website)

Having dark, upright trees against a light sky produces one of the most beautiful and difficult to handle situations in the landscape: sky holes. The amount of visible sky holes depends on the density of the foliage, but as an artist friend often said, “You have to give the birds a place to fly in and out.”
When the Light Comes Through the Trees

Richard goes on to provide some very useful commments about the issue of the colour and tonal values of the birdie holes and the foliage surrounding them. This is a recommended read.

Thanks to Richard also for his lovely pastel painting of trees - and sky holes for the birdies!

Used Books about Landscape Art

Yesterday, I had a field day!

After putting up the new artist bio labels on foamcore at our Drawing London Exhibition at the Barbican Library (see Alleyways and Waterways of London) I joined the Library after discovering (1) I could and (2) they have an excellent section on art books! In fact it's the best section about landscape art I have ever seen anywhere - including bookshops. (Have I told you how I'm constantly amazed by how there are never any landscape painting sections in bookshops stocking a good selection of art books)

I came away with eight books - seven of which were about landscapes in one form or another.

This morning I've ordered three of them plus one more by one of the authors from second hand booksellers. I am now convinced that one of the major sources of good books about landscape art are

• very good libraries (which still stock old books) and
  
• the second hand bookseller

For information the books - which are all about british landscape art of one form or another - are:

Art History - British Landscape Painting

• British Landscape Painters: A History and Gazetteer (see right) by Charles Hemming - This is a really excellent book which I recommend very highly to those interested in the development of British landscape art. Now on order!
  
• British Painters of the Coast and Sea: A History and Gazetteer by Charles Hemming (not seen but if it's as good as the one about landscape painterst then it should be excellent - now also on order.
  
• Turner Sketches, 1789-1820 by: Gerald Wilkinson. A lovely little block chock full of reproductions of Turner's sketches from his travels in the UK and Europe. Theer's a narrative for each sketchbook. I ordered this one!
  
• Unquiet Landscape - Places and Ideas in 20th century landscape painting by Christoper Neve. This book is descrived as a journey into the imagination through the English Landscape. He focuses on the motives, emotions, uncosnocious forces and contradictions involved in creating landscape art. Altogether he considers the work of about about 30 painters including Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious, Stanley Spencer, Ivor Hitches, Edwin Burra, Ben Nicholson, Joan Eardly and David Bomberg
  

Art Instruction

• The Challenge of Landscape Painting by Ian Simpson. So nice to read a book by an artist who has been a professional educator. He used to be the head of Central St Martins Art College in London. It includes interviews with interviews Roger de Grey, Lawrence Gowing, John Piper, Keith Grant, Derek Hyatt, Olwyn Bowey and Norman Adams. Great images and very interesting interviews. Recommended and I've now got this on order

"If you are a painter this book aims first and foremost to improve your painting. If you are interested in landscape painting but not a painter yourself, it aims to increase your knowledge of how artists work and your appreciatian of landscape painting."

• Landscape Drawing and Painting (A Studio book) by: John O'Connor. A little bit idiosyncratic and a tad old fashioned from a time when talking about drawing used to involve rather more words than is the current trend pushed by the publishers!
  

A couple of others which I haven't looked at much yet

• The Inspiration of Landscape - Artists in National Parks - by Brian Redhead
• Townscape painting and drawing by JG Links

In conclusion, I'm now quite certain see I'm going to become a major buyer of used books while researching my landscape art project.

Long live recycling!

(PS Apologies for the unannounced break from posting - I was much preoccupied with getting ready for the exhibition and getting my tax return filed on time. After which I developed what I referred to as my 'tax tick' in my left eye - and so I needed to take much longer breaks from the computer screen)

Which are the best books about Landscape Art?

Do you want to learn about landscape art? Do you want to find out which which are the best books about painting landscapes? Do you want to know more about famous landscape artists? Introduction to The Best Books about Landscape Art

One of the purposes of this project was to share our views about which are the most helpful art books for understanding landscape art and learning how to create it.

As part of this project I've started a new resource site called The Best Books about Landscape Art. The books are organised according to two main themes

• landscapes - art instruction
• landscapes - art history
  

At present, this is essentially a list of possible books. The list needs weeding and it needs good books added to it that I'm not aware of. Plus it also needs links to book reviews by anybody who would like to contribute one!

This is the current listing of its contents. This will change over time as the resource develops.

You can find out about...

...just click a link and go straight to that topic

• LANDSCAPE PAINTING - ART INSTRUCTION
• LANDSCAPE ART INSTRUCTION - CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS (USA)
• LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN OILS
• LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN ACRYLICS
• LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN WATERCOLOUR
• LANDSCAPE ART IN PASTELS
• DRAWING THE LANDSCAPE
• BOOKS: Drawing the landscape and nature
• HOW TO PAINT......
• How to paint trees
• How to paint skies and clouds
• How to paint water
• Suggest an art instruction book for landscapes
• LANDSCAPE ART: HISTORY & DEVELOPMENT
• Suggest an art history book about landscape art
• LANDSCAPE ART BY CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
• LANDSCAPE ART - PHOTOGRAPHY
• Comments and Feedback

How you can get involved

If you've already written a book review or would like to contribute one, take a look at the post over on Making A Mark Reviews about The Best Books about Landscape Art - A Review about how to contribute a book review.

You can also express your views here as to what you think are the best books about landscape art

So - what do you think are the best books about landscape art?

A new book about landscape painting

Making A Mark Reviews...... is the blog I now use for my book reviews. Today's post - Book Review: Landscape Painting concerns a new Watson Guptill book Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice by Mitchell Albala which publishes in the UK tomorrow

Here's a couple of short extracts from the review

Nothing in this book is 'rocket science'. I think I knew virtually all the content - either from books, instruction or experience - but what distinguishes this publication is that he gets it all down in one book! I've known other books which have been excellent at some of the topics covered by this book but very few which have come anywhere near its breadth and depth.

It's also a book which pulls off the neat trick of providing a comprehensive manual for the newcomer to landscape art while providing a refresher for the more experienced artists who will find it provides a useful recap of key concepts as well as tips and techniques.

You can read the review at Making A Mark Reviews - Book Review: Landscape Painting. I recommend it and this is why.

Summary review: This book will become a new classic manual of landscape art.

It takes the core concepts and skills required of those creating any type of representational art and interprets and relates how these apply and work within the context of landscape art. It's an in-depth guide produced by somebody who is an experienced educator. It's written and designed by somebody who is an excellent communicator. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of everybody who takes landscape art seriously - whether they paint plein air or in the studio, whether they are a student or an experienced artist and whether they are self-taught or are an artist who teaches landscape art.

Author / (Publisher) Mitchell Albala / Random House/Watson Guptill
Technical data: Publication Date: November 2009 (USA) / 7 January 2010 (UK)
Hardcover (with dust jacket) - 192 pages;
ISBN: 978-0-8230-3220-4 (0-8230-3220-5)
Price as at today's date:

• RRP $35 or Amazon.com $23.10 Landscape Painting
  
• RRP £22.99 or Amazon.co.uk £14.94 Landscape Painting