Last night I attended the monthly Arizona Artists Guild meeting. We were privileged to have the wonderful artist, Dick Phillips, lead a critique session and then do a great demo. He was a joy to listen to and opened our eyes to just letting paintings happen, with less planning and more spontaneously creating.
This first photo is the under-painting he did. He left a very abstract white space near the center of the painting.
Dick then handed his sketch journal to a lady in the front row (I was sitting in the front row, also). He asked her to choose any sketch she wanted him to use for a reference. She chose a sketch of a mountain cabin set high atop a canyon wall. He explained that he had sketched this years ago when studying with Robert Woods, whose cabin this was.
Then, the magic started happening. He added random (seemingly) strokes with large brushes here and there, credit card and pen knife scraping and scratching and within 45 minutes created this striking painting over the under-painting.
I do not think I have the creativity to paint in this abstract way, but certainly found it fascinating to watch him do this. That white space, over which the cabin and top of the canyon wall were painted just sings to me. What an artist!
3 comments:
Susan, I was happy to see your blog post about this event. I was there, too, and found Dick's demo a huge inspiration!
Anonymous...at the next meeting, please do introduce yourself as I would like to meet you.
Wasn't that a fantastic demo? I could never do this style, but I certainly can admire his skill and creativity!
I get way more out of watching a demo by a well known artist than I could ever get out of instruction. I do a lot of quick-draws and at times think it would be fun to just watch rather than participate.
Susan, I am working on an idea from our Bighorn Ram challenge painting and have talked with the director of the Art Center here[it is quite a place for a town like Dubois]about having an art show of the Bighorns[we have the worlds largest Bighorn Sheep herd here]He thinks it would be a great idea and maybe can even get some funding for shipment. Maybe a show through the summer when all our tourists are here? Maybe even a chance of a sale?? What do you think? I would hope to have a few more done and entered. Several other artists have said they want to participate.
Post a Comment