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My paintings are a composite of recollections and an evolution of the familiar. The paintings have grown from landscape representation toward the portrayal of spirit and atmosphere of place. I began to add rain to the landscapes, trying to convey the meditative poetry of the moment and the essence of atmosphere. I found that in doing “rain” paintings of places and things that I found meaningful, I was closer to portraying the mystery of their presence. In those paintings, it is intentionally unclear whether you are in the rain, looking out at the rain, or remembering it. The landscapes turned in to familiar objects. Rain accompanies images of my mother’s old hats, evening bags, family mementos, and personal treasures. Most recently, I have painted the image of an old “Camel Can” which always set on the family desk, and held a changing trove of treasures. The spirit of the Camel Can and other objects is reverent, whimsical, and often melancholy. And, it is not always raining.
In the beginning of the rain paintings, I painted the image first, and then began pouring, drizzling and dripping gouache over the top. I added and subtracted until the process felt complete. More recently, I have been starting the paintings by loosely painting or printing abstract, textural backgrounds before adding the images. Often I make the background by doing several layers of watercolor monotype color and texture before starting the painting. I find that this “jump starts” the work, throwing me into a moving process. I use gouache, gum arabic, various masks, and paint removal techniques that allow me to move freely through the work, change my mind, and incorporate mistakes. This activity emphasizes and facilitates the element of mystery and spirit. It is exciting, unpredictable and very much about the moment, each action and decision leading to the next.
Kay Russell
Jane Hofstetter
Jane claims that both
of her grandmothers helped to kindle her love of painting. When Jane
was thirteen, her paternal grandmother gave her a set of pastels and
encouraged her to make portraits of her family. Jane's maternal
grandmother had painted in court of Queen Victoria and won the gold
medal ( and $100) for her painting in the Texas Centennial Exhibition in
1898. When the judges learned that a woman had won the award, they
wanted it returned--but Jane still has the medal today.
In 7 Keys to Great Paintings,
written in 2005, Jane emphasizes the importance of using a pattern of
various sized, irregular shapes of different values: designing passages
of light in the painting; and using constant color changes (deciding on
a dominant color and deciding what colors to not use intensely). Since
the eyes start with value, the different shapes of dark and light are
first seen and, if successful, create a visual excitement and interest.
She emphasizes making your own value- shape plans and keeping them on
file, and she suggests keeping some pre-painted value patterns on
watercolor paper or in a sketchbook to use on location. She says that
even if the pattern only creates an abstract beginning to your subject,
it can create an unusual and original painting.
John Salminen
Urban Landscape artist who lives and works in Duluth, Minnesota. He defines himself as an abstract expressionist. His website is divided into plein air and studio work, they are very different approaches to a subject, but both very strongly design oriented.He teaches workshops, makes presentations and participates in painting events around the world.
Examples:
Some links:
John Salminen's Website
John Salminen, Watercolorist
Lifting Watercolor with a Magic Eraser with John Salminen
Urban Landscape in Watercolor with John Salminen
Two Point Perspective with John Salminen
Masking Watercolors: How to Create Hard Edges
A Designed Approach to Abstraction with John Salminen
Rufino Tamayo
Brief bio
Example:
Some links: Slideshow
Artnet
Documentary
In Spanish, with very little talking. I captioned it in English but found watching him paint was more important then the narrator. There is one scene where he is covered in paint, but wearing a formal shirt and tie.
Ann Blockley
Ann Blockley is an English artist who is known for her paintings of flowers, animals and landscapes. She is a watercolorist, mostly self-taught, and has been painting professionally for over 30 years. She uses a wide variety of other mediums and materials in her work including, acrylic inks, mediums (my favorite is granulation medium), metallic oil based paints, gesso, paper, fabric...just about anything that will add interest and texture. She does a lot of big wet in wet which I love. She loves experimenting.
She also returns to the same subject matter over and over, favorite seasonal flowers, cottages, farm animals and hedgerows and she organizes several of her books by season. She lives in Gloucestershire and is surrounded by nature and that is what first attracted me to her, especially the flowers and plants.
She has written several books on painting and they are full of ideas for painting and texture. I tend to go back to a couple of them as reminders of interesting things to do.
I have noticed that she does use the same things over and over and there is a sameness about her work and books. Maaybe it is because she teaches workshops and classes as well, but then again, we all have our favorite ways of painting.
I was unsure of choosing her because I thought she might not be famous or significant enough but I have gotten a lot of good ideas from her books and I do really like her work.
Some examples
Some links
Ann Blockley's Website
Some YouTube videos, mostly commercials, pay attention and techniques show up:
https://youtu.be/FpqKCJPu23E
https://youtu.be/_i5HPui5NBY
https://youtu.be/Mw8GozajT-g
Book recommended by Joanie
Watercolour Textures
Experimental Flowers in Watercolor
Dong Kingman
Brief bio
Dong Kingman was born 1911 in Oakland, the son of Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong.
At 5 years, he moved with his family back to Hong Kong. He studied calligraphy and watercolor painting under Szeto Wai, at the Ling Nan Academy head of the academy who had trained in Paris. It was under Szeto's instruction that he was first exposed to Northern European trends. Kingman would later state that Szeto was his "first and only true influence."
He returned to the United States in his late teens. In 1929 he attended the Fox Morgan School for Commercial Art in the East Bay. It was at this time that he chose to concentrate on watercolor painting and illustration.
He served with the U.S. Army as an artist during World War II at Camp Beal, California and Washington, D.C.
In 1941 and 1942 Kingman received the Guggenheim Fellowship. He moved to Brooklyn, after the war, where he held a position as an art instructor at Columbia University and Hunter College.
During the 1950s, Kingman served as a United States cultural ambassador and international lecturer for the Department of State.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Kingman worked as an illustrator in the film industry, designing the backgrounds for a number of major motion pictures including "55 Days at Peking", The Sand Pebbles and the Hollywood adaptation of "Flower Drum Song".
He illustrated essays by Herb Caen in the late 60's.
He died in 2000.
What I like about his work
Visual editing choices:
- Every artists chooses what parts of the entire inspiration is included in a piece.
- I like the way he goes from almost chaotic inclusion in the younger paintings, to simplicity and spaciousness as he matured.
- He also strips down to a very limited palette. His illustrations are a strict CMYK build and his "fine art" is a double yellow, red, blue (cool and warm) and black. A copy of his palette for plein air is at the end of this post.
Some examples
Dong Kingman, the Painter
A great video that shows the artist painting plein air in New York sometime in the 50's.
Dong Kingman, About the Painter
A more recent documentary, produced by his granddaughter.
Dong Kingman, Watercolor Master
His official website
Dong Kingman, Revisted
A not well produced loop of his paintings.
His plein air palette
