Painting of the Week

This is a painting from an art book, which I have done with my art girls every year. It is a great painting lesson due to the looseness of the painting. Most of my girls paint very "tight" or "controlled". They are over cautious. Even I am a tight painter, and would like to be looser with my paint. People tend to think that a painting has to look realistic or "just like the photo". There is nothing wrong with a realistic style of painting, but sometimes art is just giving a hint that something is there and letting the audience figure it out. Art is lights and darks – value change – which come together to create a pleasing picture. One of them most difficult things to get my students to do is see the value differences in color. Sure, they see it in a black and white drawing, but then they paint flat when it comes to color. I like to take my students to art shows where they can see master artists up close and personal. They need to see the strokes of paint and the layer upon layer of color and the looseness of other’s work. This light house is also a great lesson on glazing (putting down color, letting it dry, and then layering in more paint, letting some of the base colors show through). Watercolor can be a lesson in patience. WC dries quickly, yet it is easy to make "mud" if you put in too many colors too fast. I like to do this lighthouse with my students because it is quick, loose, easy, and fun. Hmm, does that say anything about me, personally?