Swinton's Sunday Oil Sampler

Success! often it's hard in such a short period of time to relay a portion of my knowldege and all of my love for oil paint to people who are trying it for the first time. It can also be difficult at first but the rewards of seeing it thru are well worth it! With so little time it can get messy and muddy, but hopefully that takes a back seat to their beauty and oils rich creamy qualities.

I did a quick demo and changed the format of this class based on all the feedback and I think it really worked out well today. I spent less time on colour mixing and background and game them way more time to jump in as its needed with oils.

-->

For me there is nothing more fulfilling or beautiful than creating art work in oil paint. I have so much respect for art made in the medium of oil. They are rich in color and in history. There is a wealth of written material in which to draw, plus oil paintings survive the test of time.

 I love the variation each person brings to the class, especially how different each persons take is on colour mixing. Each persons reasons for painting are different so are their unique backgrounds and aesthetic decisions.

We work from dark to light, from distant to near and up to down using large brushes to smaller ones. All the while adding fat over lean as thin paint sticks to thick paint. So much to know and remember, but it is process intensive and has a lot of history and tradition built in.

 

The colour on this one reminded my of Francis Bacon for some reason. The method I teach is an effective and systematic way to paint. But don't let that fool you into thinking that dries up the spontaneous artistry involved.

Some of the feedback I have had in past evaluations is that a few people want more time in the sampler and to work on larger sized supports. It is something worth considering in future as this may work for many but might deter others. This would then change the price point and may be too much for first timers. Right now, the samplers are consistently sold out every time so we may just have the recipe right.


Hey look at this:  http://www.swintonsart.com/blog-articles/item/welcome-brian-batista