In the palm of my hand

puntista strikes again.

I'm sharing my procedure for the creation of the palm tree piece inspired by my view at the Aquarius suites in Dorado Puerto Rico. My phone and pictures drowned so I only had a few references remaining including the studies I did of these three palms nearly every morning.

I would see the sun rise and set and where the cross meets is the time that I would leave my spot on the beach to meet my group, who drank every night and woke up later in the day. The X marks that spot.

you've got to start somewhere....

I think everyone is naturally creative. we all come from different walks of life, with different experiences, influences and natural abilities. We all see the world in a unique way and art is a fantastic way for anyone to learn to express it visually. If you have never painted with either acrylic or oil before, a great place to start is the "Sampler" at Swinton's Art Supply, with me.

Participants learn the enough of the basics to get started and make their own small first painting in under 3 hrs. I answer any questions, show some tips and tricks and everyone leaves with their first painting in hand. The pieces below were all mad one Sunday by novices in under three hours if you can believe it.

I love teaching people who have never painted before, they have a clean slate and always impress me with their palette mixing and paintings. It always amazes me and impresses me how much a first time painter can accomplish and how well their paintings turn out in such a short period of time. It makes me feel very proud and fortunate to have been some part of their creative development Hopefully I inspire them enough to take on the gratifying challenges and life improvements art making brings =:D

Sampler - Oil vs. Acrylic

The great divide. I don't want to pick one favourite over another as both mediums have their uses, strengths and weaknesses. I advise you to try both unless the decision is for a certain reason, such as space, pets, ventilation etc. Both have a lot to offer and there is tons you can do with either. At the end of the day painting is still just pushing colourful goop on a stick covered in hair.

Acrylic sampler previous Sunday's pieces:

Oil Sampler this Sunday, some of the pieces:

Given the short amount of time and the varying degrees of experience and class size, the participants did great in both samplers, and hopefully found some inspiration for them to continue on with the noble craft of painting =;D

Acrylic studio course at ACAD (....continued)

Coming in and seeing all the progress each day is very exciting. Then I do my morning lecture and demo.

We do a demo about the tips and ticks I've learned over the years for effective masking, taping, stenciling and shields.

Still blocking in the colours of this one but the grid and drawing are quickly disappearing below.

daisy is making  alot of progress and making changes improving upon the initial colour study.

The colours are popping much more on the black ground than the rubbed in canvas on the colour study above.

The background, table frame and sweater read as flat in juxtaposition to the more realistic rendering on the portrait.

My demo space gets more and more chaotic and full of supplies and examples as we progress. I show different coatings like "pour on", plus varnishes and glazes.

Some stenciled dance pose silhouettes tamped in with iridescent metallic acrylic paints. I love a painted hand, especially this rich Ultramarine Blue. reminds me of Yves Klein blue.

When its dry she goes in with some vertical masking and various glazes to knock back the metallic stencils.

Followed by more layers and thicker stripes of colours.

Studious concentration as they work hard towards their goals.

Daisy makes more progress and on her colour study are some demonstrations of various foreground vegetation techniques.

More dark allows the lights that are put on top to pop and makes it easier to have shadows underneath.

The girls get their tape on and build up the base tones.

Concentration and diligence get you closer and closer to the goal, leaving you with a sense of achievement at the end of the day, if not you've just got to keep going.