Justine did an incredible job demonstrating FAST PAINTING, based on a workshop by Robert Burridge. www.RobertBurridge.com
His incredible paintings make us "bright painters" glad to be alive. They are bursting with color and vitality...and would inspire a monkey to pick up a paintbrush!
Steps to take:
1) Determine the focal point, the STAR of the show.
Ours was a big yellow flower in a still life we set up.
that area will be the lightest, brightest or most detailed of the painting.
2) Determine the darks to be against the focal point
They will be also emphasized with color..
if the flower is yellow...the complement is purple (usually the color across from it on the color wheel) but the fun part about painting like Robert is that there is no "black and white"...purple is anything between red and blue (the colors that make up purple)...that can mean deep red/violet or it can mean bright, sky blue...
IT IS YOUR PAINTING..USE WHAT YOU SEE!
Of all of the messages..the most important is to be loose!
Even in dipping your paint..put the paints on the floor..use a long brush,
straight arm..and reach down...use loose strokes driven with your full arm extended.
Justine uses a messy orange range of tones that she selected from her color wheel that was created by Robert.
The formula is : spice, spice, dominant, complement
This day she picked...yellow as the dominant..
and the complement being between blue and warm purple
She arranges the colors in the tray in a similar arrangement. He uses tubes of
pure color..no mixing..the mixing is in picking what the eye sees.
"And don't forget, every painter needs good music", Justine told us.
We listened to Justine's Shane and Shane.
After blocking in lights and darks, you have to determine how the light hits.
She used a huge brush to put in the darks...using the complement of yellow..
a dark purple..and since purple is made of red and blue (always thinking here!)
we use that splash of red to add SPICE and throw in some bright blue...sky blue perhaps...
YOU CAN'T MESS UP...IT'S ACRYLIC...ACCORDING TO JUSTINE...
NOTHING GESSO CAN'T COVER UP AND THEN YOU CAN START AGAIN...
HOW REFRESHING!
And Robert also uses his hands...
His wife markets his work and sets up workshops....
he paints and paints and paints..
starting with little exercises (shown of justine's)
Robert does these "little gems" every day.
We also did studies of how the light comes into the vase and where it goes
out...AH.......SO MUCH TO LEARN!
Take our still life...and try your own!
The Highland Artists.
