.
 
|
|||||
This newsletter comes to you from Italy! The Sedona Art Center invited me to teach a workshop in Tuscany and I jumped at the opportunity! A chance to paint in Tuscany? Are you kidding me? Today I just completed five days of painting with twenty-two American artists at Villa Fattorio Bacio - in the heart of the Tuscan countryside between Sienna, Florence and San Gimignano. The villa is the perfect blend of old world ‘rustica’ and catered comfort, surrounded on all sides by spectacular views of the meandering hills of Tuscany.
But first, Kate and I were tourists in Florence for a few days to do what any self-respecting artist must do sometime during their lifetime - I think this is part of my bucket list - we saw Michaelangelo’s gorgeous statue of David, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (aka Venus on the Halfshell), Brunelleschi’s Duomo of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore and the Duomo Museum (where rumor has it I was caught crying in front of Michaelangelo’s The Deposition (The Florentine Pieta).
Say what you want about those rascal Medici’s... we all are in their debt for putting their wealth in the arts and the start of the Renaissance. (Travel author Rick Steves offers quick reads and history lessons for worldwide traveling.)
Then off to the countryside of Tuscany where we caught up with our students at the Villa outside of the town of Certaldo. After the hustle and bustle of Florence, we were grateful for the vineyards, olive groves and beautiful open spaces.
We were all cared for with meals, travel and extra side trips by the Sedona Arts Center team of Debbie Winslow and her husband Rocket-man Jeff. Because of their organizational skills and easy manner, everything was seamless. Paintings poured out of everyone, everyday - including a few major breakthroughs for several painters. Needless to say, we’re planning future trips! Stay tuned for more international painting excursions.
Leaving from Florence, we had an early flight to Paris and found the airport VIP lounge to relax for a few hours before our flight to Los Angeles. The best part of travel is mingling with an international crowd in a lounge of characters. I have a week home in the studio, jury a local Plein Air Festival then immediately off to Dillman’s Creative Arts Foundation in Wisconsin to teach five days of Start Abstract Painting Today! Read on for upcoming workshops and events.
Product Spotlight Imagine painting your next powerful masterpiece with both of these studio charts nearby. Helpful if you get off track and need to refocus your color, your composition and your original intention. And they are both made in the USA. Set of two Studio Charts - $29.95 plus shipping/handling (CA sales tax) Click HERE for info on ordering.
Trade Shows are coming up - It’s a great way to end the year!
I have a full teaching schedule for the Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh, North Carolina, November 12-15, 2009. Click HERE for more info. •Thurs 11/12, 9am-4pm
I will be sponsored by Holbein for both these Trade Shows, meaning the paint and paper is supplied for all workshops. What a deal! If you haven’t signed up for classes at this month’s Learning Product Expo in Pasadena, there’s still time! Click HERE to Register today!
Recommended Book
In 1958, Grace Hartigan was the only woman included in the Museum of Modern Art to represent The New American Painting Exhibition that traveled to eight European countries. The other painters were Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. That piqued my interest. Grace Hartigan did not write her journals for publication. These writings consequently reveal her extreme mood swings, self-imposed suffering and day-to-day creative painting episodes. Hartigan’s restless concern with the darker, instinctual side of life fueled her moody, dramatic paintings. She seemed to enjoy being the full-of-angst artist - which is why I was so curious to find out more about her. If I learned anything from her journals, it was about the nonproductive side of a life in turmoil - even with a daily painting routine. She painted and chronicled her true feelings about Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell; she knew them all and I wanted to know how they all mingled with each other and the better known painters, like Barnett Newman, Fairfield Porter, Jackson Pollock, Larry Rivers and Motherwell.
Even though her work is not my favorite for inspiration, this complicated record of one artist’s relation to the Abstract Expressionism movement gave me a truer, non-glossy sense of an artist’s life at the time of de Kooning. It’s good art history stuff. Grace Hartigan passed away in November 2008. Up to that time, she was the Director of the Hoffberger Graduate School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art. The Journals of Grace Hartigan, 1951-1955
Ask Kate about Art Marketing
Jackie from Williston, VT asks: When an artist makes a print and indicates 50 is the limit that was printed as a run, do they have to stick to that number for ethical reasons? My favorite book on this subject is Legal Guide for the Visual Artist by Tad Crawford. He breaks down the information by state.
Legal Guide for the Visual Artist If you sell out your edition, you can still use the same image to create another edition of a different size, then start your numbering all over again. If your edition is not numbered it is considered an “open edition.” The perception is, of course, the fewer the number published, the more valuable it is. Thanks again for your question Jackie - I know you have more question, so I will email you very soon. For a list of my favorite books and magazines about marketing your art, please click HERE. I’ve been getting some pretty interesting emails lately - from “customers” who are very interested in Bob’s paintings for their new house in England... or Japan... They promise cashier’s checks if you will FedEx the paintings to their address.... or other promises! My rule of thumb is this - If it sounds too good to be true, then that’s right - it’s not true! If you are ever contacted by email and you are wondering if it’s legit, there are several websites that can help you. www.artscams.com Check these out - and check them often for new ways to protect yourself! For more info, click HERE to check out our Hot Art Marketing Workbook.
Click HERE for top of page. |
 |
This section is my continuing series, featuring successful color combinations using my Goof-Proof Color Wheel. (Shameless!) This month’s dominant color is Holbein’s Cad Green Light (you can substitute a comparable green-yellow). Using the Burridge Goof Proof Color Wheel and your matching paints, try a series of small abstracts practicing this month’s color combo. Decide on a Composition and Dominant Color. •Cad Green Light is the Dominant color
Step One: Cover the entire canvas or paper with Cad Green Light plus white and black. For me, I treat each “layer” as practicing abstracts. At this point the painting is basically monochromatic.
Step Two: I place the focal point color - Violet - right where I want the eye to go. I do this whether or not it is an abstract or representational painting. I’ll also use this focal point color elsewhere in the painting, only grayed down. It helps to keep this limited palette color combo related.
For a detailed description of the Burridge Goof Proof Color Wheel, click on HERE. Product Review Bob Burridge’s Best Bottomless Bountiful Blue Bucket of Blazingly Beautiful Brilliant Acryla Paints
This big bucket of paint is brought to you by Holbein - and a Trade Show is the best place to buy it! Look for Bob Burridge’s Best Bottomless Bountiful Blue Bucket of Blazingly Beautiful Brilliant Acryla Paints and a lot of individual tubes in the Holbein booth at both the Learning Product Expo and the Art of the Carolinas. Studio Tip
How Do You Know When Your Art is Done? 1. If you find yourself looking at it longer than actually working on it, most likely it is done.
You are simply asking yourself permission to change it. As a painter you are constantly editing and changing your thoughts; it is what you do. Any painter who doesn’t change his mind doesn’t have one!
There are no tricks or mystery in painting! To me, making a painting is combined with having a strong concept, an original point of view, clear intentions, commitment and being open to new ideas.
 Try This Assignment!
Tuscany was a great place to paint trees - and I have to say, one of the most popular assignments in my Loosen Up Workshop is painting what I call “Drip Trees.”
Start off by splashing and making a big mess. Make sure it’s wet - I use paper towels to put the colors down. You’re making a mess - not mud. When dry, choose a color scheme paint the part that is NOT a tree. I generally paint my “negative space” with an opaque color or a color and a lot of white gesso mixed in. I make a significant amount of this color - sopping wet.
Next I emphasize the light source and exaggerate the tree shadows. Color is everywhere. The tree, the trunk and the landscape are colorful splashes!
You can also try a real “drip” tree, by spraying your painting with water and tilting the paper while the paint is still wet - the drips become the tree trunks and you can wipe some away at that time. Also, remember this - you can more tree trunks later for even more dramatic effects! Music to Paint (and Move!) By More music! My taste in music is rather eclectic. In my studio and during workshops I play many different styles - classical, world, jazz, lounge… After last month’s foray into the Opera and classical realm, I though I better swing back the other way and recommend some new, rockin’ and movin’, fun music. Cuculand will make you feel like you’re in a Copacabana nightclub; Novalima combines African and Peruvian rhythms and you may have heard Goldfish on a popular commercial last summer for Kia, featuring some pretty soulful hamsters...
Novalima
Goldfish
CuCu Diamantes
How do I create - I can only tell you what works for me: Ideas to get you started in the Studio:
Copyright ©2009 Robert Burridge. All rights reserved. Click HERE to sign up for the ArtsyFartsy News.
I have Facebook and MySpace pages set up! |
|||
