Art Lessons by Suzanne Gibson

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Super Fiona, holding up the massive rock!

When news of the huge Rock being delivered to LACMA broke, the "Rock Watchers" lined the route, as if it were a big parade. This massive piece of granite was being moved from where it was found in Riverside, California, to the Museum where it will become part of a new "Levitated mass" exhibit.

Just as impressive as the big hunk of rock, was the sheer size of the equipment being used to haul this oversized load. And, as an artist, and an art teacher, I thought it was a great opportunity to teach my kids about how an art istallation, no matter how large, or how small, is a team effort.

We hope to go to the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) very soon to see the final exhibit when it is open to the public.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Painting Still-Life - In the Style of Cezanne (at ArtLife Gallery)

Painting Still-Life - In the Style of Cezanne, a true exercise in creating a reflective surface in the blue vase. This technique uses Acrylic and WaterColor Pencil to achieve the textures and lines in the chair, the drapery and the apples.

I painted this on Saturday while I was doing live Art Demonstrations at ARTLIFE GALLERY - South Bay, in El Segundo. I will be back at the gallery on Sunday, the 26th... all afternoon. There will be more workshops offered in March and April... so please, contact me if you are interested... or stop by the gallery.

Painting Lessons - Artist Notes

Whenever I paint from still-life I plan a few things...

1st. I think of a theme.... so "in the style of Cezanne" is my thought.

2nd. What are my Painting-Drawing materials going to be?

3rd. What is the location of my painting session, and what is my lighting going to be like?

4th. How long do I have to paint, and can I leave my set-up where it is? Or does it need to be taken down at the end of the day?

5th... WHAT SURFACE WILL I PAINT MY PICTURE ON? For this exercise, I used "GLOSSY POSTER PAPER"... Yes folks... a 5 pack of poster paper from the 99c store....

I paint the Acrylic directly onto the board...

The advantage of the above photo is that I truly limited my colors... Blue is the only bright primary. A variety of reds, oranges and yellows are combined to create the apples, croissants and bread rolls. The challenge was trying to create the bread rolls and croissants in textures and colors that are believable and realistic. This is difficult with the tones truly being so close...

Using the watercolor pencils allows me to add shade and texture, and then use a little bit of water to blend and soften the colors if I choose.

I used this same technique on several other paintings that I've done...

How do you paint a picture of a moving object? Still - Life is something that doesn't move... how about this Seagull at the Redondo Beach Pier? I took a photo first.... then brought it back (the picture) to the studio to paint this picture.