Before and After C.W. Mundy Workshop

Taos, NM was the location of C.W. Mundy’s five day still life workshop. I first met C.W. in 2005 when he taught a workshop in the Loire Valley of France. In addition to being a plein air painter, I strive to excel in still life paintings. As a life-long learner, workshops are an essential element in ongoing education.

C.W. has seven foundational truths of painting: Drawing; Squinting; Design; Value; Color; Edges; and Paint Manipulation. I incorporated each into the still life below which I painted after the workshop concluded. A few reasons I believe the  “after” painting succeeds compared to the “before” painting is because there is a more defined focal area. The orange has the brightest brights, next to the darkest dark. This is key to drawing your eye into the painting. Paying attention to still life values more in the “after” painting caused me to paint the upper portion darker and the table lighter. This achieves greater contrast and interest. The second copper pot has softer edges. It is not the focal point so not as much attention is placed here in the “after” painting. Do you agree the workshop helped the second painting succeed? Let me know if you have other questions as to paint choice differences between the two paintings.

Still life in preparation for C.W. Mundy workshop

"After" still life - same set up, but after C.W. Mundy workshop completed.

Plein Air Workshop

Interested in a 2 1/2 day plein air workshop in Sebastopol, California. AWS has organized one from October 19-21, 2012. Click here for details.

Youtube Art Demonstration - Pont Neuf, Paris

Please view my latest YouTube oil painting art demonstration. I welcome your comments and am interested to know if there is a specific technique or process that I should focus on in my next video. This one takes the painting from start to finish.

Updated Website

I updated my website. Please subscribe to receive posts that will contain tips for artists, collectors, new videos and information on my latest plein air and studio oil paintings. Take a look and let me know what you think of the changes. http://www.jensenstudio.com.

Thick Paint and Marbling

Copper Pot & Hollyhocks is a 10 x 12 that I completed this weekend. The pot belongs to my Great Grandmother and the Hollyhocks came from my backyard. Combining the two was a melding of old and new in a nurturing tribute to her.

I am preparing for a still life workshop I will be taking from C.W. Mundy in September. He is my mentor and I look forward to continued progress with my still life work. This piece was painted from life in a studio set up.

Here, I played with thick paint. The key is to start thin then layer as the painting progresses. The thickest paint is applied to light areas. Thick paint facilitates both the accomplishment of soft edges and marbling paint. You can see both soft edges and how many paint colors run together or marble in the close up above.

Glazes

Although I learned about glazing in college and have experimented occasionally with them, it wasn't until I read C.W. Mundy's recent facebook post about experimenting with glazes that I was inspired to work a glaze into one of my canvases. I painted a 24 x 24 oil painting, A Pissarro View, about four months ago. However, I knew it wasn't quite right so I had let it sit in my studio. I had invested considerable time and loved many parts of the composition. Pissarro painted in Normandy, France often. This scene is in Dieppe. So, for many reasons, I didn't want to give up on it.

Below you see the painting before the glaze was applied. The second image is the painting after a glaze (a mixture of turpentine and liquin) with transparent oxide yellow. I was able to loosen up several hard edges and introduce new color into the painting. Thanks C.W. for your continued inspiration and tips.

Before Glaze

After Glaze

Hawaii Paintings

I recently returned from a 10-day plein air paint trip to Hawaii. The majority of the time I painted around Waikiki, but was able to travel around all of Oahu during parts of the trip. My fresh paint page has seven new paintings from this trip. Two are displayed below I anticipate completed more from photo over the coming months.

 Honolulu China Town, 16 x 20

Waikiki Yacht Club, 10 x 12