Good morning (or afternoon, depending on where you are and what time zone you're in! I am flattered to see email addresses from outside the states), and thank you for taking the time to read this note about my painting and art in general. Sometimes these notes will be quite short, and sometimes a bit long. In this note I'll be begin with how I got started in oil painting.
I have always had an artistic bent, dabbling in water colors in college years. While pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dalton, GA, I became interested in glassblowing, and for a decade or so enjoyed creating everything from leaping deer to dogwood blossoms to turtles with walking sticks in glass (yep, I made glass ships, too.) Finally I realized that glass items will break, and most do!
So, about 1990 I revived my interest in painting in oils. Aside from helpful advice from Memphis artist Marilyn Wannamaker, I am self taught as an artist. However, prints of one of my paintings--"Swiss Solitude"-- earned about three thousand dollars, which was donated to a theological seminary in Switzerland. Being self taught meant I needed to study the masters, both in the past, and those of the present time. If you want to see some of the works of those who inspire me, do a web search on artists Richard Schmidt, Morgam Weistling, and John Howard Sanden among others. In later notes I'll talk more about these and other artists. Richard Schmidt has influenced me through his videos and writings, especially his book ALLA PRIMA II. If you are itching to try your hand at oil painting, see this book.
But before I wrap up this note, let's take a look at "Snowy Walk to Flattop Mountain Tower." This is a painting I recently completed. In it, as in all paintings, I try to remember the four rules of good painting: drawing, color, value, and edges. The drawing of the scene must be accurate; the colors should harmonize; the values (the shade of light or darkness of the color or hue) must be right, and whether the edges of the components need to be sharp or soft or even lost in certain areas.
The first photo shows the drawing. I tried to arrange the composition of the painting to advantage. The actual focus of the painting is the trail which leads the viewer into the painting. After the eye follows the trail, it is directed to the base of the trees, and then upward.
