That's a Wrap! Instructional Painting Videos Coming Soon!

I’m a little late posting my monthly blog, but with good reason! I’m excited to announce that I’ve just completed filming a series of instructional painting lessons … 4 in oil and 4 in pastel. They'll be available as digital downloads, with the option of also being purchased as a DVD.

As we were wrapping up the filming, we also shot this brief video so I could describe this series in person:

Production should be completed later this summer.  If you’d like to receive notification of when they’re available, click here to go to a page that will prompt you to enter your email address. (Don’t worry, you’re not signing up for junk mail, just this notification.) 

The completed painting demos from the videos are shown below. You’ll notice I’ve painted the same image in oil and in pastel, which I thought would be helpful for those who work in both media and would be interested in viewing both courses. Each medium covers 4 topics: Color Temperature, Composition, Edges & Editing, and Color Harmony. (The demos below are shown in this order.)

 

I'm asked frequently if I have any videos available, so I'm excited to soon finally be able to say that I do! A special thank you to Adam Houston, owner of Bridge Creative (http://bridgecreative.com) in Atlanta, GA, for putting this all together, and Eric Parnell (http://www.thenwcollective.com) of Bend, OR, our videographer.

Winter's Warms and Cools, pastel, 9x12

Winter's Warms and Cools (oil), 9x12

Everything Has Its Place (pastel), 9x12

Everything Has Its Place (oil), 9x12

A Brief Impression (pastel), 9x12

A Brief Impression (oil), 9x12

Winter's Harmony (pastel), 9x12

Winter's Harmony (oil), 9x12

Upcoming Workshops:

Lac du Flambeau, WI (northern Wisconsin) - 4-day PASTEL/OIL workshop
(studio & some plein air)
June 27, 28, 29 & 30, 2016 (Mon-Thurs)
Dillman's Creative Arts Foundation
3305 Sand Lake Lodge Lane
Lac du Flambeau, WI 54538
This will mainly be a studio workshop, but will also include some plein air time. Dillman's is a resort facility where you can enjoy gorgeous (paintable!) scenery right outside your door, boat rides on the lake and other outdoor recreation right there where the workshop takes place. The studios stay open after workshop hours for artists wanting additional painting time. Workshop fee also includes a welcome dinner the evening of your arrival. Affordable accommodations in the resort are available through Dillman's. This is a great option if you're looking to completely immerse yourself in a painting workshop!
$550
Call 715-588-3143 for more information or register online at www.dillmans.com.

Florham Park, NJ - 3-day PASTEL workshop
July 22, 23 & 24, 2016
Debarry Studio Ten
Contact Christina at 973-525-2544 or Debarrystudio@gmail.com
$405

Cape Cod, MA - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop

Aug. 9, 10 & 11, 2016

Falmouth Artists Guild

Falmouth, MA

www.falmouthart.org

508-540-3304

$425/member; $475/non-member

Dahlonega, GA - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop

Sept., 22, 23 & 24, 2016 (Thurs/Fri/Sat)

The Art Loft

Dahlonega, GA

www.artloft.net

$465

For full workshop schedule, visit www.barbarajaenicke.com.

Online Critiques
Would you like me to personally critique your oil or pastel painting? Visit www.ProArtCritique.com and click on my name for quick, affordable feedback on your work.

NEW! Critique Group in Bend, OR
In the Bend area? See the workshop page on my website for information on a new monthly critique group that I'll be leading!

It's not about painting "things."

When artists first learn the basics of painting, the challenge is to capture an accurate image. We learn about values, the color wheel, and other skills necessary to make our painting look like a believable replication of our subject. In other words, we paint things. And that's fine for the beginner. We all need to start with those fundamental skills. 

Many artists stop there.

Those who push themselves further begin to search for something special about their subject ... a distinct visual message ... and build their painting around that special idea. When I look back at what I consider my stronger work, I notice that I had a very clear visual idea and built the painting around it. All other elements within the composition were included only in support of that idea.

When I fall into the trap of simply copying my subject without determining what's special about it, that's when the work falls flat. It doesn't strike any emotional chord with the viewer. 

Once I zero in on what's special about the landscape, I can manipulate my painting in the following ways to help me communicate my visual message:
* Carefully edit details to avoid over-defining areas not important to my message.
* Give additional emphasis to a particular contrast (value, color, or color temperature) in a special area.
* Exaggerate hard and soft edges in the more important/less important areas.
* Vary the size relationships and placement of elements within the composition.

Below I've described my visual message for a few of my paintings:

Winter's Silent Crescendo, oil, 20x16

Winter's Silent Crescendo -- 
Visual Message:Intense back-lit glare against strong shadows. 
I knew that getting the accuracy of the warms and cools would be important to communicate this special lighting situation, so I took my time with this one, carefully discerning each slight shift in color temperature relationships. To keep the visual message clear, I had to capture only the necessary visual information to identify those warm and cool shapes, with careful control of edges,

Springtime's Arrival, oil, 8x10

Springtime's Arrival -- 
Visual Message: Fleeting light and shadow on the sunlit bush and fallen trees. 
All other elements are merely implied and placed within the composition only in support of the elements that are most communicating the fleeting light effects. If more detail was rendered in the background trees, the visual message would be weakened.

Mountain View from the Meadow, oil, 11x14

Mountain View from the Meadow -- 
Visual Message: Distant mountains that appear spectacular and majestic, even though they only appear in a small space in the composition.
With mountain scenes, if you don't want your horizon smack in the middle, you have to emphasize either the foreground (using a high horizon) or the mountains themselves or mountains and sky (using a low horizon). With this composition, I wanted the distant mountains to appear spectacular and majestic and beckon the viewer's eye, but I wanted to set up my composition so that they appeared in the distance, with a large shape given to the foreground, using a high horizon. Keeping the mountains almost "ghosted" behind the field and trees, very close in value to the sky, and with very little detail, actually gives them a grander presence than if all of my shapes were more equal in size and with more detail rendered in the mountains.The value  and edge contrast between the trees on the left in front of the mountains also emphasizes that area of visual interest.

Wide Open View, pastel, 12x16

Wide Open View --
Visual Message: Distance ... and of course, as the title states, a wide open view.
An accurate value contrast from the thin trees high atop the edge of the cliff to the far distant mountain was key. More sharply defined edges in the trees and rocky cliff also helped to place many more miles between that area and the distant view.

Windmill on the Hill, pastel, 18x18

Windmill on the Hill --
Visual Message: The bright evening glare at the top of the hill.
I don't often title a piece after the smallest element in the painting. But similar to what I did with "Mountain View from the Meadow," I wanted to pull the viewer into the painting through the high-contrast zig zag of the large foreground shadow area into the bright evening glare, emphasizing the warm/cool contrast of the shadow and sunlit areas. The glare is also emphasized by the mostly low contrast of the structures at the top of the hill, and especially with how the windmill is almost visually washed out.


COMING SOON: AN INSTRUCTIONAL ONLINE COURSE!! 
This is my first announcement of this! I have plans to begin filming next month for an instructional online course (which may also be available as a DVD) tentatively available by August. I've received many requests for this, so I hope this will be of value to those of you who are unable to attend my workshops, or those who have attended but would like additional instruction that you can absorb at your own pace in your own studio. More info to come on this, but if you're interested to know when it will be available, you can click here to sign up to be notified.


Upcoming Workshops:

Lewisburg, West VA - 3-day PASTEL workshop - FULL
April 25, 26 & 27, 2016 (Mon/Tues/Wed)
Carnegie Hall West VirginiaKellar Art Studio105 Church St.Lewisburg, WV, 24901
$295/member; $400/non-member
Contact Jeanne Brenneman, 304-645-3050

Springfield, OR - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop
May 3, 4 & 5, 2016 (Tues/Wed/Thurs)
Emerald Art Center500 Main StreetSpringfield, OR 97477
$420/member; $445/non-memberCall 541-736-8595; www.emeraldartcenter.org

Bend, OR - 1-day PASTEL PLEIN AIR workshop - FULL
June 4, 2016 (Sat)
Plein Air Painters of Oregon (PAPO)
Location: Shevlin Park. Back-up studio location will be provided in case of inclement weather.
$65/member; $70 non-member
Registration will open up to non-members after March 15.
Contact Nancy Misek, 541-388-1567, nancym2010@bendbroadband.com

Bend, OR - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop (studio & plein air)
June 6, 7 & 8, 2016 (Mon/Tues/Wed)
NOTE: This workshop is separate from the 1-day PAPO workshop on June 4.
"The Well Edited Landscape, Inside and Out"
Cascade Fine Art Workshops
Exact venue in Bend TBD. Plein air location will be near studio venue.
$410 before May 6 ($460 after May 6)
Contact Susan Manley at info@CascadeFineArtWorkshops.com or 541-408-5524

Lac du Flambeau, WI (northern Wisconsin) - 4-day PASTEL/OIL workshop
(studio & some plein air)
June 27, 28, 29 & 30, 2016 (Mon-Thurs)
Dillman's Creative Arts Foundation
3305 Sand Lake Lodge Lane
Lac du Flambeau, WI 54538
This will mainly be a studio workshop, but will also include some plein air time. Dillman's is a resort facility where you can enjoy gorgeous (paintable!) scenery right outside your door, boat rides on the lake and other outdoor recreation right there where the workshop takes place. The studios stay open after workshop hours for artists wanting additional painting time. Workshop fee also includes a welcome dinner the evening of your arrival. Affordable accommodations in the resort are available through Dillman's. This is a great option if you're looking to completely immerse yourself in a painting workshop!
$550
Call 715-588-3143 for more information or register online at www.dillmans.com.

Florham Park, NJ - 3-day PASTEL workshop
July 22, 23 & 24, 2016
Debarry Studio Ten
Contact Christina at 973-525-2544 or Debarrystudio@gmail.com
$405

For full workshop schedule, visit www.barbarajaenicke.com.

Online Critiques
Would you like me to personally critique your oil or pastel painting? Visit www.ProArtCritique.com and click on my name for quick, affordable feedback on your work.

NEW! Critique Group in Bend, OR
In the Bend area? See the workshop page on my website for information on a new monthly critique group that I'll be leading!

My Lighter/Darker/Warmer/Cooler/Brighter/Greyer Mantra.

Okay, that title is quite the mouthful. But it’s what I live by when I paint.

November Dusk on Silver Lake, 18x24, oil
This painting relies heavily on accurate value and temperature.
Notice the similar values of warm and cool, especially in
the foreground "ice."

I’m often asked how I approach color in a painting, and if I subscribe to any particular color theory.  I wish I could give a short and sweet answer to how I use color. And I also wish I found color to be that simple.

There are indeed plenty of books out there on color theory. Whenever I’ve tried to read about the scientific explanations of color, I seem to get so caught up in attempting to understand the science part that I fail to make the connection to how I would apply it to my own paintings. So I’ve developed my own unsophisticated method of understanding how to use color in my painting process...

I talk my way through a painting using the mantra above.

Lighter/Darker (Value)

Since I come from a drawing background, I tend to determine values better than I can color. So for each part of a painting, I first address the correct value. This is the “lighter/darker” part of that mantra that goes through my head.

Lighter and darker values of the same hue.

Warmer/Cooler (Temperature)

Next is the “warmer/cooler” decision. You can’t determine if something is a “warm” or a “cool” out of context…this is what trips up most artists. You have to compare it to what it’s next to…is it warmer than or cooler than what’s beside/above/below it. For example, the lower part of clear sky is normally warmer than the area above it and requires a color that leans toward pink or orange or yellow rather than a lighter blue. If a snow covered area is catching just a touch more light in one area vs. another, it will require a color that’s a touch warmer (again, with more pink, orange or yellow vs. the cooler area that may lean more blue or purple). IMPORTANT: The nuances of the warms and cools within the landscape aren’t always evident in a photo. A little manipulating in Photoshop can sometimes bring them back just enough to paint from, but a steady practice of painting on location helps with this!

Warms on the left, moving to cools on the right.
Notice how the hue in the middle is cooler than what's
on the left but warmer than what's on the right.

Brighter/Greyer (Chroma)

Then lastly I determine the chroma (or saturation) … this is the “brighter/greyer” part. Typically distance will dull down color in a landscape, and foreground areas will have a brighter chroma. For example, if a subject far in the distance is catching direct sunlight, it will need to read as a warm, but a muted/greyed warm.

Brighter and greyer chromas of similar hues.

When I try to rush through these three decisions during the painting process, that’s when I get myself into trouble. It can indeed be a tedious process, but well worth the scrutinizing if you want to push your skill level and have successful results. 

Sunlit Slope, 16x20, pastel
This one relies on greyed warms and cools in the
distance and and more saturated versions of those colors
in the foreground.

Upcoming Workshops:

Lewisburg, West VA - 3-day PASTEL workshop - FULL
April 25, 26 & 27, 2016 (Mon/Tues/Wed)
Carnegie Hall West VirginiaKellar Art Studio105 Church St.Lewisburg, WV, 24901
$295/member; $400/non-member
Contact Jeanne Brenneman, 304-645-3050

Springfield, OR - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop
May 3, 4 & 5, 2016 (Tues/Wed/Thurs)
Emerald Art Center500 Main StreetSpringfield, OR 97477
$420/member; $445/non-memberCall 541-736-8595; www.emeraldartcenter.org

Bend, OR - 1-day PASTEL PLEIN AIR workshop
June 4, 2016 (Sat)
Plein Air Painters of Oregon
Location: Shevlin Park. Back-up studio location will be provided in case of inclement weather.
$65/member; $70 non-member
Registration will open up to non-members after March 15.
Contact Nancy Misek, 541-388-1567, nancym2010@bendbroadband.com

Bend, OR - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop (studio & plein air)
June 6, 7 & 8, 2016 (Mon/Tues/Wed)
"The Well Edited Landscape, Inside and Out"
Cascade Fine Art Workshops
Exact venue in Bend TBD. Plein air location will be near studio venue.
$410 before May 6 ($460 after May 6)
Contact Susan Manley at info@CascadeFineArtWorkshops.com or 541-408-5524

Lac du Flambeau, WI (northern Wisconsin) - 4-day PASTEL/OIL workshop
(studio/some plein air)
June 27, 28, 29 & 30, 2016 (Mon-Thurs)
Studio & Plein Air
Dillman's Creative Arts Foundation3305 Sand Lake Lodge Lane
Lac du Flambeau, WI 54538
This will mainly be a studio workshop, but will also include some plein air time during one of the four days. Dillman's is a resort facility where you can also enjoy gorgeous scenery, boat rides on the lake and other outdoor recreation right there where the workshop takes place. The studios stay open after workshop hours for artists wanting additional painting time. Workshop fee also includes a welcome dinner the evening of your arrival. Affordable accommodations in the resort are available through Dillman's.
$550
Call 715-588-3143 for more information or register online at www.dillmans.com.

For full workshop schedule, visit www.barbarajaenicke.com.

Critique Services
Would you like me to personally critique your oil or pastel painting? Visit www.ProArtCritique.com and click on my name for quick, affordable feedback on your work.

Location. Location. Location.

15 Street Rise, 8x10, oil

I sort of have a love-hate relationship with my plein air work. A good bit of these studies get wiped down, reworked back in the studio, or just stay in my studio for reference. Occasionally I'll return home with something I feel good about, but typically I don't love what I bring back from the field.

Fleeting Light Along Tumalo Creek, 8x10, oil

As I was looking back through some recent field studies, despite some of the flaws that I know are there, I notice a more genuine sense of light that I'm able to capture in those quick studies than I probably would have if I was working from only a photo of the location. Most artists who paint in the field and from photos are already aware of how photos alter values and temperature. But a genuine capture of light goes beyond that...it captures a certain authenticity of the outdoor location.

View From Locust Street, 8x10, oil

I've been struggling with painting a particular spot near my home. The image that my photo captures gives me such a completely different sense of light than what I see when I'm there in person. I've tried twice to paint it on location. It's a typical high-desert area of central Oregon, with Juniper trees and sagebrush ...very different vegetation than anywhere I've ever lived before we moved here back in May. I've been going back and forth between my plein air attempts and a studio attempt, referencing the photo, but depending more on my memory of the location than the photo. I'll go back and try again. Hopefully as I live with the landscape some more, I'll better understand how to paint it.

For now, a steady practice of plein air painting--whether good or bad--proves invaluable to my studio work. I look back at studio work from just a few years ago and realize now how several more years of field studies since then have helped me better understand the landscape.

The work shown here was all painted on location within the past two months.



Upcoming Workshops:

Mt. Vernon, WA - 3-day PASTEL workshop - FULL

March 10, 11 & 12, 2016 (Fri/Sat/Sun) - these dates have shifted slightly from what was previously promoted!

Dakota Art Center

17873 State Route 536

Mount Vernon, WA 98273

$395

info@dakotaartcenter.com, www.dakotaartcenter.com

888-345-0067 ext. 5

Lewisburg, West VA - 3-day PASTEL workshop - FULL

April 25, 26 & 27, 2016 (Mon/Tues/Wed)

Carnegie Hall West Virginia

Kellar Art Studio

105 Church St.

Lewisburg, WV, 24901

$295/member; $400/non-member

Contact Jeanne Brenneman, 304-645-3050

Springfield, OR - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop

May 3, 4 & 5, 2016 (Tues/Wed/Thurs)

Emerald Art Center

500 Main Street

Springfield, OR 97477

$420/member; $445/non-member

Call 541-736-8595; www.emeraldartcenter.org

Bend, OR - 1-day PASTEL PLEIN AIR workshop

June 4, 2016 (Sat)

Plein Air Painters of Oregon

Location: Shevlin Park. Back-up studio location will be provided in case of inclement weather.

$65/member; $70 non-member

Registration will open up to non-members after March 15.

Contact Nancy Misek, 541-388-1567, nancym2010@bendbroadband.com

Bend, OR - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop (studio & plein air)

June 6, 7 & 8, 2016 (Mon/Tues/Wed)

"The Well Edited Landscape, Inside and Out"

Cascade Fine Art Workshops

Exact venue in Bend TBD. Plein air location will be near studio venue.

$410 before May 6 ($460 after May 6)

Contact Susan Manley at info@CascadeFineArtWorkshops.com or 541-408-5524

Lac du Flambeau, WI (northern Wisconsin) - 4-day PASTEL/OIL workshop (studio/some plein air)

June 27, 28, 29 & 30, 2016 (Mon-Thurs)

Studio & Plein Air

Dillman's Creative Arts Foundation

3305 Sand Lake Lodge Lane

Lac du Flambeau, WI 54538

This will mainly be a studio workshop, but will also include some plein air time during one of the four days. Dillman's is a resort facility where you can also enjoy gorgeous scenery, boat rides on the lake and other outdoor recreation right there where the workshop takes place. The studios stay open after workshop hours for artists wanting additional painting time. Workshop fee also includes a welcome dinner the evening of your arrival. Affordable accommodations in the resort are available through Dillman's. 

$550

Call 715-588-3143 for more information or register online at www.dillmans.com.

For full workshop schedule, visit www.barbarajaenicke.com.

Critique Services

Would you like me to personally critique your oil or pastel painting? Visit www.ProArtCritique.com and click on my name for quick, affordable feedback on your work.

The Ugly Stage

December Glitter, oil, 16x20

You may have heard the comment that paintings sometimes go through an unpleasant but often necessary ugly stage. To be honest, sometimes I get frustrated when I get to this phase of the painting process. I've made the mistake of abandoning paintings at this stage when I should have known better and kept with it. This ugly stage is usually when an area has the large simplified shapes painted in, before smaller or contrasting details can be added. At this point, certain important relationships and contrasts haven't been defined, so much of the landscape doesn't make visual sense yet.

The two progression shots below are from early in the painting process, shortly after the block in (sorry for the glare in the upper left of these shots...it unfortunately adds to the ugly factor). I kept it to just the big shapes here, with just a few indications of where I'll have some finer lines/details.

In the large snow covered ground area, I gradually made small shifts in the value and temperature of the bluish snow, but since I hadn't yet added any warm highlights (which I couldn't wait to add!), the snow covered ground didn't yet have any dimension to it. At this point, I wasn't sure if I liked the painting ... it didn't have any life to it. 

                         

After tweaking the blues of the snow some more to make sure I had the correct value, temperature and chroma (saturation), I began adding the warm highlights ... just a little at a time so I wouldn't overdo it. I knew it would be the sparse, subtle appearance of these highlights within the large area of snow in shadow that would make them more dramatic.

I kept the trees fairly undefined so that I could use the additional details of the snow on the limbs to define the form of the trees, without distracting from the drama of the highlights on the snow.. The snow on the trees also created the warm/cool temperature contrast that finally gave the painting the additional life it needed, while the definition of just a few areas of the finer lines of the foreground grasses gave the painting additional depth from foreground to background.

December Glitter, oil, 16x20

Upcoming Workshops:

Cincinnati, OH - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop -- FULL/WAIT LIST

Jan. 22, 23 & 24, 2016 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

Cincinnati Art Club

1021 Parkside Place (beautiful, historic Eden Park area near downtown Cincinnati)

Cincinnati, OH 45202

http://www.cincinnatiartclub.com/workshops.html

workshops@cincinnatiartclub.com

$400/member; $425/nonmember

Bridgewater, NJ - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop

Feb. 26, 27 & 28, 2016 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

York Art Studio

350 Grove St. #4, Bridgewater, NJ 08807

http://yorkartstudio.wix.com/yorkfinearts

yorkartstudio@gmail.com

908-392-0998

$400

Payment will be made to Barbara Jaenicke. Contact Barbara directly at barbarajaenicke@msn.com to register.

Mt. Vernon, WA - 3-day PASTEL workshop

March 10, 11 & 12, 2016 (Fri/Sat/Sun) - these dates have shifted slightly from what was previously promoted!

Dakota Art Center

17873 State Route 536

Mount Vernon, WA 98273

$395

info@dakotaartcenter.com, www.dakotaartcenter.com

888-345-0067 ext. 5

Lewisburg, West VA - 3-day PASTEL workshop

April 25, 26 & 27, 2016 (Mon/Tues/Wed)

Carnegie Hall West Virginia

Kellar Art Studio

105 Church St.

Lewisburg, WV, 24901

$295/member; $400/non-member

Contact Jeanne Brenneman, 304-645-3050

For full workshop schedule, visit www.barbarajaenicke.com.

Critique Services

Would you like me to personally critique your oil or pastel painting? Visit www.ProArtCritique.com and click on my name for quick, affordable feedback on your work.

Merry and Bright Wishes to You!

Just a quickie post to wish all of my blog readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season! Thank you for reading my posts this past year. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed writing them. I especially appreciate those of you who've left such thoughtful comments. I try to respond to each of them...my apologies if I've missed any.

I hope your New Year is filled with happiness and many successes at the easel!

Many thanks,
Barbara

Compliments of John Pototschnik

I had the honor of being featured in an interview by the wonderful John Pototschnik on his blog. John has an amazing blog that contains interviews with a variety of wonderful artists, as well as interesting observations he's written about historical artists, plus his own incredible paintings. If you're not familiar with his blog, it's a good one to keep up with! (http://www.pototschnik.com/blog/)

In this article, he had me answer some pretty thorough questions. He warned me that he doesn't ask the typical interview questions, and he was right! If you have a moment, I hope you'll enjoy reading it!...

http://www.pototschnik.com/barbara-courtney-jaenicke-interview/

Making Your Mark

Detail from Chattahoochee Snow, oil

Those reading this who have taken a workshop from me know that I make a big deal about each and every mark you make on your painting. Even though I've been teaching this for awhile, I've come to realize even more so that the individual characteristics of your mark making are what eventually elevate you to a higher skill level.

Detail of a limited stroke pastel demo.

Truthfully, until fairly recently, I was never all that impressed when artists (often even my favorites) posted zoomed in detail images of their work...typically oil painting brushwork, but also pastel work.

As I've continued to teach mark-making exercises to students, I find that I realize even more so the importance of allowing our medium of choice to do what it does, and to not always try to overly render it to replicate the subject matter. I find myself telling students, "let paint do what paint DOES."

For example, when you see images used to advertise pastels, you usually see a fresh, clean, "unfussed with" swipe of a pastel that clearly shows the characteristically soft, buttery stroke that a soft pastel makes. It doesn't try to completely cover up the underlying surface, but allows the surface to show through, with the mark and substrate working together as a little piece of artwork. Or you'll see a brushstroke of paint coming from a loaded brush that allows the paint to be thin in some places and thick in others...all in that one stroke that was cleanly applied and left alone. With either medium, it's the imperfections of the paint/pastel application that often enhance the artwork. This is of course more so in impressionist work.

But while we work hard to control our medium of choice, the really hard part is learning what NOT to control so that our medium can be free to show off its unique characteristics to which we as artists are attracted in the first place. Areas of a painting that I first thought I goofed when applying a wayward stroke, if left alone, have often become my favorite part of the painting.

Sometimes purposefully applied marks on a painting are referred to as calligraphy when they have a clean, poetic quality to them. And just like learning good penmanship as a child, it takes years of practice to learn the nuances of applying your own characteristic marks to your work....

- How to hold your brush, pastel, pen, pencil, palette knife etc.
- How much pressure to apply
- How long or short of a mark to make
- Which direction to apply it
- How fast or slow to apply it
- How thinly or thickly to apply the pigment
- Connect the marks or make them individually?

I could go on, but you get the idea.

As I've learned to become more thoughtful to the marks I make on my own work, I've discovered that I can better appreciate seeing those zoomed in detail portions from the work of my favorite artists, and observe how the sensitive application and behavior of the pigment is as much a part of the artwork as is the subject mater and other important artistic elements (value, temperature, chroma, composition, edges). Lately I've been scrutinizing my own mark making even more. And when I look at the work of my favorite artists, I find that, in addition to observing the other artistic elements, I'm especially noticing the mark making.

Shown in this post are detail images from a few of my pastel and oil paintings completed in the past couple of years. These are pieces in which I was satisfied with the variety of marks and handling of the medium. In each of them, I think I was more thoughtful to each mark I placed in the painting, and therefore didn't go back over strokes to "fix" them.

Detail from Winter's Grace, oil

Detail from Daybreak Shadows, pastel

In this continuous quest to push my own painting skills, I'm discovering that perhaps skillful mark making is indeed the most difficult (and often last) skill that an artist can begin to master. And one that usually places one artist a notch above another.



Upcoming Workshops:

Cincinnati, OH - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop

Jan. 22, 23 & 24, 2016 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

Cincinnati Art Club

1021 Parkside Place (beautiful, historic Eden Park area near downtown Cincinnati)

Cincinnati, OH 45202

http://www.cincinnatiartclub.com/workshops.html

workshops@cincinnatiartclub.com

$400/member; $425/nonmember

Bridgewater, NJ - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop

Feb. 26, 27 & 28, 2016 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

York Art Studio

350 Grove St. #4, Bridgewater, NJ 08807

http://yorkartstudio.wix.com/yorkfinearts

yorkartstudio@gmail.com

908-392-0998

$400

Payment will be made to Barbara Jaenicke. Contact Barbara directly at barbarajaenicke@msn.com to register.

Mt. Vernon, WA - 3-day PASTEL workshop

March 10, 11 & 12, 2016 (Fri/Sat/Sun) - these dates have shifted slightly from what was previously promoted!

Dakota Art Center

17873 State Route 536

Mount Vernon, WA 98273

$395

info@dakotaartcenter.com, www.dakotaartcenter.com

888-345-0067 ext. 5

Critique Services

Would you like me to personally critique your oil or pastel painting? Visit www.ProArtCritique.com and click on my name for quick, affordable feedback on your work!