Tag: oil painting

Train Tracks by Valerio D'Ospina, 2011, oil on melamined MDF, 30 x 24.

Some artists such as Jackson Pollock discover and use their
own visual language to communicate with the world, and this singular voice
takes them through an entire career of putting oil on canvas. Others—Picasso for
instance—pass through several stages of change in their work, whether by theme,
technique, or style.

Artist Valerio D'Ospina believes that his own artistic
growth is in direct correlation with how he grows as a human being. "My
personality, my character, and even my taste and style have been constantly
changing throughout my entire life. Inevitably, my artistic needs are involved
in this flow of changing," he says.

I identify with D'Ospina's point of view because I think—or
hope—that I am constantly growing as a person, gaining wisdom and new
abilities. And how can that not impact the art we make?

Just a few years ago, D'Ospina was a graduate student in
Florence using a more traditional-classical approach to oil painting. The oil
painting techniques that he used are for the indirect way of painting and
included priming his linen with rabbit skin glue and gesso, toning his surface
to a mid-tone value, making preparatory drawings and underpaintings, and using
layers and glazes.

The artist's early work: F. Galano in His Studio by Valerio D'Ospina, oil on canvas.		An early portrait: Ragazza con Tre Oecchini by Valerio D'Ospina, oil on canvas.

The approach dates back to the Renaissance but D'Ospina
found that painting this way was driving him to photorealism because of its
emphasis on refining technique and virtuosity. He knew it was time for a change
when he realized that his first sketch of a painting rather than the end result
with successive layers and rendering brought him more satisfaction. "The first
sketch was faster, gestural, and more fresh. I thought it was a shame to cover
all that with the heaviness of the defining layers," he says.

For D'Ospina, realizing he wasn't satisfied with the way he
was working meant that he needed to disrupt the habits of his previous
comfortable techniques by trying different surfaces, materials, and, most of
all, by changing subject matter and experimenting with dramatically different
themes. He also started painting alla prima, applying paint straight on the
surface without using a pencil drawing sketch beforehand.

Now D'Ospina works on bringing a three-dimensional quality
to the surface of his oil paintings and a sketchy rendering aspect to his
compositions that still delivers a lot of meticulous detail. He also
transitioned from painting more academic subjects to industrial scenes. All of
this was uncomfortable for the artist at first, but it was exactly this
challenge that led him to embrace a more expressionistic attitude and gave him
the growth he needed to find continued satisfaction in his painting.

Naval Field (study) by Valerio D'Ospina, 2010, oil on melamined MDF, 31 x 24.		Via Roma by Valerio D'Ospina, 2011, oil on melamined MDF, 18 x 12.

I'm incredibly inspired by D'Ospina's openness and his commitment
to change his painting approach from what he first learned to what felt right
to him as an artist. He was honest with himself about what he needed as an
artist, and went after it. And that is what we should all do more of! If you
want to explore the techniques that allowed D'Ospina to grow and refine his
work, it is a great idea to start with Michael Wilcox's book on Glazing and other Old Master techniques. Enjoy!

SOURCE: Artist Daily - Read entire story here.

Lucrezia by Francisco Benitez, 30 x 30, encaustic on panel.

I recently had a conversation with an artist about how she
is struggling to get her drawings and oil paintings noticed by the "art world" and her frustration that she
can't seem to get her work out there in front of a wider audience.

I thought to myself, I never want my work to be seen by a
wider audience (shudder, shudder), but if I did, here's what I'd do.

Find a trend and jump on it. This flies in the face of doing
your work out of passion or curiosity, but the art world is full of trends that
might speak to you. If there is one that you can identify with, you can steer
your work in that direction and maybe just ride that "what's hot" wave.

Signature style--what holds your work together? It may be the
thing that gets you noticed, so suss out what it is for you and accentuate it.
Maybe even devote a series of works to exploring "it." And this could be
anything: your process, subject matter, painting style, or chosen narrative.
Whatever it is--emphasize it. The art world is saturated with work, so if you
want to stand out, you have do
something that stands out.

Chatter, hype, or just the right conversation at the right
time--when it comes to getting on the radar, you definitely have to be willing
to talk about your work or have someone do it for you. This isn't about being
obnoxious or cocky, but it is about knowing what you and your work are about
and getting the word out.

	Venus Pregnant by Steven Assael, 72 x 48, oil on canvas, 2002.

Looking at this list, I want to cry out, "Is it really worth
it?" I'm not always so sure. Because when it comes down to it there are so many
artists out there that deserve recognition on their own merits. At Artist Daily
we do our best to showcase artists who have something to say for themselves and
who really care about their work.

And the same goes for the artists you'll find in The Artist Magazine. Artists who creates thoughtful
figure paintings steeped in history, or painters who create with encaustic paints--a medium that goes back
to the days of the Egyptian pharaohs but has been all but forgotten. Or artists like Steven
Assael, whose subject matter pushes the
envelope far past conventionality and makes paintings that are both intimate
and uncomfortable.

So steer your artistic career in a way that feels right to
you. Because no one can predict what is going to happen tomorrow let alone over
the course of a lifetime. The only thing that matters is
doing what you love and making art that you care about. And the only person you
have to answer to is yourself. What do you think about the "art world?" Is it worth getting noticed? Leave a comment and let me know, and for more inspiration and art-filled days consider a subscription to The Artist's Magazine.

SOURCE: Artist Daily - Read entire story here.

Emma Twice, 2009, oil on canvas, 48 x 48. All works by Daniel Maidman.

Over my past posts, we've been discussing shocks to the system as a way of avoiding growing complacent and thoughtless in your art. I shared two of my own tricks—varying my mark-making, and varying my media. But there is another, broader trick I use: varying my subject.

I'm not going to lie to you. My favorite thing in the world is painting nudes. But just because I like doing it doesn't mean it's good for me to do it all the time. Over the past couple of years, I've been working on expanding my oil painting subject matter. Each topic I tackle has forced me to see freshly—to study my subject with new eyes, to evaluate my media with new goals, to refine my vision to make something worthwhile from my new subject.

I have been working on a series of paintings of heavy industrial parts. I decided to restrict my palette to white, blue, gray, and black paint, and to work silver leaf into my compositions.

I've also been working with photographs of pond water taken through a microscope to make paintings of the microscopic life that surrounds us. I took a crack at cityscapes, and I've also been messing around with paintings of animals and flowers.

Industrial Object #1, 2011, silver leaf and oil on canvas, 36 x 36.	Microbiota #1, 2011, oil on canvas, 24 x 30.	Jade Street, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 24.

I learned two things from these explorations:

1. I was worried
that if I painted different subjects, my oil paintings wouldn't look like
"me"—like my work. But I think that no matter where I look, my own
personality influences how I see. No matter how diverse the subjects,
when I look at my paintings, they look like my paintings. That's pleasing to know, isn't it?

2. Once again, shocking my system brought new insights and a fresh approach to my "ordinary" work—figurative nudes.

		Blue Leah #2, 2011, oil on canvas, 24 x 36.

Life is long and the world is full of interesting things. Trying something new is a risk—it could always turn out to be a waste of time—but I think it's better to see it as an investment. You can bank on what you already know you can do, or you can sink your artistic "savings" of talent and skill into new ventures. The minute you "get good," I encourage you to start considering something you're not good at yet, and work on that.

--Daniel

SOURCE: Artist Daily - Read entire story here.