Kimball Art Center Video Tutorial

Half Dozen- Oil over Acrylic, 12" x 20" by Greg Newbold

Last week I had the chance to film a painting demo for the Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah. They hare holding a painting context for children in grades K-12 in conjunction with their current exhibit "Painters of the Wasatch Mountains". Children will have an opportunity to enter their own lansdscape painting and have a chance at prizes.

Blue taped filming area with my equipment set up

The goal was to break down the painting of a landscape into segments that were each 2-5 minutes long and to make it understandable for young kids without boring older students. Easier said than done. I divided things into segments such as materials, choosing a subject, basic color mixing, value patterns, blocking in, pushing and pulling and finishing up.

The camera was above me on a tripod.

We determined it would be best to paint the demo in acrylic paint even though most of my landscape work is oil paint. We decided that acrylic would be the most readily available of any medium and be the most versatile for younger kids.

my hands were the only part filmed- OK by me.

where the acrylic painting stopped at the end of filming

Filming took place over two afternoons (due to some camera issues) and then I finished the painting up at home. I actually did paint the final layer in oil, but most kids wont understand the difference or even be able to tell when the final painting is flashed on screen. After getting the painting back in the studio, I decided to add some interest and color to the far background. It felt a little too flat, so I added a tree line and some blue hills.

Thanks to Jenny Diersen, Educational Director at the Kimball Art Center as well as the rest of the staff who helped make this an enjoyable experience for me. I would do it again anytime.

I am still waiting to see the final cuts of the demo and I will post the links when I get them. 

Ron Spears Paints Zion National Park

Regulars here probably saw the posts I did about my two trips to paint in Zion National Park last year. Well on the first trip I had the privilege of painting with my good friend Ron Spears who was spending time as the park's artist in residence. He is an amazing artist and teacher at Southern Utah University.


Ron did some incredible paintings in those two weeks as well as the ensuing months and it has been documented in a nice short film. If you love painting outdoors, or simply love visiting places like Zion, have a look at this 8 minute film.

Here are a couple of my posts from that painting trip to Zion National Park:

Painting in Zion Part 1
Painting in Zion Part 2
Painting the Virgin River-Zion Part 1
Painting the Virgin River-Zion Part 2

Painting Near Grafton

I went to Southern Utah on a plein air painting trip last weekend with friend and fellow painter Richard Hull. Our first stop was Grafton, Utah, a ghost town best known as a location in the Robert Redford/Paul Newman film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. On the road near what is left of the town, I found a subject I liked overlooking a gnarly old tree in it's full golden fall splendor. The hazy blue outcroppings of Zion National Park are in the distance.

Here is a progression of the image and where I stopped painting after the light changed too much. One of these days I will learn to capture a finished statement in the time I have before the light is gone, but until then, I will be content to finish them up in studio.

Painting Parley's Canyon

Mouth of Parley's Canyon- 13.75 x 9.25 Oil by Greg Newbold

Recently I went out painting with my friend David Meikle. We chose a spot on Parley's Trail just off Tanner Park near the mouth of Parley's Canyon on the east bench of Salt Lake City.

Every time I go out I search for an objective in the scene I choose to paint. My goal for this piece was to capture the drama of the deep shadows on the north facing slopes of Grandeur Peak where the canyon opens up. Here is a little progression of what I painted that morning and how it finished up after I did a little tickling in the studio.

The clouds were ever changing and I could not capture quite what I wanted (as you can see from the first picture compared to the third) so I repainted the sky in the studio. I also wanted to tone down the warmth in the far slopes a bit to create more distance. I am really happy with how it turned out. After it is dry, it will be for sale at my gallery Williams Fine Art.

Young Angus

Young Angus - 9" x 12", Oil by Greg Newbold

I just finished this little piece that I started a few weeks back when I painted live at the Williams Fine Art summer barbecue. Click the link above to see what it looked like after the first session. I will now be sending it off to Williams to find a nice home somewhere. Good luck little cows!

Demo At Williams FIne Art

Painting live at Williams Fine Art - Greg Newbold

Last Saturday evening the annual summer BBQ was held at Williams Fine Art. The gallery asked a few of the artists it represents to come and paint live for the patrons. Food was deliciously catered by The Red Iguana and after I had a nice plate of shrimp fajitas. I spent a couple of hours painting and talking with the patrons that wandered by my easel. I tried to treat it as much like painting en plein air as I could even though I was working from a photo.

Many visitors to the gallery commented on my photo. I had to admit that the photo is a montage of elements from at least three photos from the same location pieced together. I rarely work from a straight up photo, preferring instead to move , scale and adjust elements in Photoshop to arrive at a composition that I like.  It was fun to paint in front of a live albeit ever shifting audience. I had been itching to paint some more cows, so it was fun to get a good start on this one. I'll probably put in a couple more hours before I call it finished.

Thoughts On Mixing More Vibrant Color

Beginning a demo in my Landscape class

One key I find to getting more vibrant color is to keep the colors as clean as I can. Do not  mix fresh color on a dirty palette and clean your palette off if you don't have a space to mix a fresh color. I try to mix the color to the hue and value I want as simply as possible. If you can get to the color you want using only only two or three colors (plus white if needed), you'll get fresher color. Color mixing is a subject unto it's own, but I try to keep it as straight forward as I can. Also, I try to avoid mixing my color around too much on the surface of the painting.  Put it down and leave it. A little blending with a clean brush or a little direct mixing while a stroke goes down is OK, but don't mush colors around once they leaves the brush or you'd just make mud. I also try to load my brush every couple of strokes with fresh paint. I load the brush with enough paint so that only the paint on the brush comes off instead of  "picking up" the paint on the surface. You want the paint you carefully mixed to be the paint that stays visible. If you push it around too much it intermixes with what is already there and can make a mess.

If I am changing colors to a drastically different hue, I clean my brush in mineral spirits as the paint in the brush will pollute the new color. If it's only a slight change in hue, I'll just wipe my brush and let part of the existing hue mix into the new color. Also, Squeeze out enough paint on your palette to cover your painting. I find students or beginners are hesitant to use enough for fear that they will waste paint. It's like trying to paint the Sistine Chapel with a thimble full of color. Give yourself enough paint to do the job right. Usually two or three times as much as you think will be enough. Students cringe when I say that, but my philosophy is if the painting turns out great, you didn't waste paint, regardless of whether there is paint left over.

The concept of warm and cool colors could be a whole book if not it's own series of posts. I'll be as simple as I can, but I try to balance warm and cool colors in my painting. If the light source is warm, I go for relatively cool colors in the shadows. If the light source is cool, I try to inject warmth into the shadows. Mixing a cool pigment with a warm will neutralize the temperature and muddy up the color. For instance if you try to make a purple with cadmium red and Ultamarine blue, you just get a muddy brownish color. If you take a cool version of red like Quinacridone Red, and try the same thing, you get a lovely purple. The best way to learn what colors will mix best with others is to try it. Richard Schmid in his book Alla Prima suggests you tape off a grid of squares on canvas panels and paint all the possible mixing combinations from light to dark with two of each of the colors on your palette until you have mixed all possible combinations. That way you'll get a feel for what each color will do when intermixed.

Class Landscape Demo- 6" x 8" oil

My brushes are mostly synthetic nylon bristle brushes. I beat my brushes up pretty good and the synthetics seem to hold up better  for me than the hog hair brushes. I pick ones that have a nice spring to them but I have yet to find the perfect brush. I keep trying different brands and sometime I'll guess I'll settle on a favorite or two. I clean my brushes thoroughly with Gamsol odorless thinner and then with soap and water. After that, I use a little hair conditioner on them to help them hold shape while they dry. I throw a little travel size bottle of it in my paint box in case I am away from home when I clean the brushes. Hope that helps!