Back into it

I've been off-line for a while, but I'm about to fix that. The Beginners class that was scheduled to start this Saturday at GAA only had 2 people registered so we cancelled it. I'll be travelling during Nov and Dec so the next sessions will start on January 7, 2012. I'm blogging from my phone today, so if this works, I should be able to post from the road.

An Outline for Success

I've been teaching for a number of years and each year I upgrade my lessons. This year I've decided to integrate those lessons and courses in to a standard curriculum that can be used in on-going weekly classes or in concentrated all-day workshops. So, without further ado, here is...

Bob Fisher's Three Course Curriculum for Teaching Wet Watercolors

Course I: Wet Techniques and Basic Color Theory
1. Applying paint in a range of Values
2. Mixing paint on wet paper and controlling Chroma
3. Loading the brush with multiple Hues
4. Contrast and Diffusion in Value, Chroma, and Hue

Course II: Design
1. Goal and Focus of Painting (representation, message, atmosphere, decoration)
2. Classical Success (Whitney’s 12 plus 1)
3. Going with the Flow (interplay of method and outcome)
4. Developing Your Own Unique Style

Course III: Symbols: Learning to See

1. Shape, Texture, and Edge Quality (eggs, light, shadow, bounce, soft, hard, rough, interlocks, and abstraction)
2. Western Symbols (sky, water, earth, critters, and chattel vs. landscape, still-life, portrait)
3. Oriental Symbols, Techniques, and Attitude
4. The Beautiful Stroke and the Beautiful Mark (life and feeling vs. precision and accuracy)

Teaching Bad Habits

As I was finishing the fourth session of my Wet Watercolor Techniques class for beginners, I realized that what these students had learned and were executing quite well are considered advanced watercolor techniques by most practitioners. Why? If these beginners could jump to this advanced level in four weeks, why are we wasting so much time teaching techniques that they clearly don’t need? I suspect that what we label “tradition” is little more than a perpetuation of the bad ideas and poor teaching methods by which we learned.

Most of what “traditional” beginners learn is really a set of bad habits that the professional watercolorists use rarely or not at all. Ask a pro how much drawing they do on the paper and they will say “as little as possible.” Ask how much of their painting is done on dry paper and they will tell you how they only use it for calligraphy marks toward the end of the painting, or if they do use it for larger areas, how they go back immediately and soften the edges and diffuse the interior.

I’m not criticizing tradition per se; rather, I’m saying that we need to rethink the traditional approach to teaching watercolors. The use of watercolor in Oriental art goes back several millennia, while in the western art, it only goes back one hundred years or so. The techniques developed by the Chinese were dictated by the materials of the time, just as they are today. Making one sure mark on dry rice paper was critical because that fragile paper tended to tear more easily when wet. Western artists solved the fragility problem by applying pigments suspended in oil onto canvas or boards. Homer, Constable, and the rest simply adapted their oil painting methods to watercolor and paper. Their early works reflect that practice, but if you look at their latter works you will see much more or the wet and loose effects that make watercolors so appealing. I had my beginners copy one of Sanford Robinson Gifford’s oil paintings, and the lovely diffusions in value and chroma that they achieved on wet paper in three minutes (with the help of gravity) would have been the envy of any oil painter as they labored back and forth with their feather brush. I love tradition, but in an era of strong durable watercolor paper, why bother teaching beginners what the pros have long ago learned to disregard?

Henry Wo Workshop

I just finished four days of painting with Henry Wo and the end always comes too quickly. This is the fourth such workshop that I've taken with Henry, but it was the first time I've been to his studio in Fairfax County, VA. If you are not familiar with Henry's work a quick google search is worthwhile. Start with this brief bio http://www.piercegalleries.com/artists/iart_woyuekee.html

My first class with Henry in West Palm Beach literally changed my life. I expected to learn the basic Chinese brushwork and techniques needed to paint on rice paper, but instead I learned how to view the object of my painting, feel its essence, and find the "beautiful mark" that will represent its chi. Its not about visual realism or impressionism, nor is it about expressionism per se, but the latter is close. It is about the artist acting as a translator of the dragon fly's chi, or that of the fish, the bird or the bamboo. If done well, the "feeling" of it comes to life even if the shape or colors are not realistic. As Henry might say, it may not be good picture but is good art.

Loading the brush with multiple colors, making the mark in one continuous fast, slow, straight, twisting, or other simple or complex motion is the technique. But deciding what that mark should be is the challenge. Executing it with feeling is the art. To this day, Cheryl tells me (and anyone else who will listen) that my paintings changed dramatically after my first session with Henry. They became softer and more colorful. She says Henry put me in touch with the feminine side of nature. Bold is attractive and masculine but it only comes to life when complemented by its contrast with the feminine. The combination brings balance. The rough branch supports the delicate flower, etc.

Henry is a true master of his style of art. If you ever get a chance to paint with him, do it. I'll try to find some better links to his painting and he has several books of his work available for sale.

Eric Wiegardt Workshop

I just returned from a wonderful week of painting with Eric Wiegardt in Myrtle Beach, SC. I always enjoy the workshops that Springmaid Watermedia sponsors in the fall and spring at their ocean front resort/hotel (http://www.springmaidwatermedia.com/). Eric is a very analytical guy, yet his paintings exhibit a very loose feel. His approach is based on values and getting the big shapes in first. Once the light, mid, and dark shapes are set, he then puts in a darker light in the light, a darker mid in the mid, and a darker dark in the dark to spark interest. But he is careful to make sure that these in-between values only appear in their respective ranges.

At first I found the idea of imposing such a rigid structure a bit restrictive, but I decided to try it anyway since I already work in the three value format and what is the point of taking a workshop if unwilling to try new things. What I found was that these in-between values actually made it easier to keep track of the values and gave me more freedon in adjusting the warms and cool hues as well as the intense and dull chromas.

Eric also dips his "mop" brushes into several colors with very little mixing prior to hitting the paper, which may be wet or dry or both. Thus, he gets rich blending on the paper along with a variety of textures. It is fun to watch, and he genuinely seems to have fun doing it. It made me wish that I had my Chinese brushes (squirel, horsehair, rabbit, etc) with me. Eric did provide some of his brushes for participants to try, but I'll try it with my own Sumi tools this week.

Eric is a nice guy, a serious artist, and a very good teacher. I highly recommend him.

Tony Couch is coming to SSI

Every year for about the last decade, I have taken a week off of work to paint with Tony Couch, and this year is no exception.  He'll be on Saint Simons Island, GA April 20 - 24, and he has a few slots left open (http://www.tonycouch.com/).  There is a reason that I keep repeating his class, besides being a very slow learner, which is: I learn something new every time, and the quality of my work gets better.

In fact, I think it is essential to periodically paint with people that I consider better than me, which is why I attend two or three professional workshops each year.  Thus, over the years I have painted with Don Andrews,  Skip Larwence, Tony VanHasselt, Judy Wagonner, Alex Powers, Henry Wo Yue Kee, John Salminen, and others.  Each has a different perspective on art and a host of different techniques, but Tony Couch is my annual reference point.  I think it is important to have a mentor (even an informal one) as an anchor to which I can append new skills and insights.

Tony teaches both technique and design, he is the author of the best selling Northlight book Watercolor, You Can Do It (also available on his website), and he was a repeat student for years to classes taught by his friend and mentor, Ed Whitney.

The 3 Dimensions of Color

Color has three dimensions: hue, value, and chroma.   Hue is the position on a typical color wheel where red is opposite green, blue is opposed to orange, and yellow is across from purple.   Value is the lightness or darkness and goes from white to black.  Chroma is the intensity or dullness of a color.   Everyone understands hue, but value and chroma are often confused.  Orange presents a good example of the difference.  I can make it lighter or darker just by adding more or less water to it which is a change in value.  I can make orange duller by adding its opposite hue, namely blue, which is a change in chroma. What makes orange so interesting in this context is that the addition of blue can take the orange to brown and even to black.  In other words the color that we normally think of as brown is not a different hue, it is really just a dull orange.  Similarly when we dull down a yellow we get olive which is not really a green at all.  Whodanode!  Now I need to figure out how to add pictures to my postings so that I can insert examples.  Anyone with any ideas, please leave me a comment on how to.   Thanks   

Ends verses the Means

My first 2009 class went well today, and I was reminded how important it is to focus on the means rather than the ends. Yes, having a goal is important, but it can also be discouraging when the plan isn't unfolding as intended. Fortunately, those of us who have worked in watercolor for a while know the value of the "happy accident," and are willing to alter the plan to accommodate it. Some of my best effects have come by chance or distraction and I take full credit for them :-). But the truth is that I treat each painting as an experiment. I'm not out to create a masterpiece; I'm simply trying to see what I can do with this wonderful wet medium and pushing the limits. Control is nice to have, but I'd rather have beauty. Since the essence of watercolor is its ability to produce magnificent soft diffusions, I'd be working against its strength to focus on control rather than just letting the paint mix in the paper.

In today's class we practiced the four basic ways to apply paint plus two ways of taking it off, namely, lifting and scraping. We did a value study of the lighthouse in sepia. Next week we'll get into color.

Four Basic Ways to Apply Paint
1. Wet Paint on Dry Paper
2. Dry Paint on Dry Paper
3. Wet Paint on Wet Paper
4. Dry Paint on Wet Paper

Main Characteristics of each:
1 Easiest to control, hard edge quality, good for small calligraphic details, a.k.a. Beginners trap.
2 Also easy to control, good for rough texture, nice effects, easy to over do, a.k.a. Dry-brush.
3 Uncontrollable, beautiful soft diffusions, the essence of watercolor, a.k.a. Wet-in-wet.
4 Hardest to control, rich darks, full range of edge qualities, no mud, a.k.a. Master Stroke.

The first technique is as far as most beginners get before being lured into the control trap. It is sprung like this: You put wet paint on dry paper and it stays where you put it. You start making shapes and people recognize them as trees, mountains, or whatever. You find you can even sign your name this way. Then someone compliments you, or worse they buy it from you, and slam! You’re trapped. Now you must at least repeat that performance and this is the only tool in the toolbox. It gets boring rather quickly, but I’ve seen people stay trapped in it for years.

The second technique is used by the better amateurs. An easy way to distinguish wet paint from dry paint is to see if it runs as you lift your palate to a high angle. Dry paint is about toothpaste consistency on your brush. Try putting that on dry paper and it will only hit the tops of the ridges in the paper while leaving white in the valleys. It makes great rocks or tree bark.

With the third technique we begin to exploit the essence of watercolor that leads to the beautiful soft diffusions that drive the oil and acrylic painters mad. Control is severely limited and the advanced amateurs will use it in spots like sky, water, or within shapes like an apple.

The fourth technique is known as the master stroke because that is what most of the pros do. It takes a little practice to get a hard or rough edge on wet or damp paper, but once you get it, the world of watercolor opens to effects that simply cannot be had by any other means.

I was drawn to watercolor by the fresh, spontaneous, luminescent quality that I saw in some paintings. It took me two years in the trap of the first technique, grappling with mud and hard edges everywhere, before I broke out. The key was the realization that in watercolor, I must first understand the flow of water before I can get the bright rich colors.

I’ll cover all four techniques in my first class which starts on Jan 10, 2009 at the GAA 912-638-8770.

Style over Substance

I was reading a wonderful little book* by Mary Whyte when I came across this paragraph:
“Throughout my years in art school, the courses I most anticipated were the painting classes. I was continually disappointed. Most of the teachers seemed focused on abstract expressionism and what was showing in New York, emphasizing the creation of a radical social statement. Little mention was made of sound drawing skill and the fundamentals of composition and design, and never was there any discussion about the painting methods and tools of the early masters.”

As a professional educator, myself, I had to admit it is easy in art to confuse style with substance or the ends with the means. So it got me thinking about the way we learn, and thus about the way we teach.

One of the most powerful tools of learning is categorization, and academia uses it to distinguish disciplines like biology from psychology or history. We even see sub categories to distinguish one period of time from another by the characteristics of its music, art, science, etc. The Baroque verses the Classical, the Renaissance verses the Impressionists, and the Alchemist verses the Physicist. The evolutionary dialectic of each new era seems to condemn its predecessor to antiquity. What we forget is that evolution does not flow in a clean line; it is simply the line remaining after the others dead-ended, and it is always clear in hindsight. In economics, they call it survivor bias where the stock market gains are based on the companies alive today ignoring those that failed. Such evolutionary dead-ends are common but forgotten by history because they add nothing to the present. A stroll through the National Gallery in Washington, DC is all I need to clearly see the path that art took and the contribution of each era to the next. What I do not see are the paintings that did not make it into the gallery.

The abstract impressionism is still popular in many sectors and whole galleries are dedicated to it. But I would not be surprised to see abstract expressionism treated as a dead-end in art history, a distraction, and an act of desperation by starving artists in the age of photography. I remember touring a huge show of the works of Willem deKooning at the National Gallery in the early 1990s. By the time I viewed the sixth roomful of paintings, I turned to my friend and said, “this is pure crap!” You could have heard a pin drop. What my mind saw was an unemployed painter teaming up with an unemployed Madison Avenue marketer during the Great Depression to bilk the surviving industrial robber-barons into thinking such modern art would add to their respectability. Those guys must have laughed their butts off while kicking themselves for not having asked higher prices for these childish tantrums.

The point is that Mary’s teachers taught her the latest style which unfortunately was art based on emotional and fleeting feelings. It is a bit like learning the lingo of the latest management fad to cover the fact that they were promoted into management without a clue of what skills were required. Style replaced substance. Similarly, art schools felt that they had to teach the latest style of art, and discovering that it required no skill, were left with nothing to teach but so called creativity. Creativity is defined as “artistic or intellectual inventiveness,” which left many in the educational establishment with no idea of how to proceed. Mucking around is fun, but as any professional educator will tell you, learning is work. The problem that Mary experienced with her art education was not that we lacked the educational tools; it was that art teachers failed to use them.

Everyone knows that learning is a progressive skill with each step depending on the success with the preceding one, and in the 1950s Bloom's Taxonomy provided us with a coherent set of steps. The six levels are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In the first two steps, we learn about the tools of the trade and the context in which they are used and why. In the application and analysis phases we practice using the tools and break the results down into their component part to see what worked and what did not. Then in the synthesis phase, we put things back together in a new way or with different methods. This structured experimentation is real creativity. The last phase, evaluation, is an assessment of the work’s value by us, our peers, or the buying public. Unfortunately, we artists have little control over that last phase. Hiring a good marketing agent or gallery owner can do wonders for an artist’s work and reputation.

Not to belabor the poor Hoboken house painter, but many WPA era painters could paint circles around Willem de Kooning, but as in any game of chance, few come away rich. The 1989 sale of his Pink Lady at Sotheby’s for $3.6 million looks more like asset inflation than intrinsic value. It was a mess when painted in 1944, but it was an original mess! Unfortunately, by many accounts Willem was senile by the time of the '89 sale.

The problem I have is not with the path that de Kooning followed or with abstract impressionism as an art form. My problem is with the abdication of the art instructor’s responsibility to lead and facilitate the development of future artists. The muck-around method is not a teaching style. The ultimate irony in all of this is that de Kooning was formally schooled for eight years at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques. He knew how to paint, and then decided to depart from the basics to create his own style. As art teachers, we have a responsibility to first provide the tools and insights on how to use them through the application and analysis phases of learning. We can even facilitate the creative synthesis phase, but that requires some more sophisticated teaching methods that are best described in a separate article. The artist craft is not about natural talent; it is about knowledge, practice, and experimentation. There are no shortcuts.

Now a confession: my personal definition of art is anything that alters my mood. So in that sense, I must admit that my attitude toward de Kooning’s work is proof that it is indeed art, and very effective art at that. I just don’t happen to like it.

* An Artist’s Way of Seeing, by Mary Whyte 2005, Wyrick & Co., Charleston, SC.

Materials List for My Classes

Material List for Wet Watercolor Techniques

The basic materials you will need to bring are: a palate, paint, a few brushes, some watercolor paper, a non-porous board and four bulldog clips.

1. Paint: almost any brand will do, but daVinci or Cheap Joe’s American Journey transparent watercolors are great paints at a great price.

· Basic: Gamboge, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Red Rose Deep, Ultrumarine Blue, Phthalo Blue, Phthalo Green & Sepia.

· Optional: Quinacridone Gold (Harvest Wheat), Quinacridone Burnt Orange (Lucky Penny), Napthol Red (Poppy), and Benzamidia Orange (Halloween Orange).

2. Palate: any inexpensive plastic or metal palate will do as long as it has a large mixing area and a top that can be closed and sealed.

3. Brushes: do not spend a lot of money on brushes. The following are basic brushes that work very well. You will also need something in which to carry those brushes so that they don’t get damaged.
· 1½", a ¾", and a ¼” flat synthetic brush for putting paint on;
· ½" flat natural hair or mixed hair brush for lifting paint off;
· #8 or #10 round (not both), and a #4 rigger for the calligraphic details;
· small pocket knife or paring knife;
· 2 kitchen sponges and an old hand-towel.

4. Paper: I use 140lb cold-press Arches, Waterford is good too, but avoid paper with a lot of sizing (Strathmore or Benifang). Two full sheets (22”x30”) will do because we’ll cut them into ¼ sheets.

5. Non-porous board: I use 1/8 inch “white board” from Home Depot cut 1-inch larger than the paper I intend to use. Newcomers will get one free 12”x16” on the first day of class, but after that, they are $3.

6. Four bulldog clips and a box to put things in: any art supply store can point you to these, but don’t spend much. You’ll have plenty of time to scale up later.

7. A lighthearted attitude: Only you can supply this part, so smile, we’re going on an adventure!

If you have trouble finding what you need, call Tracy at Artisan’s 912-265-1335, she is local and usually has a good stock.

Teaching Schedule for 2009: Jan 10 - Apr 4

I'll be teaching again on Saturday mornings from 9:00 am till noon at the Glynn Art Association (GAA). We have set up three four-week sessions (but it is really one continuous class, so feel free to drop in at any time):
January 10, 17, 24, 31;
February 7, 14, 21, 28;
March 14, 21, 28, and April 4.

If you haven't painted with me before, it would be best if you come an half an hour early on the first day so that I can get you started.

Call the GAA at 912-638-8770 to reserve a space. It is always a lot of fun. I'll post the materials list as soon as I update it.

What is Art

What is Art?
Ask a dozen artists what art is and they will each give a different answer. Some say it is about making a name in the art world of New York or Paris. Others say it is measured by the price people will pay for the work. Still others complain that the public doesn’t appreciate true genius, which has no price. The dictionary says: “art is manipulation of things by human skill to answer the purpose intended. In this sense art stands opposed to nature.” I’d bet that the grand landscape painters like John Constable or Albert Bierstadt would disagree with Webster on that definition.
I think art is anything that affects the mood of the viewer. I came to that conclusion while wandering through the Hirshhorn Museum during my lunch break from a particularly bad morning at work. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a single plaster leg sticking out of the wall horizontally that was mounted about one foot above the floor. The pun still makes me chuckle, and I have no idea about the artist’s intent, but it altered my mood enough to lighten my afternoon at work.
Years later, I went to a huge exhibit of paintings by Willem_De_Kooning at the National Gallery. As I entered the fourth roomful of his early expressionistic works, I turned to my friend and said, “this is crap!” For a moment, you could have heard a pin drop. I held that attitude about de Kooning for months before realizing why I was wrong. I still don't like his work, but I must admit that it affected my mood (albeit negatively), so by my own definition, it is art. That concept has been very liberating for me as an artist, and it continues to guide my work.
Some of my paintings contain a social statement, and one or two pieces may be a bit disturbing, but most of my work reflects the beauty and harmony that I see all around me. I go to great lengths to achieve a feeling of unity in each painting, and have abandoned or modified many traditional watercolor techniques to do so. Much of the spontaneity, soft edges, and “looseness” found in my work are the result of painting upright on totally wet paper. I sacrifice control for the brilliant diffusions that can only come from letting paint mix on paper as it flows slowly down the page under the influence of gravity. There are no pencil marks because it is pointless to draw lines under drifting paint, and I find myself altering the design as I paint to take maximum advantage of those happy accidents that happen on wet paper. Under these conditions, I have to paint quickly enough to finish before the paint dries.
Clearly, no two of my paintings are ever alike, and I don’t do prints. The finished painting is a manifestation of my mood at the time and my feeling about the subject matter. Hopefully it will affect the viewer in a similar way, but thanks to de Kooning I know that it doesn’t matter. Still, I can’t help but wonder how Willem really felt about women given his disturbing images of them, but I no longer challenge his artistry.

Day 1

Welcome to my world of wet watercolor. I look forward to sharing ideas and learning from others who love this medium as I do.