"Artists Painting Eclectic Subject Matter, and the consequences".......if any!

I have had several conversations recently with artists friends and students about painters, like myself, who paint an array of subject matter. I find it interesting that some artists are drawn to a varied, and very eclectic subject matter, while others seem perfectly satisfied to paint only one subject again and again.

I know the consequences of not sticking to one thing that an audience can identify an artist with, can possibly make it difficult to become known broadly for painting only one subject. I personally feel that the price one pays is certainly worth it......to me personally. Of course, I can only speak for myself when it comes to this matter. It would be maddening for me to have to get up every day, and know that the only thing one could paint was a subject that one was known for doing, and demanded by one's gallery representation, or collectors........no matter how much the artist enjoyed doing that particular subject. I guess if I were at a different time in my career, and had larger financial commitments than I presently have, my thinking on this might possibly be different.......maybe! There will always be those who want to categorize artists by the subjects they paint. Unfortunately, to a great degree, the fine art market is subject driven. I still believe and hope that good painting is appreciated by those who recognize it, no matter what the subject is.

I think many artists paint what they are comfortable painting. Most do not go out of their comfort zone regularly. Stepping out of that comfort area is something I like, and wish I were even bolder when it comes to trying new things. I like to think that I do to some extent, but it is a relative thing. One of my favorite contemporary painters, Quang Ho, is a great example. He is a great painter, and also a fearless experimenter. He not only paints a varied subject, but he takes it further by continuing to experiment with his work, as it relates ot paint application and things of that nature. He successfully does this while remaining a traditional, representational painter. I hope that I never lose that desire to shake it up every now and then. This is my main reason for not painting only one subject. I think by being interested in a variety of subjects, it possibly keeps one fresh and keeps one from relying to much on tried and proven solutions. To some degree, one must do what they know will get the job done, but one does not want it to become familiar to the point of it being a formula.

The collection of paintings in the shot of my studio shown above, shows a variety of painting subjects.....some in frames, some not totally complete, but I think it represents what I am suggesting. The "Smoked Mullet" painting to the right is one of these "Other Subjects". It is almost complete. I have never painted this type of painting subject before, and I'm not sure how it will be recieved. It interested me, so I painted it. I still think it is an interesting subject, and I might explore it further. Whether or not it is a great painting is not the question. The process of getting it on canvas, and out of your system is sometimes the answer to the question. The process of painting, for me, is every bit as important as seeing the finished product. Many times it feels like it is a wasted effort, but I have always felt that something is gained, or learned with every painting session........if the artist is paying attention, and not just operating on auto pilot.

I think that temperament and personality has as much to do with this as it does with the style of painting artists choose to use to express themselves. I guess that is a related topic for another time.

"Studio Palette Setup and Brushes"

Someone requested that I post my studio palette setup, which is the same arrangement that I use whether I am inside, or outdoors on location. This is an open palette, even though I do not use all of these colors, I always put them out. My use of color is much more limited. I have always used this palette, and have a degree of comfort with it. I do occasionally introduce new colors, or experiment with a color that is not part of my tradional palette.

Mediums are another thing that I do experiment with somewhat, but always seem to return to the Ralph Mayer's formula of (one part stand oil, one part damar and five parts oderless mineral spirits). That is my go to medium if am in doubt, but I do like to shake it up every now and then by trying something different. Usually the result is not decernable from one to the other. It satisfies my urges to step outside of that comfort zone. The solvent or brush cleaner during my painting process is oderless mineral spirits ( Gamsol, or Turpenoid).

I use bristle and sable/mongoose brushes of all sizes. One has to experiment and play around with brushes to find what they are comfortable with, and what will make the statement they are intending to make. Some artists use only bristles to apply oil, and that is fine. I feel that for me personally, since introducing soft brushes some years ago, I found that contrary to some popular belief, one can doposite as much or possibly more paint with one of the sable/mongoose type brushes as they can with the Bristle brushes. Again this has to be a personal choice. No one can make that choice for someone else.

My palette is laid out from left to right as follows: Titanium White, Cad Yellow Pale, Cad Yellow or Cad Yellow medium, Cad Yellow Deep, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Cad Red, Permanent Alixarin Crimson, Terra Rosa and or Indian Red, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue Deep, Cerulean Blue (optional or sometimes), Viridian, Paynes Grey.

This is the way I set things up for myself. It is not the only way, or necessarily the best way. There are many ways to achieve the same result. You might want to try it and possibly tweak it to suit yourself. Anyway, there it is and hopefully it with be of help, and useful to someone.

"Big Boy" and "Big Birch", Small studies with big names.

This is "Big Boy", a carriage horse that I saw this summer on my Maine trip. This is small head study. I did a small painting of the horse and carriage, but I think this might be worth attempting a large head portrait of this big guy. He has a great looking head.

"Big Birch" is a place in one of the many Maine parks near the coast. If one continued walking through these trees, one would end up in the Atlantic Ocean.

Ringling Painting Class demos-Thursday Sept 1st

I tried counting the visible brushstrokes in this head demo, and I lost count somewhere over a hundred. It would be interesting to intentionally see how few brush strokes it might take to do a comprehensive head study. That was not my intention here. That might be worth attempting some time.

These two 12x16 demos were done in my two and half hour Figure painting class at Ringling College of Art and Design Last Thursday. The exercise was to show a couple of different approaches to achieving the same result, by beginning in a different way. These are very quick, with probably more talking than painting. These are certainly not complete, but posted because they might be of interest to someone.