We all hate making mistakes, but they will happen in every painting. It doesn’t matter how skilled you are. There will always be a color you get slightly wrong, an edge you mess up or something which just looks wrong. But there is a way of painting so that your mistakes work for you, rather than against you. Let … Read more
Rocks and cliffs form a key part of landscape painting, but many people seem to struggle with painting them. This is probably due to the organic and irregular shapes they come in, combined with a lack of understanding about light and shadow. In this post, I walk you through how to paint rocks and cliffs, … Read more
In this post, I will be taking a look at several master winter landscape paintings. Sadly, I don’t get much of a chance to paint snowy, winter landscapes. There is not much snow in Australia as you would expect. But next time I travel to the snow, I will draw inspiration from the master paintings … Read more
In this post, I will be taking a closer look at “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh, which he painted in 1889. With swirling lines and dramatic colors, this dreamy depiction is one of van Gogh’s most iconic works. “I don’t know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.” Vincent van Gogh … Read more
Alla prima refers to a direct painting approach where paint is applied wet on wet without letting earlier layers dry. In Italian, the term alla prima means “at first attempt”. Paintings created in this approach are usually completed within a single session. This made it popular with the Impressionists, as they were able to more … Read more
I recently returned from a beautiful getaway at Crystal Creek in New South Wales, Australia. My partner and I stayed in a villa nestled within the forest. I used this as an opportunity to do some forest painting on location from the balcony of our villa. I usually paint from a studio, so this was … Read more
In this post, I will be taking a deeper look into one of my favorite artists, Claude Monet. Monet and many of the other great Impressionists have been instrumental to my own development as an artist, particularly in relation to color and brushwork. Like many other aspiring artists, when I started painting I was fascinated … Read more
Simplification in art involves taking the complex details which we see all around us and simplifying it into a story, or a work of art. With every painting I create, I look for different ways to simplify what I am trying to say. In this post, I discuss some of the different ways you can … Read more
If you are not familiar with TED Talks, it is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks by influential speakers. There are over 3,000 TED talks and some are of course better than others. In this post, I feature some interesting TED talks that I feel are relevant … Read more
“…we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.” Whilst I was painting the other day, I noticed a particular habit that I have developed. Every time I went to scruff up an area, I would do this pattern of two long strokes and a short dab. It seems … Read more
When I ask readers what they are struggling with most in painting, one of the most common replies is a struggle to paint looser and more relaxed. This is a common problem in painting. We tend to overthink and overcomplicate things. The end result is usually a tight and overly refined painting (which is fine if … Read more
Early in your painting journey, you need to decide what kind of artist you want to be. The artist’s artist, or the critic’s artist. The artist’s artist lives to impress and inspire other artists. They do not care for the opinions of self-appointed critics and gallery owners. They do not care about art trends or society’s fickle … Read more