Blog Archive

If it bleeds, it leads. — Newspaper adage I HAVE bad news–everything you’ve learned about how to become a successful…

Your art reflects the energy level you had when you painted it. “Everything requires Time. Time is the only permanent and…

I was thrilled to get several messages from Australia saying several thick paint enthusiasts will be joining us for the…

MY BIRTHDAY FALLS NEAR THANKSGIVING and my favorite gift is an art book. This year I received Leconte Stewart Masterworks. Leconte was…

I WAS RECENTLY READING a book about the landscapes of Gustav Klimt. I was intrigued to discover that he often used a…

LATELY I’VE BEEN painting en plein air with the palette knife. I don’t use the palette knife for the entire…

I‘VE USED THE EXPRESSION paint with paint many times in this blog. What I mean is the paint brush should…

I was thrilled that Google recently made universal translation available for blogs. I immediately added the button to my site. You can…

IN THIS VIDEO I explain in more detail how the Riley Method works. Although I’m using it here in reference…

I WOULD PREFER TO PAINT all my paintings from life or from sketches painted from life. However, this often just…

THERE IS A DANGER of representing the overly familiar as symbols rather than reality. As a time saving mechanism the…

I have been so obsessed with the act of applying thick paint that I’ve forgotten to mention that nearly all of…

It was a lot of fun oiling up the acrylic painting in the field. I thought it might be useful if I…

I USED ACRYLIC retarding gel as an “oiling up” medium in the studio with great success. So I wanted to…

ADJUSTING COLOR can be tricky but if you understand three aspects of color; hue, value, and saturation, it can make things…

I USE THIS grayscale in the field and in the studio. If you use it outdoors be sure that the…

IN THIS VIDEO I paint a small acrylic in half an hour. The paint started to dry at about 20…

IF YOU NEED an inexpensive solution to painting outdoors with acrylic I demonstrate how I made my pochade box (a…

THERE ARE A LOT OF MYTHS surrounding the creation of art. These myths do little to help students of painting…

I REALLY APPRECIATE all the people who sent links to find a replacement for my old, worn out chapeau. I…

I WANTED TO EXPAND AND ADD to the ideas I advance on this blog and thought making an iBook would…

IN THIS VIDEO I finish up my painting that is painted with thick, multihued acrylic strokes. I failed to elaborate…

IN THIS VIDEO I paint a 16″ x 20″ acrylic  painting using thick strokes of broken color. I also allow the paint…

IN THE PAST YEAR digital publishing has evolved considerably. A digital book about thick paint could be extremely interesting. Imagine…

I’m making an exception to my No Blogging Until March 2012 rule because a friend sent me this great web site….

AS I MENTIONED in my last blog I will be taking a break until March 2012. This will give me…

THE PLEIN AIR movement has been good for painters and landscape painting. It sparked a renaissance in the art of…

THIS video completes my experiment oiling up the canvas with a cold wax and oil medium. Specifically I used Gamblin’s…

AFTER dabbling in encaustics I’ve been intrigued with wax lately and decided to try adding it to a couch on…

RECENTLY I purchased a set of encaustic paints. I was always somewhat intimidated by the medium, which I viewed as…

IN this video I paint a 30″ x 30″ painting alla prima, meaning I paint directly onto the canvas without going…

It has been over a year that I have experimented with putty, the little known medium for adding body to paint….

FORGETTING to make painting fun is another way to create a mental block. This often happens when artists press too…

OCCASIONALLY I get a mental block and find it difficult to paint. Sometimes this will be caused by attempting a painting…

IN recent entries I have mentioned using a new palette of colors to achieve more vibrant greens. In this video…

Door County was so beautiful I couldn’t resist putting together another video. I once again demonstrate doing a sketch, and…

PERIODS of intense painting can be extremely productive in advancing painting ability which make plein air festivals, like the one…

MY wife and I recently returned from a plein air festival in Door County, Wisconsin. We had a wonderful time. The…

LIKE an athlete preparing for a major marathon I have been getting ready for the plein air festival on the…

Painting in the field can be a daunting experience. I purposely made this experience easier by keeping my paint application…

MANY painters avoid the use of black and prohibit it from the palettes of their students. Theoretically there is nothing…

THIS video shows how I apply really thick paint over a previously dry layer. I also add some glazing and…

THIS is a two minute video of highlights from a show Debra and I recently had at the Frank Prince…

ALTHOUGH I am primarily self-taught I have been privileged to take workshops from several excellent painters. But it has always…

I first met Edward Martinez in the summer of 2006 at an artists residency at Forbes Trinchera Ranch hosted by…

IN this video I review the necessary equipment to paint in the field. I detail the paints I use and…

I was invited one summer to an artist residency at the Maynard Dixon studio in Mt. Carmel, Utah. It is…

In this video I add light molding paste from Golden Acrylics to my colors. I also add some Golden Open acrylics…

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to attend the Door County Plein Air Festival 2010. I was pleased,…

In this series of videos I explain how to scumble, glaze, and use dry brush effects.

… THERE are few things as disconcerting as arriving at a painting destination and forgetting critical supplies. A trip to…

IT has been a long winter and here in Utah it isn’t over yet. It snowed eight inches yesterday. I…

Here is a video about adding texture with acrylics and glazing the resulting texture.

…. IN athletics cross training is used to include a broader range of muscles exercised so the athlete doesn’t develop…

… TWO months ago I posted a survey at the bottom of the blog posing the question what is your…

This video explains the importance of edges. Edges direct the eye through the composition as well as other critical purposes.

Do you have trouble applying the various theories of composition? Take a look at this video to help clarify what it is all about.

… I’VE been intrigued with the idea that paint is paint and the only thing that distinguishes oils from acrylics…

…. Go to any museum or gallery and count how many paintings are based on the compositional law of thirds,…

…. A friend and I attended a recent landscape exhibit. Coincidentally my friend introduced the idea that a painting should…

Getting thick strokes of paint to dry can be a challenge. This video shows several ways to do it. Please note that cobalt…

SINCE I paint alla prima I usually let my paint dry naturally without any additives. More often I will add…

https://youtu.be/TjQhVpQYfU8Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Advanced underpainting 1 of 5 (https://youtu.be/TjQhVpQYfU8)

THERE are very few things I like to paint more than trees. There is something just as mysterious and inviting…

THE final video about making a preparatory sketch.

… PAINTING can be a complicated process with many steps leading to a great painting. One important step for most…

…. SOME may wonder why I bother to use a full-color, full-value under painting. And the answer is I usually…

… THE color of light and the color of shadow relate to each other. If this relationship is off the…

What is meant by the phrase ‘oiling up the canvas”? I give a brief explanation here of how I add…

… IN the course of this blog I realized I have offered a lot of formulas and recipes for making…

ALTHOUGH I love thick painting one of the disadvantages is that once the paint is dry it is quite difficult…

… ALTHOUGH I love thick paint one of the disadvantages is that once the paint is dry it is quite…

OCCASIONALLY strength can be a weakness. For instance, sometimes we see too well and actually need something to simplify the amazing…

WHEN I load a brush I want to include as much variation as possible. This includes adding complementary color, variations…

AS I’ve become more adept at the technical aspects of applying paint I have become more and more concerned about…

In order to paint with spontaneity you have to do a lot of planning. Trying to inject spontaneity without proper…

.. One afternoon I was looking out a window and noticed a small speck of dirt on the glass. I…

There are lots of ways to load a brush. This is one way I have found to get lush strokes…

… ONE of the most critical aspects of thick painting, and the most mystifying, is loading the brush. Using thick…

A short video describing how I work with thick paint.

– FOR the last few years for at least once a month I browsed the internet for articles about Thick…

—AS MANY of you know, my wife, Debra Teare, passed away four years ago. For those who have experienced such…