It's Official! I'm now a "New Instructor at the Benson Center"

Just to let everyone know I'm now working for Fulton County as an Instructor at the Dorothy C. Benson Center in Sandy Springs. It's been a long wait, as the wheels of government never move quickly. It is the thing I've been hoping for though since September of last year.

I'll be teaching two days a week for now and in time probably more. Currently I have four classes I teach, two with the adult day care members which is a challenge for me but one I'm looking forward to. I've done some research on working with students who have Dementia and Early Onset Alzheimer's. Thus far I've found an Art Therapy that has shown encouraging results with people who suffer from these conditions. I'm applying for certification in the MMT program and hopeful of bringing some help to my students.

The other two classes are for members who a fully functional and they seem eager to learn what I have to offer. Currently I'm teaching an Oil Painting Class as well as Water Media. I'll be covering both a traditional approach as well as Alla-Prima method in my oil painting class. The Water Media class will cover all water based media including watercolor, acrylic, gouache and dyes. I'll be covering different experimental techniques to create depth and texture with these media as well as some basic illustration approaches which should give them a well rounded knowledge of all water based media.

So, when I'm not pushing paint around myself - I'll be teaching others to do so or thinking about how I'm going to teach them to push paint around. Doesn't sound bad to me!

I have a few current paintings to post for you to see and as always your comments are welcomed. I have several shows or events coming up soon so will be busy in the studio creating, finishing or cleaning up painting for display. So if you don't hear from me as often for the next several months, no worries, I'm just doing what I was put here to do. Call me, stop bye or just check in, I always have some time for a cup of coffee and some conversation.

Thanks
Chazz

"Pale Nude" Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas 11" X 14"
This is one of my favorite models these days. I find her flesh tones wonderful to paint. She reminds me of the figures of Valasques and the china white flesh tones he could achieve. This particular pose captures some of her quite personality and feels very much like her when I view it. It is a rather pale painting for me though and I'm always tempted to get back in there and push some of the colors. To date I've resisted and if I follow my own advice will leave it alone. It stands on its own and is a true likeness, so nothing really needs to be satisfied in it.


"Black and White 1 " Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas, 11" X 14"
This is the first of a series of paintings I've started of these two very different appearing models. In fact though they are so much the same energy and complement each other wonderfully. They have been best friends for years and it shows in their comfortable and intimate way with each other. Once you've seen them together it's hard to think of them separately. My focus of this series is about the models of course but also about the whole experience of being an artists model. Therefore the background becomes a part of the story along with the participating artists.






Male figure sketches from the Marietta Cobb Museum Figure Sketch Night. It was a fun experience but limited to dry media. We wouldn't want to get paint on an Art Museums floors of wall, now would we!

In spite of the some what up tight attitude about keeping the spaces pristine, all who came had a good time. The models, a group of teen age boys seemed to enjoy themselves as well. I always liked the space of those rooms and had often thought 'what a great studio space they would make'. See, dreams do come true from time to time.


"Midtown Plein Air Study" Oil on canvas 9" X 12"
I couldn't resist stopping along Howell Mill Road at 14th street and painting this little cityscape. It's not my usual choice of subjects but I've looked at this view for sometime now and it's just one of those places that caught my eye.




"Take 5" Oil on gallery wrapped canvas, 9" X 12"
This is a figure study accomplished in about 2 hours at the AAC Monday Figure Sketch Group. It is loser and freer than most of my oil sketches and more suggestive of the model which is a direction I've been encouraged to go in. I was very pleased with the results and liked the thicker more direct layers of paint I laid down. It hovers somewhere between representational and abstract which I feel works well with the subject matter. What do you think? Comments are always welcomed.



"India Amey" Oil on wood panel, 11" X 14"
Painted at the Atlanta Artists Center. This is a fairly typical figure study in oil. It was painted in approximately 2 hours during the Monday morning figure group. I liked the sketchy felling of this painting and the way the paint laid down on this wooden panel. The piece is currently hung at the Atlanta Artists Center as one of the featured paintings in their Dogwood Show.





" In search of the golden fleece" Oil on Linen Panel 9" X 12"
This small landscape was started as a demo in a class of mine. It's on a linen panel I made and painted in thick oil paint. It was a very fun painting to create and I was happy with the results of the layering of color over color. This is the effect I'd like to get in the rest of my work but requires a longer time and material commitment than I've been willing of able to incorporate in my larger body of work to date.

My alla-prima technique

"Tea for Two" is the latest in my painting a day series and was completed in about 4 hours total. It would have moved faster but for the fact that I photographed it at key points so I

could demonstrate my approach to alla-prima painting.  I've taught this direct approach over the years and found it very successful with beginning and intermediate students. I'll cover each step and convey the primary concerns of the painting at the point viewed. If you should have any question please leave a comment or email me from this blog page. I'll be happy to address anything that seems unclear.

The set up is critical, you have to balance the need for light to paint in verses dramatic lighting on the subject. To light the subject a single light source is best and will give you the deep shadows and extreme lights that are so exciting in classical paintings. I darken the room and only use two lights, a spotlight for the subject and a studio spot lamp I place behind me to act as a fill light to softly light the canvas. In this case it was placed behind me to the left so it wouldn't create any strange extra shadows or reflected lights in the subject.

This is the stage where everything will go wrong quickly if you don't take your time and think about what your doing. You are not trying to draw the objects at this point as much as you are

setting up the size and position relationships between the objects. To do this, take the time to measure and compare the size of each of the objects before you place your first stroke. If you have a cropping window use it to see the composition and figure out the placement of the objects on the canvas. In this case I chose to crop tightly on the objects because of the complexity of the Tea Set. If I had wanted to keep them simpler I could have pulled back and avoided painting much of the pattern on the ceramic pieces. The tight crop gave me a more intimate feeling which is a key part to the painting. The narrative for this piece could be about the quite relationships we have with those who are closest to us or the longing for that type of intimacy. It becomes the viewers story and you can make what you will of it which is important but for now we will stick to the technical aspect of creating it and discuss the esoteric values of painting later. 

Now that the composition and placement are set the next step would be to brake the components down into what is in shadow and what is in light. I have made some very basic statements here with an attempt at being sensitive to the value range and colors in the shadow areas of the subject.

Next I began to address the light side with the same broad general approach. Please note that I didn't try to paint around the pattern that will later appear in the painting. I simply looked for those areas of light and shadow and attempted to keep the value ranges separate. I also looked for some opportunities to begin to soften the shadows and place reflected lights in them such as on the lemon. It began to take on some form at this point and felt a little more credible.

Still working in the shadow areas I began to place the pattern on the ceramic piece in the back and the shadow side of the tea pot. I also continued to work on the modeling of the lemon.

I have continued into the light areas now bringing the pattern of the ceramics across into the light and adjusting my colors accordingly. I've also began to adjust the value and temperature of the lit surfaces.

 

This is fairly complete at this stage and in looking at it I was unhappy with the contrast between the teapot and other ceramic piece. It's always good to walk away from a painting at this stage and come back 15 or 20 minutes later to re-evaluate it. My final decision was to push the contrast and look for opportunities to add a little more color to make the piece sing.

After careful observation I noticed that the reflected lights on the shadow side of the tea pot were a yellow green and the deeper shadows had a violet or reddish cast to them. I also noticed more variation on the blue areas of the lit side of the pot. I pushed the piece to the back slightly darker to get the separation I was looking for. At this point I'm feeling the piece was a success. Give me another day or two and the flaws will appear. 

Don't worry, this is normal!