An ordinary artist shows you the things everybody can see. The egotistical artist shows you the things only he can see. But the great artist shows you things nobody ever saw before.
- Pablo Picasso
Failing is not a problem.
Not trying is a problem.
- Jay Maisel
 

 

Thursday, August 21, 2008

“Painting a Day” Blogs (Round 7)

Posted by Charley Parker at 12:45 pm

Duane KeiserI’ve been reporting on the “Painting a Day” phenomenon since well before it was a phenomenon, since my initial 2005 post on Duane Keiser (left); who originated the practice in its commonly understood form of painting one small painting each day and posting it on a blog, usually also offering it for sale.

The demands of the practice frequently encourage artists to paint small still life subjects of objects close at hand, fruit, china, painting supplies and so on, but a number of painters focus more on landscape and painting en plein air, so I’ll concentrate on some of those for this round. These painters usually work a little larger than the daily painters who focus on still life, roughly 8×10″ (20×25cm) instead of 6×8″ (15×20cm).

Though Keiser largely concentrates on still life, he does paint landscape, and I like to mention him in these posts.

Here are some other daily painters who concentrate more on landscape than on still life.

 

John K. HarrellJohn K. Harrell is a Denver based painter. His subjects include the Colorado countryside, as well as paintings from his travels in the U.S. and Europe. Harrell has a nice economy of notation, in which impressionist handling is used for areas like foliage and textured surfaces where broken color is most effective; but like the American Impressionist painters from the turn of the last century he has not locked himself into rendering everything with short strokes, allowing larger areas of color to predominate when appropriate.

While most daily painters work in oil, Harrell works in acrylic and occasionally pastel. He seems to be using thickened acrylics, though, as they have a feeling of surface texture and brush strokes. Harrell also is a participant in the Daily Impressionist Painters group blog and has a dedicated web site that features his larger and more finished work.

 

Christopher GrecoChristopher Greco is a daily painter who paints primarily en plein air. His loose, painterly handling of landscape subjects is particularly effective, I think, in his paintings of small creeks and streams.

He also paints landscapes with structures in them, like houses, barns, garages and storefronts, where his succinct brushwork defines their forms in a series of brief strokes. Greco makes a point of saying that he doesn’t “edit” his work, in that every painting is posted, so that we see his daily progress as he experiments and grows as a painter.

 

Edward B. GordonEdward B. Gordon is a painter from Germany and has been practicing the painting a day regimen for longer than most, since November of 2006, and credits Duane Keiser with his impetus to begin the practice. He posts small paintings of a variety of subjects including figures, landscapes and still life.

He has a nicely angular approach to brushwork, laying in individual brush strokes that serve to define a plane. Unfortunately, his posted images are a bit small, leaving me wishing there were lager versions in addition, though he does occasionally post detail images of some of them.

Note: he has some kind of Flash map/comment widget running in his sidebar that my copy of Safari momentarily choked on. Your milage may vary.

 

George CollGeorge Coll lives in Colorado and his daily paintings are of the mountainous landscape surrounding him. Coll treks from his two acre property out into the back country with with 2 pack llamas carrying his supplies (now that’s different). His location paintings are often in the muted tones of daylight softened by the shadows of the mountains, accented with brilliant light on distant peaks.

He also paints figures and town scenes and his blog will occasionally feature images of his larger works, done in the studio from his location sketches. Coll also has a web site that showcases his larger finished work.

 

Candy BarrCandy Barr is a painter from Vermont who frequently paints landscapes. Her paintings are sometimes very straightforward in their color palette and at other times “pushed” into brighter, almost expressionistic color.

She also has a web site on which you will find her larger pantings. Of particular interest are her “floaters“, images of nude figures floating in water.

 
Posted in: Painting a Day   |  

7 comments for “Painting a Day” Blogs (Round 7) »

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. Comment by Candy Barr
    Thursday, August 21, 2008 @ 2:17 pm

    Thank you Charley for the Hat Tip! It’s an honor to be on the list of mentionables in your Daily Painters Blogs.

  2. Comment by Katherine Tyrrell
    Friday, August 22, 2008 @ 4:29 am

    Great to see you highlighting the plein air daily painters Charley - some of whom I’d not come across before.

    I like George’s technique and anybody who’s got a llama called Cardamom has got to be OK!

    I’ll be linking to this post in my weekly round-up post on Sunday.

  3. Comment by Matthew
    Sunday, August 24, 2008 @ 10:50 am

    So when you say small paintings, what does that mean exactly? The ‘painting a day’ idea is so intriguing to me. I’m not gonna lit to you, Mr. Gordon’s work is what drew my attention more than the others.

  4. Comment by Charley Parker
    Sunday, August 24, 2008 @ 2:52 pm

    Moat of the “painting a day” painters paint at “postcard size” or similar sizes, like 6×8″.

  5. Comment by Ambera
    Monday, August 25, 2008 @ 8:46 am

    Christopher Greco….wow.

  6. Comment by chris greco
    Monday, August 25, 2008 @ 6:31 pm

    We do what we do and hope that someone notices, and every once in awhile someone does.
    What an absolute thrill to be mentioned here.

  7. Comment by Mary Sheehan Winn
    Friday, November 14, 2008 @ 8:41 pm

    Just came to this page doing a search for Edward B Gordon, one of my favorite Daily Painters.
    I like your site.

Leave a comment

(required)

(required but not published)

 

News:

Exhibition list updated November 11 (lower in this column)


For best results, click on article title first, then translate.

Please note that display ads for lines and colors are limited to art related topics and may not be animated.
Exhibitions
Drawing, Illustration and Comics
Updated 11/11/08
Double Lives: American Painters as Illustrators, 1850-1950
Sept 6 - Nov 23, 2008
Brandywine River Museum, DE
The Totoro Forest Project
Sep 20, 2008 - Feb 8, 2009
Cartoon Art Museum San Francisco, CA
A Light TOuch: Exploring Humor in Drawing
Sep 23 - Dec 7, 2008
The Getty Center, CA
New Acquisitions
Oct 7 - Dec 31, 2008
Society of Illustrators, NY
Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Oct 20, 2008 - Jan 11, 2009
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Giles: One of the Family
Nov 5, 2008 - Feb 15, 2009
The Cartoon Museum, London, UK
Over the Top: American Posters from World War I
Nov 8, 2008 - Jan 25, 2009
Norman Rockwell Museum, MA
Leonardo da Vinci: Drawings from the Biblioteca Reale in Turin
Nov 15, 2008 - Jan 4, 2009
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, CA
Frank E. Schoonover: An Artist for All Seasons
Nov 22, 2008 - Jan 11, 2009
Delaware Art Museum, DE


Donate Life

The Gift of a Lifetime