Susan Downing-White: Oil Painting Workshops
  • Workshops
  • Class Information
    • Landscape Supply List no.1
    • Landscape Supply List no.2
    • Underpainting (Indirect method #1)
    • Glazing & Scumbling (Indirect method no.1)
    • 1st handout: recipes, etc.
    • 2nd handout: glazing & scumbling
    • 3rd handout: underpainting method #2
    • 4th handout
    • Tips: taking landscape photos
    • Tips: taking pet photographs
    • Handcolor a Digital Print on Inkjet Canvas
    • Notes: Photoshop for Painters, Mobile Museum talk
    • Reference: Useful Books
    • Reassurance: For Beginning Painters
    • Supplies: Handcoloring on inkjet canvas
  • Susan's Blog
  • Contact/Galleries/Links
    • Contact/Galleries/Links
    • Cole Pratt Gallery
    • Susan Downing-White: Gulf Coast Paintings
    • Cloud Appreciation Society
    • American Artist article
    • Google Art Project

Be Vigorous:  Stand to Paint

1/14/2019

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Howard Pyle, influential artist/teacher/illustrator was the subject of a recent Robert Genn letter. I especially like his list of advice to students. One that particularly stood out, maybe because it’s the hardest to persuade my students to do is “stand to paint.”

​It’s good advice for several reasons. It’s important to be able to easily step back from the easel, to take in what you’ve been doing from a distance. Sitting makes this long view less likely. If you have to sit, a rolling armless stool is a good idea.

Sitting encourages a kind of torpor that leads to things like not restocking colors on the palette and unconsciously doing little workarounds that may not benefit the work.

It’s hard to get the whole body into the work while sitting. If this is you, it’s best to stick to small canvases that can be seen at a glance, perhaps 8x10 or less. Larger canvases suffer from too close a working distance. It’s why oil brushes have long handles. The brush plus an outstretched arm gives a freedom of movement to the stroke plus an intermediate viewing distance.

Sitting and working closely also encourages a tighter finish to a painting, especially if the reference material is also close. The magic of seeing the painting resolved from a distance, then enjoying a closer view of all the individual brushstrokes—the artists characteristic handwriting—can be lost.

I understand that some may need to sit due to physical limitations. For them I advise setting a timer to step away at intervals. An armless rolling stool to avoid constraining the arm movement and brushstrokes is helpful and also encourages good posture, important to avoiding back troubles.  Here’s an article that helped me with this: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/08/13/636025077/to-fix-that-pain-in-your-back-you-might-have-to-change-the-way-you-

A drawing table setup instead of a regular easel may help too, to avoid an uncomfortable arm extension for those with shoulder issues.

Finally, I do sit to paint, particularly at the end of a painting, to paint foreground details. It helps me slow down and control those last few brushstrokes better. I set my timer, sit up straight, make use of that long brush handle, and kick my stool back periodically to take it all in. But stand whenever you can. Be vigorous!


​Here’s a link to the Robert Genn letter: Here’s a link to the Robert Genn letter: http://painterskeys.com/howard-pyle-2/
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Lavender in the Studio

9/24/2018

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I've long been on a quest to reduce my exposure to toxic ingredients in art materials I use in the studio. After donning vinyl gloves, the next step of my morning ritual is massaging a bit of walnut oil into my brushes. It not only keeps the bristles nice and pliable but also creates a barrier to getting paint imbedded deep in the bristles.

The most recent miracle substance I've discovered, however, is spike oil of lavender. It's nothing new to the old masters of painting--just new to me these past two years. Lavender oil is wonderful for brushing your first veil of paint on a canvas. The volatile oils evaporate quickly, leaving a wonderfully receptive surface that grabs a brushstroke, while also providing enough emollient film to allow the paint to glide. It's a sensual pleasure, and in a solitary studio, I savor these small pleasures. 

Spike oil of lavender may also be used to clean brushes, but to a working artist like me, it comes at too dear a price for such uses. For that, I work out the day's paint with Goop, a waterless hand cleaner I get at the auto parts store. Don't get the kind with pumice, though--that's hard on expensive brushes.

Besides the initial sweep of lavender to tone my canvas, I like to make a medium of one-third parts of walnut oil to two-thirds lavender. When I need a quicker drying paint, I add some Griffin Alkyd White to my paint mixture and a dot of this medium. For a longer drying window, use your regular white of choice to the medium. 
​Here's a link to my favorite supplier and some commentary from other artists:  ​
.arttreehouse.com/artstore/product/oil-of-spike-lavender-painting-medium/

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Up in the Treetops

9/22/2018

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I've been in my newest studio almost a year--this airy third floor space in a former classroom at Central Presbyterian Church. I'm one of fifteen artists counting ourselves lucky to be in this active, creative community. 
Getting settled in a new space takes time and experimentation. I've been busy adding casters and coats of white paint to every piece of furniture that could accommodate them and exploring the many uses for seamless painter's drop cloths. So far, I have made curtains, a folding screen, upholstery, and storage closet doors from this inexpensive sturdy fabric. 
My next door studio neighbor is an art quilter named Nancy Goodman. www.etsy.com/shop/NancyGoodmanQuilts
She's here most every day, all day, and it's such a great boost knowing there's somebody on the other side of the wall, producing work, contending with this solitary pursuit, and managing a household. 
It's Saturday, Bill is crewing on a friend’s sailboat, and I'm preparing a mailing for an upcoming workshop. Downstairs, there's a market going on every week till the end of the month. I bought some okra and tomatoes for tonight's dinner.
​Today, I feel like life is a little closer to manageable.

ps. The workshop details can be found here: 
https://www.susandowningwhite.com/workshops/fall-skies-workshop-october-15-amp-16-2018


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Perfect studio blues

1/21/2015

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The new studio is great: high ceilings, a huge wall of north facing windows and space enough for areas to paint, relax, stretch canvases, make tea, and do office tasks. The floor is spattered from previous tenants’ art-making, so there’s no need to worry about damage. The floor is also smooth, a necessity for someone who puts casters on nearly everything. It’s a big improvement over the large tiles in my last work space. Bump, bump, bump.  

And yet...there are days when I drag myself in to this perfect studio, fiddle with photos endlessly, and do whatever I can to postpone getting down to work. Mama told me there’d be days like these?  Well, no she didn’t and it wasn’t addressed in school either. How to find the door that opens to the garden of painterly 
bliss--everyday.

I have a library of books on the subject. My current favorite is Art & Fear. I used to buy books as if the buying and reading alone will solve the problem. I don’t anymore because I have so many I can re-read my library and it’s all new.

But there have been days when I was up against the wall with a deadline, painting twelve hour days, and cross when it was time to quit. That golden carrot is what keeps me sticking with it, year after year. And those days only happen when I show up, squeeze some paint on my palette, and start making raspy strokes on a drum tight canvas.

I hate taking the advice I give my students.



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The studio is bare of paintings, but the evidence of work is splattered on its walls...

4/4/2014

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Runny trails of gold ochre and venetian red trail down the walls like evidence of an art crime. The glass palette and brushes are clean. Three hours till the reception. Woodrow & Ziggy are piled up on their cot, resting before their afternoon walk. Three hours till the reception. Nap? 
 I have a list:  'after the show is hung' a full five cars' worth of squeaky wheels. Nap is sounding better all the time. Clouds are piling up and rain threatens. Three hours till the reception.




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Last details...

3/31/2014

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As I loaded my paintings into the car this morning, I noticed three of them are not yet signed! One of the paintings will be delivered late, but in time for the reception, because I measured wrong and its frame didn't fit! Ashland Gallery is rushing as I type to bail me out and get another one ready.

But the paintings are safe at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, and I am back in the empty studio looking at the wreckage of a hurried last week. Here's a detail of Riviere du Chein, oil on canvas, 36"  x 36". I just added a congregation of birds and a lone figure in a kayak last Friday. They're not the stars of the painting, just a little reward to the close viewer. This one is available as a giclee at Ashland Gallery or on my website: www.susandowningwhite.com


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Ten days...

3/20/2014

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Artist's Statement overdue. Desire to say something profound, to finish the paintings and then see what thread holds them together, stalls me. Experience has taught me to slow way down, clean the palette, sweep the floor when I feel the urge to rush. “Meanders” is the name I've given the work. Related to the course of a waterway in specific, it also betrays my own way of getting things done.

Perhaps there will be twenty one paintings, or maybe one less, if Cristin at the New Orleans gallery sends one off to Santa Barbara. I've been photographing the paintings as a way of getting perspective on surfaces I've been staring at too long. Doing this, I see awkward passages, places where more focus or contrast would be good. I dread seeing Mickey Mouse in a cloud–this also prevents that.

Sometimes I know exactly what I'm after, but other times I do truly meander.


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Three Weeks and Counting...

3/13/2014

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Getting ready for a show feels like running a marathon of sorts--the kind that goes on for a year or more. Dread of starting causes me to tinker too long in Photoshop, dawdle over reference photographs, or maybe take a scalpel and clean dried paint from the caps of little used tubes of paint. I may even resort to plein air painting! This is because I'm still looking for the thread that will lead me to an idea--a hint--of what I want the new paintings to say. Sometimes, however, it's best to just get started: putting down an imprimatura, taping off a horizon, squeezing out some beautiful color. 
Do these things, come to the easel, inspiration will follow.

These last painting, framing and varnishing days of March find me staying 'on task' as the teachers say, by listening to recorded books, podcasts and new music on Spotify as I paint. 

The slight roughness of a new canvas weave has gotten me excited, painting geek that I am. Thank you Conroy Hudlow (http://www.conroyhudlow.com) for that suggestion. One day, I'll paint a series of interior paintings, as you also requested.

Words teased me awake early this morning, with a faint memory of a quotation promising me the door to getting the show's artist statement written. I didn't find the quote, but spent a couple of hours reading yet again, An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. Later I take a walk in the woods with my dogs. A meditative, long yoga session tonight after working. Like the paintings, the words too will come. 

The show is scheduled for April 2014 at Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, 401 Oak St, Fairhope, AL 36532. http://www.esartcenter.com/. The First Friday Artwalk is April 4th, and there will be a reception that evening from 6-8 p.m. Everyone is invited!

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Behind the Easel: a bit about portraits in process

4/29/2013

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PictureDrawing for portrait of Samantha, collection of the artist.
     The way I begin a portrait is to have a conversation and later take some photographs. Back at the studio, I create a folder on my computer with all the photos and live with them awhile. This is helpful, especially if I’ve just met the subject of my painting. I notice gestures, tilts of the head, elusive expressions repeated. This is where photography is a great assist to my regular powers of observation, which sometimes are distracted by technical details of photography like lighting, cords and maybe just a bit of shyness.

      In time, I start to see which photos seem most characteristic and drag these into a working folder. I may need another sitting if, say, the hands could be better arranged, or if we need a costume change. But soon I’m ready to attempt a drawing of pencil and white chalk on grey paper that describes the facial expression I’d like to capture. After this, I make an sketch to show how my impression of a unique personality might translate into oil paint on canvas.

      I began this practice after my third portrait as a professional, in the late 80s. This portrait was successful with the young girl’s parents only after my third try! The first two versions are included in the show at The Artist's Place, _with a photo of the final painting. It’s nice to have them as souvenirs, but clearly I needed to find a more efficient way! 

     Another early portrait was declared by all to be a very good likeness, but lacked the impish spark the parents associated with their five year old son. Yet another reason to take time to prepare previews!

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Samantha Ray, oil on canvas, collection of Diana & Eddie Shaw. The Shaws won the portrait raffle in 2010.
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Teaching painting the way I wish I'd been taught...

4/18/2013

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     Last weekend I told my class about many years ago when I watched my son learn to play piano with the Suzuki method. His teacher demonstrated the way Gus should strike the keys, hold his wrist...I took notes and heard about his 'errors' the next week as if they were my own...there were recordings to listen to..the famous "Twinkles" to play in the car, while brushing teeth...till I was ready to go mad with all the Twinkle variations...and yet...

What if painting had been taught this way when I was a child...or even as an adult?  What wonderful paintings would I be making right now? In college, we were told to be original and competent without any clue how to get there...

Not getting everything the first time round is a gift, I've decided. We think more, feel more for the loss...and yet, 
God bless the child that's got his own...http://www.susandowningwhiteclasses.com/


"Holding back is so close to stealing." -Neil Young

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    About the Artist

    Susan Downing-White’s work has been featured in American Artist magazine and exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Mobile Museum of Art.

    Her work can be found in corporate, government and private collections. Her education includes a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in painting, and three years work in art conservation.

    A book on the creative uses of Photoshop in a traditional studio practice is in the works. Susan offers beginner-friendly workshops that explore painting about skies at different times of the day in landscape painting at locations around the gulf coast, and she welcomes invitations to travel and teach.

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