Fall in the Tidal Basin

November 9, 2015, 7:35 pm

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I had a great time painting in the Tidal Basin yesterday. The fall weather was perfect with temps in the low 60’s. The paintings I did were small 9 x 12's 

The crowds were low compared to spring during the blossoms but for me the color was just as nice. It was easy to drive in and park near the Ohio Street Bridge and walk a few hundred yards to my first painting location.

It is a little past peak at the basin but the trees at the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting pool are still green. The mall was mixed with some trees completely denuded of leaves and some just turning.

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Art and Free Speech

November 16, 2015, 9:24 am

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I have been writing these articles for over ten years now and in that time I’ve rarely strayed from the narrow topic of the general nuts and bolts of art but with recent events taking place here in this country and around the world I feel compelled to speak out against what I see as an assault on free speech.

Art does not exist in a vacuum. To flourish it needs certain conditions and to my way of thinking the most important is the free exchange of ideas. Ideas that challenge our comfort zones and push our boundaries and even may offend us are an important part of what goes into making all forms of great art.

In this country free speech is being strangled on college campuses by individuals who only want a platform for their narrow worldviews. They have set themselves up as the overlords of all things right and good and in doing so have destroyed any chance for dialogue between opposing viewpoints. Surprisingly this is coming from the left side of the political spectrum instead of conservatives.

This goes against everything America was built on. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right even when it is distasteful or outright offensive. As an artist I am well acquainted with this kind of fascist control over what people can say or do or write or draw. In my career I have been blocked from showing my art because it had religious overtones, political commentary, nudity, violence or in some cases fantasy elements.  I abhor censorship as much when this comes from the left as I do when it comes from the right of the political spectrum.

Stifling free speech leads to an insular worldview and limited thinking which leads to extreme and sometimes violent intolerance of other viewpoints. Reports of students spitting on people listening to speakers they disagree with or locking out and threatening journalists trying to report on news events shows how far they have fallen from American values on our campuses.

Even more disturbing are the recent bombings around the world showing that democracies are being threatened by extreme fundamentalism. Attacks on musicians, writers, journalists and cartoonists some with murderous outcomes for the victims of the aggression, have been increasing around the globe. This type of attack goes against the core beliefs of a free democracy and capitulation to the aggressors is not the answer. No ideology, social or religious, should be exempt from criticism or outright ridicule by anyone in a free society.

Artists of all disciplines have always pushed society’s boundaries. They have always been the forefront of free thought. In my opinion the world is now a better place because of this, do not let a few extremists who fear progress and change alter that. 

Laurits Tuxen 1853-1927

November 22, 2015, 11:33 am

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Laurits Regner Tuxen was born in Copenhagen in 1853 His father was the director of the naval dockyards there and Laurits was fascinated with the sea from an early age.  He entered the Royal Academy in Copenhagen at age 14 and very quickly was recognized for his abilities and rose to the top of his class.

He wanted to be a Marine painter but was guided into figure painting because of his skill with portraits and became a successful court painter throughout Europe painting many pictures of royal families and weddings. There are twenty-seven paintings by Tuxen in the Royal Collection, Windsor. His work for the English court extended across the reigns of three monarchs: Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V.

 He started visiting the artists’ colony in Skagen around 1870.  He was good friends with the artists there, especially P. S. Kroyer and Michael Anchor. After the academy Laurits travelled to Paris and studied under Leon Bonnat at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. It was Bonnat that guided Laurits toward Naturalism.

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 After embracing this new style Laurits work became freer in handling, lighter in tone and more colorful in his palette. making him very successful with patrons around Europe.  He maintained a residence in Paris and was in great demand for over thirty years. 

Some of his more famous paintings during this time include the wedding of Tsar Nicholas II, The portrait of Queen Victoria, the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II,  The coronation of George V and The crowning of Queen Alexandra,

In 1880 he took a position as a professor at the school of artistic studies in Copenhagen. The school was founded to counteract the conservatism of the Royal Academy there and Tuxen was the first professor to introduce Naturalism to his students.

 In 1886 he married Ursule de Baisiex and the couple had three daughters. Tragically in 1899 his wife and oldest daughter died from tuberculosis. In 1901 Laurits remarried Frederikke Treschow and they built a home in Skagen and Laurits and his family became a permanent member of the artists’ colony there. He was instrumental in the foundation of the Skagen museum. In Skagen he finally pursued marine and genre painting of local scenes and family and friends. Laurits Tuxen Died in 1927.

Bibliography

The Painters of Skagen

Knud Voss (English Translation by Peter Shield)

Stok-Art Publishers 994

Pricing Your Work as an Artist Part 1

December 1, 2015, 8:41 am

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These ideas for pricing are for artists trying to make a living from their art. Pricing is irrelevant to people who work other jobs or don’t need the income. People make art for many reasons and not all of them want to make their living exclusively from their art.

Pricing is subjective let’s just admit that and get it out of the way. An artist’s price is very organic over a lifetime as styles and tastes change. It is the age old problem price too low forces the artist to churn work out and eventually that affects quality, price too high and you don't sell enough to be able to work and that affects output, which affects quality.

This may seem to make pricing harder but it shouldn’t. Just about everything bought and sold has a subjectively applied value to it. For every price point there are willing buyers if the perceived value of the object being sold matches the asking price in the collectors mind.

When artists start out they constantly question their pricing. I think when you start pricing should be simple; you should reimburse yourself for your materials and your effort. The pay for your effort should be based on skill compared to other jobs in the marketplace.

Personally, I think competent representational art takes more skill than being a waiter or sales clerk or barista. So the artist should price taking that into account. I think when you start out charging $15 to $20 an hour for your effort plus your expenses is not unreasonable. It gives you a base to not lose too much money as an artist. Once you have a base price you can then adjust it upward or downward to align with other work of similar caliber in the marketplace already.

As an artist you are building a brand. Your brand is important because it affects your price over your career. You establish price in an art market through awards and other established recognition like important commissions, magazine articles, inclusions in books and juried or museum shows. Markets are finicky and establishment in one doesn’t necessarily translate to another. The best way to get your brand going is to build on the quality of your work. While there are many styles and genres of art each one of them has a standard of excellence to aspire to.

The value of these achievements as an indicator of success depends on the fidelity to a measurable standard. In other words if any of these has too much nepotism or unfair judging going on the value as an indicator of success is worthless.

Pay to play magazines are a good example of this. Paying to be in a magazine doesn’t make you a good artist it just makes you one with a lot of disposable income. Using nepotism or cronyism to score work doesn’t really help your career in the long run, neither does copying living or dead masters and they eventually work against an artist over the life of their career.

You have to build a brand with everything working in tandem. Quality of work, customer satisfaction, a list of museum shows, awards, articles. One just can't buy their way to a pedigree. Your brand is more than just the quality of your art it’s the demand you are building for something (your work) that only you can provide. Price can be built over time with a history to make the case to collectors why they should pay an amount for something on top of material value and effort expended.

Pricing Your Work as an Artist Pt 2

December 6, 2015, 10:32 am

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Once an artist starts selling their work the next thing to do is expand your brand. Your brand is your business identity. As an artist you and your art are inextricably intertwined.  How you conduct your public business dealings is part of building your marketability as an artist. Clients aren’t just buying a piece of work from you; they are investing in you and your career.

You have to build a brand with everything working in tandem. Quality of work, customer satisfaction, a list of accomplishments like museum shows, awards, articles. One just can't buy their way to a pedigree. Your brand is more than just the quality of your art, it’s the demand you are building for something (your work) that only you can provide. Price can be built up over time with a history of artistic achievements to make the case to collectors why they should pay an amount over and above material value and effort expended. 

Raising your prices should be carefully considered. The rule of thumb is when you sell faster than you can comfortably produce its time to raise your prices. But there are other scenarios that shouldn’t be over looked. One is a good economy. In good economies it is important to build prices while you can and have them increase as peoples earnings increase because when the economy falters the price you are at is where the downward pressure of a bad economy will start to affect your sales. For people with too low of a price point the economy could force them out of the market altogether. A more established artist, with higher prices, could survive price corrections of a bad economy for a longer period of time. That time allows them to continue to work at what they love and to modify what they do in answer to new dynamics of the changing business landscape.

If you never raise your prices you will be buried under rising costs of materials and general inflation. An artist must raise their prices to survive as an artist. The old saying to make hay while the sun is shining goes double for the self-employed. As an artist one must constantly apply pressure to the economic forces around them. Another thing to consider is collectors want to see their investments grow. They are spending their hard earned money on you as an individual. They believe in your brand and nothing makes collectors happier than to see it grow over time.  While some may stop buying your work as your prices increase, they are still your advocates. They still want to see your brand succeed.

All of this means an artist can’t be too insular. Art is communication and finding the balance for a successful career should be on every self-employed artists mind as they work. Do you like to paint figure work? What can you do to make it more appealing to buyers and still satisfy your creative desire? How can you expand that interest into other similar genres to grow your client base and still satisfy you as an artist?

Some people choose to work and paint on the side and that’s fine. Doing that does limit your creative time but it’s better than starving and if you work on your art towards the goal of being an independent artist the steady income can help you get there. When I started out I worked non art jobs for 17 years before landing my first full time art job at LucasFilm Games at 35. I’m 60 now and have worked as an artist that whole time. Some of that time was for other people or a company as an illustrator, concept or production artist and some of it was as a gallery artist.

 The things that have helped me survive all this time are cultivating a broad interest in different genres and types of art and applying my own personal style to them, participating in prestigious shows, and building customer satisfaction with corporate clients, galleries and directly with collectors. Something worth considering if you are just starting your artistic career.

How Star Wars Changed my Life

December 13, 2015, 7:25 pm

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Armand Cabrera

The new star wars film is about to hit theaters in a few days. Like many fans of the franchise I will go see it and see if J.J. Abrams can make something filled with the same pathos and sense of wonder the first trilogy had. I hope he can.

I was 22 when Star Wars came out and like most people I loved the initial films. They created a sense of awe that was missing from most science fiction in those days. They brought humanity and spirituality to the genre in a way that resonated to my young self.

I did not know at that time that 13 years later I would end up becoming a professional artist and actually working at the LucasFilm Ranch in Marin County California on Star Wars products making art for some of the very early computer games in the franchise.

Starting in the mid 80’s I began working professionally illustrating the odd cover here and there for companies like Baen Books and St. Martin’s Press but not enough to quit my regular job. I was also showing my work at fantasy and science fiction conventions winning awards and selling originals, and painting landscape commissions for people but again not enough to make a living from it.

 LucasFilm launched my professional career as an artist. I was hired by them full time in 1990 and I worked on Star Wars for Nintendo, Super Nintendo and later on with Totally Games on the Xwing series for the PC. In those days at LucasFilm we were a small division and the artists had lots of responsibilities and creativity, there were only 15 of us when I started. Those games made up a large part of my work as a professional in the Entertainment industry. 

When I left LucasFilm Games had become the LucasArts Games Division and we had tripled the personnel.  I had no problem getting hired at other top game companies. The steady work over the next 12 years helped me build my abilities and allowed me to transition into galleries. The high output of those industry work deadlines, although frustrating at the time, helped my productivity level which sustains my art business to this day.

I will always be grateful to the people at LucasFilm who hired me to work for them in the games division and later Totally Games as a concept/background/production artist. The time I had at the LucasFilm Ranch, surrounded by all the other talented artists that I worked with, shaped me as an artist in every aspect and helped to have the successful career I have today.

Merry Christmas 2015

December 22, 2015, 8:46 am

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I would just like to wish everyone a great holiday season and thank everyone for their support and encouragement during 2015. These are some of my favorite paintings from past artists and illustrators

J.C. leyendecker

N.C. Wyeth

Arthur Rackham

Haddon Sundblom

Norman Rockwell

James Gurney’s Fantasy in the Wild

December 27, 2015, 8:20 am

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Fantasy in the Wild: Painting Concept Art on Location

 James Gurney

71 Minutes $14.95

Available for purchase as a HD video Download fromGumroad or as a DVD at Kunaki

Fantasy in the Wild: Painting Concept Art on Location is the third video from James Gurney’s “In the Wild” instructional series for onsite sketching. This time he shows us how to add fictional elements using props and imagination into two of his outdoor paintings. The results are a marvelous blend of the fantastic and everyday life. His previous videos in the series are “Gouache in the Wild” and “Watercolor in the Wild”. Both are still available from Gumroad or Sellfy or from James' Site.


I went for the download version and the checkout was simple and easy. The video and sound qualities are great and James is very personable while he explains his method, tools and materials.

The video contains his process for two different concept paintings in casein. It’s not just procedure though it’s also about concept and how to tease out ideas from places and things in the real world to make the fantasy aspects more believable. He talks about the benefits and challenges for an artist working in the wild, on location. There is a lot of information here. All of the material is presented conversationally in a straightforward way. 

James talks the viewer through every stage of development. You hear him talk about the backstory he invents as he visualizes each scene. We get to watch and listen while he creates pencil roughs, color studies, sketches from life of different elements and each of the final paintings on location.  As he paints he describes his story motivations, his reasons behind his choices for color, shapes, values and brush calligraphy. When he changes his mind about something we see how he corrects it to improve the statement of the particular painting

We also see his attitude about creating a painting. His excitement for his craft is contagious. His work ethic allows him to create whatever it takes to get the job finished to his satisfaction. James does this without worrying about how much work has already been done. This to me is very important. It is this professionalism combined with his high level of skill and drive that makes him the best at what he does and that information alone is worth the price of the video.

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Working from Memory and imagination

January 3, 2016, 1:02 pm

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In the book 40 illustrators and how They Work N. C. Wyeth says “Every Illustration or painting I have made in the last 30 years has been from the imagination or memory. However, I have constantly studied from the figure, from animals and from landscape, and have especially stressed the training of my memory. "

Another quote from 40 Illustrators and How They Work

"Wyeth, asked for an account of his technical procedure, gave me the following: This painting was made entirely from memory, which is my customary practice for creative painting."

The interview was from 1944 a year before Wyeth died which means all of his illustrations going back to 1914 were created this way. I take this to mean although he painted and drew from life; he did all of his illustrations without reference in that time frame. That would include Robin Hood and everything after that but not Kidnapped or Treasure Island.

In the book Three generations of Wyeths Andrew makes similar claims about N.C. so I have no reason to doubt it without proof to the contrary. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. During his lifetime, N. C. Wyeth created over 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books.

Some quotes by Andrew about his dad.

 "Pa was also a master of still life. I think he felt that he needed to work from life, and I can understand that. If you work all the time from your imagination as Pa did for his illustrations you think I got to go out and eat a good roast beef or something. You need to nourish yourself. Working completely from the imagination is very draining experience.

"When it came to illustrating pa had an amazing ability to do them without a model"

"Pa's animals are outstanding in his illustrations. He could do a horse on its back, flying through the air, or in any position you'd want." I asked him once "How did you learn to do a horse in so many positions without a model and make it really alive?" Well I'll tell you on the roundup I had the chance to cut up a horse that had died. I'll never forget the anatomy of a horse.”

Talking with other artists about this, it’s interesting that a lot of people can’t accept someone could work this way. That is not to say I believe he did everything completely from his imagination. Andrew even says N.C. used his children for difficult or tricky things like a foot here or hand there and had them pose so he could get a clearer image of his idea. He had an extensive collection of props and costumes that he kept for reference.  But that is still a different thing than a lot of today’s painters and their complete reliance on photographic mimicry. Where it is not enough to just refer to the reference but it must be slavishly adhered to at all cost even the success of the painting.  NC Wyeth had a completely unique style that has been often imitated but never surpassed I beleive the basis for that is in his imagination. 

Social media and Nudity in Art

January 17, 2016, 3:06 pm

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By Armand Cabrera

Artists are increasingly posting their work on social media. Some are finding that because of the  reach of the web their work is being censored. They way sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook apply their acceptable use/ guidelines are uneven leaving many artists confused and frustrated by the experience. The problems stem from these sites having many purposes for their users unlike dedicated artist hosting sites which can be much more flexible although with a smaller much more targeted user base.

As more and more artists and entrepreneurs are turning to self promotion and marketing, social media sites are finding themselves having to adjust and things that would have gotten banned just a few years ago can be completely acceptable now.

The internet offers a worldwide audience though, and something considered in good taste in one place could be found to be offensive in another. Content generators don’t really have control over who shares their posts even though they are responsible for the content of them. Violations can get the offender temporarily or permanently banned.

Artists recently hosted a Facebook Nudity Day protesting the random censorship of art on the site.  The site was flooded with all forms of artistic expression celebrating nudity. In my own feed I have seen people  reported and censored briefly for a post only to have FB reverse their decision upon inspection of the content in question.

If you are an artist how do you deal with the restrictions various social media place on your art? If you respond please do not include  links or images in your reply. That's how I am dealing with comments.

Vasily Vereshchagin

January 31, 2016, 9:41 pm

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By Armand Cabrera

Vereshchagin was born in Cherepovets, Russia in 1842. At 8 years old he was sent to naval cadet school. He made his first voyage at the age of 16. 

Vereshchagin graduated first in his class from Naval school  but left the service and joined the Saint Petersburg Academy to study drawing and painting. Two years later he won a medal and the next year travelled to Paris to study under Jean-Leon Gerome.

In 1867 he rejoined the service and received a medal for bravery at the siege of Samarkand. He returned to Paris in 1868 and Started an Atelier in Munich in 1871.

He continued to travel extensively through Asia from North Africa to India and the Philippines. Besides painting exotic cultures he also painted brutally realistic depictions of war and was onsite during many conflicts. His paintings were considered too real and banned from being published or exhibited in many countries of Europe and in his native Russia.

Vereshchagin was with Russian troops during the Russo Turkish War 1877-1878, The First Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895 and The Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

Eventually his depictions of the horrors of war brought him success and fame though his work continued to be controversial in certain circles.

He died during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 when the warship he was on struck two mines and sank, killing most of the crew, including Vereshchagin.

Bibliography

The Orientalists

Lynn Thornton

ACR Editions

Some Call It Kitsch

Masterpieces of Bourgeois Realism

Aleska Celebonovic

Abrams

Popular 19thCentury Painting

A Dictionary of European Genre Painters

Philip Hook and Mark Poltimore

Antique Collectors Club

Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions

February 7, 2016, 6:07 pm

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Armand Cabrera

I’ve decided to take the plunge and reenter the world of science fiction and fantasy conventions this year. I will be attending a local convention to show my art and participate as a guest.  The convention is RavenCon in Williamsburg VA and the dates are April 29-May 1 2016.

It’s been over twenty years since I was actively involved with science fiction and fantasy conventions. At one time I was attending ten or more of these events a year, showing in the art shows and participating as a guest or sometimes an artist guest of honor while working a full time job and working part time as an Illustrator.

Those early years my work was different in that I didn’t work outside from life as much as I do now. Part of my enjoyment creating this kind of work now is that I can marry the two disciplines together in much the same way the 19^th century genre and narrative painters did. 

My recent successes with Illuxcon over the past few years and my sales at the World Fantasy Convention in Washington D.C. in 2014 have helped my decision to branch out to other local imaginative venues. I’m really looking forward to being able to introduce my imaginative work to a contemporary audience. 

New Dean Cornwell Book

February 21, 2016, 10:29 am

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The Illustrated Press is publishing a new Dean Cornwell book. This book is the first new book on Cornwell in 38 years. The original book by Patricia Broder was first published in 1978 and reprinted in 2000.

This new book is 9 x 12 inches, 224 pages and contains 260 illustrations with many full page images and is in full color. The price for the regular edition is $44.95 plus shipping. The 1978 book had less than half the images in color.

The new book has sold out of its slipcased numbered limited edition and is almost sold out of the first run of the regular edition so if you are interested in a copy make sure you order soon.

The Art of Dean Cornwell Review

February 28, 2016, 12:26 pm

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My copy of the New Dean Cornwell book has finally arrived from Daniel Zimmer and Illustrated Press publishing and it’s everything that was promised. There has only been one other book on Cornwell and that was ‘Dean Cornwell Dean of Illustrators’ by Patricia Broder and published in 1978 and reprinted in 2000. Both editions are long since out of print and very expensive when you can find them.

This new book, The Art of Dean Cornwell, rivals the print production quality of that first book. The total page count for this book is 224 pages with 161 full page images. The binding and paper are first class; the large 12 x 9 vertical format is a change from the other books landscape format but works well with so many of the images full page. The new book is designed like a gallery catalog. Instead of the art being intermingled with text throughout the book, the text is confined to the beginning followed by hundreds of pages of art and then a chronology list for the work at the end.

The artwork looks great and it appears many of the images were shot from the originals. The images span his career and include many charcoal and color studies, outdoor watercolor sketches, pastels, mural work as well as his advertising and illustration work.  Some images have close-ups that really allow you to see Cornwell’s paint application. Those that own the first book will find a lot of new material in this effort and the fact that everything is in color makes it even more enjoyable.

If you are a fan of Dean Cornwell this book is a must for your collection. It’s a reasonable price at $44.95 and a beautiful production. Copies are going fast with the limited slipcase version already sold out and the regular version almost sold out.

Update: Since I wrote the article earlier in the week, the regular edition has now sold out according to the publishers website.

Mathias J Alten

April 4, 2016, 10:05 am

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Alten was born in 1871 near Tier, in Gusenburg, in the Prussian Rhineland. Alten was one of four children. The Alten family immigrated to the United States in 1889 settling in Grand Rapids Michigan. The young Alten apprenticed as a decorator. By 1895 Alten was married to Bertha Schwind and the couple operating a business together Schwind and Alten, offering art supplies, frames, sign painting, fresco painting for churches and scene painting for theaters.  

In 1898 Alten decided he needed academic training to improve his work. He went to Paris to study under Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens at the Academie Julian.

Alten returned to Grand Rapids and established himself as the premier painter there. His business thrived and he taught drawing and painting classes from the live model.

Alten showed versatility for many different subjects, figurative, portraits, and landscapes but his focus was always the working class. He eschewed parlor scenes for depictions of agrarian labor and common people.

As Alten became more renowned he began holding yearly studio exhibitions with great success.  Eventually these exhibitions moved to larger public spaces as his stature grew.

In 1910 Alten and his family went to Holland for a year and painted many coastal scenes of Fishermen and their boats. On their return Alten saw a show of the Spanish painter Sorolla whose paintings of Valencia fisherman inspired Alten.  After the success of Alten’s Dutch paintings he decided to travel to Spain to paint similar subjects.

The Spanish paintings by Alten were well received in Grand Rapids upon his return in 1911. Alten’s plans for more travel in Europe were curtailed by the outbreak of World War I. Instead the artist focused on Michigan scenes and portrait commissions. After the war Alten began traveling around the United States and holding shows in Los Angeles, Detroit and New York. He painted in California, New Mexico, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Florida.

 His exhibition schedule and portrait commissions kept him in demand and travelling around the country throughout the decade of the 1920’s and into the 1930’s until the time of his death in 1938.

Bibliography

Mathias J Alten: Journey of and American Painter

Various Authors

Published by the Grand Rapids Art Museum 1998

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Battlefield Bluebells Demo

April 11, 2016, 8:15 pm

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Armand Cabrera

Every Spring I make a point of painting the bluebells when they come out and bloom. They never last more than a few days once they peak and so depending on the weather you can miss them completely if you don’t check on them. I know every April I need to make a trip to my bluebell spots and see what kind of a year it will be.

This year they weren’t as thick as in years past but they were still good enough to paint. I set up at my favorite spot at the Manassas Battlefield, the path along the stone Bridge at Bull Run.

The afternoon light is my favorite for this spot because I’m looking into the sun and everything is backlit on a sunny day. I found a place not too far off the trail and got to work.

The first thing I did was to establish the tree line.

 Next I blocked in a medium tone for the bare trees in the distance.

Then I blocked in the ground plain keying it to my tree color.

Now using the scene I design the trunks of the trees in my middle and foreground. I want to vary their placement angle and individual widths so they aren’t too static.

I move to the background again and start designing my sky holes in the background tree color already on the board. Once I have that in I carefully move forward in the picture plane marking key elements like the color of the bushes in the understory and the trail through the flowers.

With my big shapes locked in I start modelling the areas building a sense of light and form to the individual elements without obliterating my groundwork for the structure of the painting.

I spend the last 45 minutes unifying the whole picture adding details where it enhances the mood simplifying areas that distract from the feel.

The finished painting, ‘Battlefield Bluebells,’ 12 x 16, oil on board. The total working time was 2 hours from start to finish.

Constructive Criticism

April 17, 2016, 4:31 pm

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 I was involved in a discussion about constructive criticism online. The original post made the point that unless you can accomplish the thing you are criticizing it’s not constructive criticism and is basically a useless form of sharing an uninformed opinion.

I actually agree with this idea and I have long been a proponent of artists working problems out on their own first. When that fails, I recommend finding a professional with greater skill to give you constructive advice on how to improve.

I know in today’s world this attitude may seem elitist but it actually is the fastest path to success. Some people are better at things than other people. If you can’t do the math, you can’t constructively critique Einstein’s theory of relativity. Too often people decide their uninformed opinions are valid and helpful, when they’re not. Those people in your profession that share similar traits with your own work and creative vision are the ones you want to talk to when you get stuck. Group critiques like group hugs are pretty useless. Other than making everyone feel important, they offer little help towards improving your work.

Asking for advice should always be thoughtful and targeted. Isolate problems first before asking for help. If the advice strays make sure to ask how it ties into your request. It’s very easy to get sidetracked even when someone knows what they are talking about and get too much feedback to effectively digest.

Art should be individual. Too many opinions and ideas from disparate sources will not improve most people’s abilities; just weaken them as their work becomes a hodgepodge of conflicting opinions. In my opinion diligence and hard work, combined with personal interpretations of information and discoveries have better outcomes for creativity in the long run. 

Upcoming shows

April 26, 2016, 10:04 am

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Armand Cabrera

I will have 14 small imaginative painting on display this weekend at Ravencon in Williamsburg VA. I'll post more pictures next weekend.

I will also be participating in a plein air invitational at the New York Botanical Gardens on June 19. There are 15 artists who have been invited to paint on the grounds and there is a show of Impressionist paintings by artists like John Singer Sargent and Childe Hassam.

There is also an Imaginative realism show in Denver Colorado being planned for October that I will participate in. More on that when things are finalised in the next few months

Ravencon 2016

May 2, 2016, 7:36 pm

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Armand Cabrera

I attended the Ravencon Science Fiction Convention this last weekend as a guest artist. The convention was a great place for people who enjoy the genre. Artist guest of honor was Vincent DiFate who is a force of nature in the art world, and I was glad to get a few minutes and sit a talk with him and hear some stories from his 50 plus year career as an artist.

Calling a Maker study 8 x 10 oil

                           

The art show was well organized and there was some great stuff in the show. Most of what images were prints and I was one of the few people with originals. I showed a number of small studies that were the basis for larger paintings.

Ice Station study 9 x 12 oil

This process is a learning curve for me as I work on building new outlets for my imaginative work and so far the response has been positive. I do think going forward I will focus on larger venues and markets where there is a greater potential for sales of original paintings.

The Argonath study 9 x 12 oil

Saturday evening I did a 3 hour painting demo from a photo of a smaller study. This is the finished painting ‘Return to Dragon Hall’ 20 x 24 oil on canvas.

Martin Rico y Ortega

May 15, 2016, 12:33 pm

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Armand Cabrera

Martin Rico y Ortega was born in El Escorial, Madrid Spain in 1833. His early education was in Madrid at the Escuella de Bellas Artes des San Fernando. It was here he was influenced by his teacher Jenaro Perez Villaamil to work from life. He won a government scholarship to study in Paris France in 1860. In France he became friends with the Barbizon painter Charles Daubigny. In 1866 He won a silver medal at the Paris Salon. Ortega briefly returned to Spain during the outbreak of the Franco –Prussian War from 1870 to 1871.

By 1878 he had returned to Paris and that same year he was awarded a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle and was made a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur. By 1879 he was living permanently in Paris and spending his summers in Venice. His Venice work was painted outdoors often in gondolas or along the canals. In 1889 he was again awarded at the Exposition Universelle this time a silver medal.

Though he painted and travelled throughout Europe, Ortega is most remembered for his beautiful light filled scenes of Venice. His works are a tour de force of precise landscape painting. Martin Rico Ortega died in Venice in 1908.

Bibliography

Impressions of Europe: Nineteenth Century Vistas by Martin Rico

Javier Baron

Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University (2013)