Beyond Painting Kitchens and Bedrooms: On to Oil Painting

Just this month I became a student of oil painting, something I always wanted to do, but never took up owing to other obligations.  

Until now, my painting experience centered on kitchens and bedrooms. This time, I took on painting for fun.

The Oregon Society of Artists (OSA) provides classes and workshops and also runs a gallery.  Its main office is right here in Portland and opportunities for learning and experiencing art abound.

My current teacher is Michael Orwick, a strikingly good artist. Michael teaches a weekly session at OSA where we have learned so many valuable things about palette, form, value, structure.  He makes us brave and encourages us to freely redo things, and to not get frozen early into a painting from which we cannot free ourselves up to try new things.  

Michael Orwick also emphasizes to us that art is fun. Just this last week he  engaged in a painting duel with another colleague leading to lots of laughter and entertainment.  It also resulted in two very beautiful paintings.

A few months ago, through the Oregon Society of Artists,  I also attended a  one day workshop of Marcus Gannuscio where we worked to learn how to paint the human head and face more quickly and accurately, using oils.  We worked to complete a painted portrait sketch from a model in one session.   I found the lessons learned from this class useful even when sketching non-human forms such as trees or houses because what he focused on in the class, was perspective.

I like it that these very outstanding artists see the need to encourage the rest of us to play along with them.  Just like sports, there is room both for professionals and amateurs.

Now that I have started to learn about oils, here are my first observations.

First, oil painting is very forgiving.  This versatile activity allows one to quickly shift the perspective, change the light, subtly move a shape or alter a color  all affecting the painting in a matter of seconds.  Nothing is permanent.  All colors and shapes are malleable. We don't even have to wait for the oils to dry before we move on, or change them around. The fact that oils are so forgiving brings space and opportunity to the canvas.

Second, planning ahead improves the outcome.  Setting the structure of the painting and thinking ahead on what perspective and viewpoint one wants to project, deeply affects the results.  I have discovered that oil painting, like writing and for that matter even research, is greatly enhanced by planning ahead and envisioning a structure ahead of time.

Third, oil painting frees the mind and encourages meditation.  Oil painting opens up the mind and frees it for time to think, for meditation, speculation and wonderment about the world we see around us.

Fourth, oil painting is ceremonial.  Like a Japanese tea ceremony, oil painting has a tradition. The way in which we bring out the brushes, set up the canvas, put up the easel, prepare the palette, sketch the plan, lay out the structure, choose the values and colors, is all very ceremonial. There are strong traditions attached to each event and they vary by artist. There is even a tradition in the act of painting itself by looking closely at something, then squinting to look at it again, walking away and coming back to take another look, all leading to new observations, unfolding right in front of you.

Oil painting is both the art and science of ceremonial observation, put to the test with a brush and some oil paints.

I am so glad I finally remembered to take up oil painting.

Below are some of my first experiences with brush and paint, each one providing me with a new perspective on what I see.  No doubt, as I continue to learn, the style and color and depth of new paintings will emerge.  There is no longer such a thing as a finished work.  All works are unfinished, subject to change, open to a revisit.