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When it comes to the world of art, we believe that there is no limit to the way artists can let their talent and skills out to create different works of art.

Multi-disciplinary artist and illustrator James R. Eads plays with motion and color to render harmonizing illustrations of people and nature. With swirling van Gogh inspired skies and percussive strokes of color, his style is well-suited for meditations on human connection and the relationships between humans and the natural world. He also makes pretty wicked gig posters. The LA-based artist lives and works at the The Brewery where his studio is open to the public during bi-annual art walks. More

'Speaking to the Sky' 8x10 pastel sold Since I am busy with my Hurricane Irma evacuees I thought I'd share a post from the archives....all eyes are on the sky! Your Skies deserve the royal treatment. They deserve more than a cursory treatment with a blue pastel. Skies are important to a landscape painting. Even if they aren't the main focus of the painting, they provide the light and set the mood for the landscape. I happen to love to paint the sky. I am drawn to wide open spaces because I can see the sky. I am always looking for ways to improve my skies and clouds. I want my skies to be believable...to look like air...for my clouds to float and not look like potatoes or cotton balls! I have collected some great tips and advice in the course of my studies. There is obviously a lot more to learn about painting believable skies but currently here are three things I like to keep in mind when painting the sky: 1. Be a good observer of the sky. Go outside and make mental notes. Better yet go outside and paint sky studies. Notice the colors in the sky and clouds. Photos don't always capture the subtleties in the colors. For example photos often show a blue sky oversaturated and polarized. As a result it is easy to paint a blue sky too dark if we rely solely on the photo reference. Taking the time to study the sky is well worth the effort. 2. Make your own grays for cloud shadows and dark stormy clouds. It is easy to reach for the gray and white pastels to paint clouds. I prefer to use the more colorful grays (not the grays made from black and white) or better yet mix my own grays by layering colors until they make mud. More on this later this week. Also I don't automatically reach for the pure white pastel for the light parts of a cloud. I use pale values of colors such as pinks, yellows and peaches. I reserve the pure white for small areas on the clouds where I really want them to pop. 3. Make sure your sky and ground share a relationship. A stormy cloudy sky doesn't work with a sunlit ground plane. They need to work together. They need to harmonize. I often use colors in the sky that are in my ground. One of the first questions I ask myself when evaluating a painting is: "Does the ground relate to the sky somehow?" Today's painting is done on my homemade support using a pumice mixture on gatorboard. The pumice mix was toned orange before applying.

'Stop for the Magic' 9x12 pastel ©Karen Margulis $175 Ahhhh the smell of oil paint and Gamsol filled my studio today. It made it feel like a real art studio somehow. Pastel is an odorless medium and I forget how much I love the smell of paint. I took the oils out this month to share the technique with my Patreon group. I love to experiment and change things up! Different papers, different pastels and different underpainting techniques are all things I look to try. This month I decided to do an oil stain underpainting. It has been awhile since I have used this technique but I do love it. Read on for some tips on making the best of this technique. Tools of the trade SUPPLIES NEEDED Paint: a few tubes of oil paint. I only use alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow medium and mix the colors I need. I don't use white since I want my colors to be rich and transparent. I don't use black either but mix red and blue for a nice rich dark. Brush: I use a cheap bristle brush because I like to scrub the paint and the sanded papers are hard on a brush! OMS: which stands for odorless mineral spirits. You can use your preferred brand. I use Gamsol or Turpenoid. Do not use the Turpenoid in the green can. In my experience it doesn't dry as well especially if you use it to do a wash with pastels. You will also need a can or jar for the OMS. Paper: You need a pastel paper or board that can get wet. I prefer Uart paper. Ampersand Pastelbords are an excellent choice as well. For today's painting I used Pastelmat which wasn't my favorite choice. I didn't get the drips I usually get with Uart paper. closeup of the oils stain I love the vibrancy of the oil paint. It makes a rich and colorful underpainting. The trick is getting the paint the right consistency. I call it an Oil Stain because you want to get the paint the consistency of wood stain. I use the OMS liberally when mixing my paint and make a puddle of color the consistency of stain or tea. If it is too thick the painting will fill the tooth of the paper and you won't be able to layer much pastel. If it is too wet it will just run and it won't stain the paper. TIP: If you can see brush marks in the paint then it is too thick....thin it with more OMS. Practice, practice and more practice will allow you to know just how much OMS is enough. As the paint dries the magic begins. The best underpaintings will result in interesting drips that look like root systems. The Pastelmat absorbed the paint so quickly that it didn't drip. It was a bit disappointing but I still loved the vibrancy of the oil paint and it gave me something colorful to respond to. The painting in today's post is the Paint Along demo this month for my Patreon group. Paint along with me! www.patreon.com/karenmargulis

John Pototschnik’s paintings recall the tranquil beauty of an earlier time.

Bryce Hudson’s paintings are as notable for their nuance and sophistication as they are for their compositional drama. His geometric oil and acrylic on canvas paintings can be described as having a certain movement and three-dimensionality while retaining a reductive quality that is general to geometric abstraction. The hard-edged forms are bordered by bright bands of contrasting color of varying angle and width producing multiple fields of form and color that play against one another. Using a strict geometric language, limited palette and consistent yet sophisticated compositional format, Hudson achieves a remarkable diversity within a narrow framework. Often is the case, architectural elements are Hudson’s muse; flipping and dissecting elements, Hudson transforms them into a dizzying array of colors and shapes until all context is lost. Hudson’s edges are taut and sharp, and there is an inner tensile strength expressed in the forms. The bright color bands add weight and movement and provide a rich contrast to the somber predominant blacks, grays and whites. Untitled Composition #19, Acrylic and Oil on Arches Watercolor Paper, Framed

'Island Mystique' 16x20 pastel ©Karen Margulis available $595 I was so excited to find an old painting yesterday. Not because it was a good painting but because it was on a good board! It was probably one of the first larger Pastelbord surfaces I had purchased several years ago. I knew the painting had to go but the board would be easy to reuse. Pastelbord is a sanded surface on a hard board. They are wonderful but a bit expensive for my daily painting habit! Have a look at the painting below. I remember liking it at the time it was finished but there was much about it that I knew could be done better. I love seeing an older painting and finally knowing what it needs. It is nice to know we actually do eventually improve our painting skills and knowledge. But what did this painting need? I liked the point of view of the high horizon. I enjoyed the idea of a meadow filled with wildflowers. But the flowers and grasses were all screaming for attention. Even the distant trees were too saturated. It was obvious that I had fun with color but the painting no longer worked for me because I had discovered the power of neutrals! Read on for more on this idea. The original painting on Pastelbord. It needed help! Back to the drawing board! I had a photo of a misty scene from a visit to Nantucket Island. It was perfect for a reimagined painting. I took a stiff brush and brushed off the thickest layers of pastel. Then I used some rubbing alcohol and another stiff brush to liquify the remaining pastel. I let this wet pastel drip and while it was still wet I worked some Derwent Inktense sticks into the wet pastel. The Pastelbord take all kinds of abuse! I started to redefine the painting adding the suggestion of a house and some Queen Annes Lace. Below is the new underpainting. Brushed off and washed with brush and alcohol I liked the painting better already! I continued layering pastel using the Richard McKinley selection of Terry Ludwig pastels. This set contains a wonderful collection of neutrals...beautiful grayed down color. It was the perfect set for capturing a foggy island morning. Halfway finished. I added the finishing marks with some Girault pastels and a few Nupastels. The final marks were the bright intense green grasses. As I added these marks it became clear to me what I had done differently with this new painting......I had embraced the power of neutrals! Both paintings were inspired by misty New England landscapes. But the original version was all bright greens and pinks. It was almost garish! There were no neutrals to give balance to the riot of color. I now know better. That was fun! I can't wait to take the next pastelbord in the pile!

Cleavage as a process of dividing (a) one whole into two parts. Standalone, functional, viable (?) Fusion is a sudden, brutal intervention, on the contrary, from decomposition, which is gradual and natural. The disintegration of a love affair overlaps with the decay of the mind, the tenderness mingles with a brutal struggle. At certain moments, the characters in the paintings resign from the duel and the reconciled ones form a formless whole incapable of the mutual separation of vital functions. About this artwork: Classification, Techniques & Styles Oil Paint consisting of pigments bound with linseed oil or carnations. The traditional technique consists of superimposing layers of paint increasingly rich in oil for a solid and durable hanger. Acrylic Paint using traditional pigments mixed with synthetic resins. Watercolor Watercolor is a painting in which gum arabic binds transparent pigments revealing the support of the painting. The gouache, of identical composition, is opaque. A watercolor is a water-based painting on paper. We rarely speak of a painting for a work painted in watercolor. Watercolor paintings are considered to be a unique way to creatively represent dreams, illusions, emotions and luminous feelings using water soluble pigments. However, painting with watercolors can be difficult. It's a difficult medium to master, in large part because it can be ruthless and unpredictable. Mistakes are difficult to correct and its fluid nature makes it difficult to control. Yet it is these very qualities that give the medium its undeniable charm. Technic Painting Painting is an art form of painting on a surface by aesthetically applying colored fluids. Painters represent a very personal expression on supports such as paper, rock, canvas, wood, bark, glass, concrete and many other substrates. Work of representation or invention, painting can be naturalistic and figurative, or abstract. It can have narrative, descriptive, symbolic, spiritual, or philosophical content. Related themes PaintingPainting On CanvasOilpaintingLoversExpresionism View less

ORIGINAL PAINTING. Watercolor on paper 29.7x42cm (11.7x16.5in). Unframed. This painting will be shipped from Italy in a cardboard box. For Italy and Eu countries it will take 1-5 working days dispach. For other countries 3-14 business days to prepare customs documentation. For any information contact me. Welcome to my surreal world! Watercolor, oil and acrylic paintings from Italy. In the last two years my paintings have been exhibited in Rome, Milan, Venice, Arte Padova 2021, Arte Genova 2022, St. Petersburg and other places. To get to know me better and my works, follow me on Instagram @es.artpainting

Illustrator and amateur naturalist Kelsey Oseid is focused on detailing the natural world, illustrating the animal kingdom’s many classes and orders on posters created with watercolor and gouache. The posters highlight more known orders such as Carnivora and Rodentia, while also showcasing the diversity of animals in lesser known orders like the Chondrichthyes and Artiodactyla. Oseid numerically labels the more common names of each animal in the footer of her works, pointing out where one can find the capybara, naked mole rat, and hammerhead shark. More

'The Moment of Truth' 9x12 pastel ©Karen Margulis SOLD Did you ever put something in a safe place so you wouldn't misplace them? Did you forget that it was there? That's what I did a couple of years ago with my set of Terry Ludwig 'Stan Sperlak' pastels. I bought them at Stan's workshop and when I got home I put them on my pastel shelf. I didn't want to mix them into my studio box and I used them a few times. Until they got buried. If you have been following my Studio clean-up then you saw the 'before' photos of my pastel corner. I had so many unmarked boxes piled on top of one another. Sadly I didn't even know what treasures I had buried in the mess. Imagine my excitement when I uncovered this box of special order Terry Ludwig pastels chosen and signed by Stan Sperlak. I had been stingy about using them for fear of using them up and then they got buried. I'm glad they did. It feels like Christmas! To celebrate I did a painting from one of the photos I took at Stan's farm back when I bought the pastels. Below is my step by step demo. My nearly pristine set of Terry Ludwig 'Stan Sperlak' pastels (from top left) I am using white Wallis paper. I will be doing a turpenoid wash underpainting. I start by putting down a layer of hard pastels. I brush in the pastel with turpenoid. I use an old stiff bristle brush. You can see the drips at the bottom. This stage shows the finished underpainting. I like how the turpenoid liquifies the pastel and creates interesting drips and webs. When the underpainting dries I start by putting in the darks. I am using only the Stan Sperlak TL pastels. In this step I put in the lights. I put in some pale peach and yellows to the sky and I start to put in some lights in the field. Now I refine the treeline putting in skyholes. I add some more color to the field including some of the blues in the shadow areas. I continue to refine and add details to the grasses. Now it is time to put in the sunlit weeds. Thais is what I loved about this scene....I was packing up when I saw the light on these weedy things....the magical light turned weeds into things of beauty. I put in a few more punctuation marks (some more red spots) and call it done! Now that I am finally organized I will not be losing this set again. By the way, I highly recommend a workshop with Stan Sperlak. You can read my review in this post HERE. Stan will also be doing a demo at the 2013 IAPS convention that you won't want to miss!

'Garden of Delights' 10x8 pastel ©Karen Margulis I don't ever worry about running out of things to paint. Inspiration can be found everywhere. In fact it is often difficult to settle down and pick something from the 33,000 photos in my photo files. Even though I have plenty of choices I find I am drawn to some of the same images again and again. Some images just seem to speak more loudly than others. I listen! I remind myself that is is OK to paint something more than once. In fact it is a good thing. Often we resist the urge to paint from the same reference more than once. Maybe we feel we need to try new subjects. After all once we have 'done' it what is left to learn? There is plenty to learn! Painting something more than once helps us become intimate with our subject. The more comfortable we are the more we are able to take risks. Familiarity leads to more expression. Once we know our subject we have more success with making changes to our references. We can be more intuitive because we are already familiar with the scene. Painting something more than once allows us to explore other solutions. We can try new techniques, change paper size and/or orientation, change the point of view. The sky is the limit! We learn more because we aren't starting from scratch. We don't need to reinvent the wheel....only improve it! I was asked recently if I had painted pink coneflowers before. That led me to search thorough my paintings and quickly found several purple coneflowers and one pink. So the answer is Yes! But each time I revisit this favorite motif I challenge myself to create something new. I enjoy the freedom that this old friend gives me to explore and discover new interpretations. While we are on the subject of painting my favorite motifs, I am working on preparations for my Wildflower demo for the upcoming IAPS convention. I do have some new openings for my demo. It is not too late to register! There are plenty of open demos. And if you are already registered you can add sessions now. Be sure to check the IAPS website to see all of the openings. You can add classes online by going to your registration record: HOW TO REGISTER OR ADD DEMOS TO YOUR REGISTRATION Here is the link to the convention registration page.http://iapspastel.org/conv19_register.php Follow the directions to register or add to your schedule.

'Another Peaceful Day' 9x12 pastel ©Karen Margulis sold The possibilities are endless. I approach each blank piece of paper with eager anticipation. I feel empowered. I am about to create something from nothing. Hopefully it will be something compelling, or interesting or beautiful. It is up to me. I have the power to take a scene and create the mood I wish to express. And I don't have to be true to the scene. I can tweak it if I want. I can make a landscape look bright and sunny. I can make it gray and moody. I can change the season or time of day. It's such a wonderful thing to be an artist! There are many ways to create a mood in a painting but one of my favorite techniques is a simple four value underpainting. The mood is created by the colors that are selected for the underpainting. color blocks to help evaluate underpainting colors There is no right or wrong color to choose for the underpainting. Each choice will result in a different feeling to the painting because the underpainting colors will peek through the top layers. This will effect how the top layers will appear. For example warm colors underneath tend to create a sunnier, warmer feeling. How do we choose the underpainting colors? Practice. The more we experiment and try different underpainting colors, the more intuitive our choices will become. Practice!! Color Studies and Color Blocks are a quick way to judge how an underpainting color will appear. Choose a color and pick 4 values of the color. Make little blocks of color on a scrap piece of paper the same color as the paper you will paint on. Now choose the colors you might use for your top layers. Lightly layer the top colors over the underpainting blocks. Think of theses as quick test strips. It is better to try out colors in small blocks than experiment on your painting! ( I learned this great tip from Doug Dawson) For the marsh painting in this post I wanted a moody, gray day feeling. When evaluating possible underpainting colors I decided the Red Violets gave me the mood I was after. I blocked in the painting with four values of Red Violet. You can see it peek through and unify the whole painting. TRY THIS: Cut 4-8 small pieces of paper. 4x6 or 5x7. Find a simple subject. Do at least 4 paintings using a different color for the underpainting in each study. Allow 15 minutes for each study. Compare your studies....what mood or feeling did each color create?

'Upon the Tallgrass Prairie' 18x24 pastel ©Karen Margulis Did you know that alcohol goes great with pastels? I'...

Learn how to develop your eye as an artist by painting what you see. Learning how to see like an artist, opens up enormous possibilities for your art!

Je vous emmène dans une balade photo street art dans Paris 13e. Et pour vous permettre d'en profiter également je vous livre mon circuit détaillé.