The BoldBrush Show
Learn the business of visual art from today's finest artists and art marketers.
The BoldBrush Show
160 Artistic Technique — Tips for Artists
Join our next BoldBrush LIVE! Webinar by signing up here:
register.boldbrush.com/live-guest
Learn the magic of marketing with us here at BoldBrush!
boldbrushshow.com
Get over 50% off your first year on your artist website with FASO:
FASO.com/podcast
---
For this week's episode, we made a compilation of our past guests reflecting on how early influences, mentors, and disciplined study shaped their art, and how they often feel driven to keep growing rather than staying comfortable. They describe learning fastest by painting from life—especially in plein air—tackling unfamiliar subjects, simplifying values, and using subtle color temperature shifts instead of high-contrast effects. Throughout the episode, our past guests stress intentional decision-making in composition and color, the importance of not overworking a piece, and the deep community and life-changing connections formed through workshops and shared painting experiences.
Episodes mentioned:
I always paint what I don't know, what I'm not familiar with. And they said, you like the challenge? I said, No, I don't like not knowing how to paint something.
Shanna Kunz:I really like to simplify my values as down to as few as possible, and then create the activity within those values with temperature shifts.
Jill Basham:When I'm painting, I try not to get too defined with it too quickly.
Laura Arango Baier:Welcome to the BoldBrush show, where we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. My name is Laura Baier, and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast, we are a podcast that covers art marketing techniques and all sorts of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers, as well as others who are in careers tied to the art world, in order to hear their advice and insights. For this week's episode, we made a compilation of our past guests reflecting on how early influences, mentors and discipline study shape their art and how they often feel driven to keep growing rather than staying comfortable. They describe learning fastest by painting from life, especially in plein air, tackling unfamiliar subjects, simplifying values and using subtle color temperature shifts instead of high contrast effects throughout the episode, our past guests stress intentional decision making in composition and color, the importance of not overworking a piece and deep community and life changing connections formed through workshops and shared painting experiences.
Cynthia Rosen:Well, we've seen artists that have said, Okay, this is what's going to sell. This is what I'm going to do, and I won't put anybody down. I mean, if that's works for them, it's fine. It doesn't work for me, I've been lucky. I mean, incredibly lucky. You know, people see things in my work that I don't. Maybe because I see it all the time, and I'm most often discontent with it. It's occasionally it's like, Oh, I really like that piece. You know, one out of 10 pieces, it's like, oh, that worked. How did happen? You know, most of the work, it's like, well, it could be better. But, you know, people paint for different reasons. I had an uncle who, actually, he's the person who gave me my first paint set when I was in junior high. He gave me, I don't even know what kind of paint it was, but it stuck. You know, it's like, that's when I fell in love with art. I mean, for me, it was painting, what you could see, super realism. But anybody who engages in any of the arts in this life, in my book, is lucky. You know, for visual artists, you walk outside and it's like, oh my God, look at that. For a musician, you hear a sound or beat and you say, Wow. You know, for a poet, you read a beautiful piece of poetry. Or a writer, you find some literature, and the use of the words is stunning, you know. So I think anybody engaged in any of the arts, theater, anything is blessed, because there's something that can make our day unexpected. We can have a tough day at work. I mean, when I was teaching, it's like, you can have a tough day teaching, or you can be loading grocery bags and somebody's nasty to you. But if you have some kind of esthetic for a visual artist, which what I talk about most. It's like, walk outside to see something beautiful, and it's like, oh, relieves that stress from the day. But, yeah, it's so if you want to be a Sunday painter and you get pleasure from it. It's fine, you know, it's what you want to do with your work, if you want it to grow, if you're content just not worrying about that, you know, that's fine, too. As a professional artist, I always want to grow. I have an acquaintance who's a really fine, really fabulous and highly reputable painter, who said, when they go to the plein air events, they paint what they know. And so these plein air events for anybody who does. And now are these opportunities to go to a different location. It could be for three days, it could be for a week. The ones I used to participate in, I've sort of stopped doing them now, but we get put up in people's homes. And so the only costs you have to color are the transportation and food and these, the hosting organization would constantly be showing your work with the opportunity for sales. So you know this person said they always paint what they're familiar with, no matter where they go. And I said, I always paint what I don't know what I'm not familiar with. And they said, you like the challenge? I said, No, I don't like not knowing how to paint something, and it can get you in trouble. The first time painting cars, I went out with a group of people up on this hill overlooking a town. 630 in the morning, no traffic. There was like this one little shop that was open and there would be a car in front of it's like, okay, I'm petrified of cars. I didn't know how to paint them for me. I just want four wheels, warmth in the winter, windows that work in the summer, that will get me where I need to go. That's what a car is. So how to paint something mechanical that I'm so unfamiliar with? So I started to paint it, only to find out that those cars were parked in front of a coffee shop. So they kept leaving. Every 10 minutes, the car would drive off and there would be a new car there. The first time I was in Florida and it was raining, and it was at plein air vent in Tequesta, Florida, and there were these two boats in this waterway that were just set these great angles to each other. And so I'm standing in this garage where it's covered, and I'm looking out on this waterway, I'm going to paint boats. And somebody comes by and says, You're not painting the boats, are you? It's like, yeah, look at the angles. You know, the composition, it's awesome, the dynamics. I was all excited. They said they're going to move. What do you mean they're going to move? Whatever. So I'm going to, you know, I'm painting them. Well, yes, the current is constantly shifting. The boats are constantly shifting. And finally, I wiped one out and just painted the other. You know, I kept waiting for, okay, it's going to come back this way. Well, that didn't really quite happen. So, and this was a quick draw, so you're timed, you know, you have an hour and a half, two hours, whatever you have, to complete the painting, get it framed and display it. So for me, it's like, I will go where there are votes, because I don't understand votes. I am amazed that somebody had that kind of mind that they could if you look at the skeleton of a boat, it's gorgeous. I mean, how they decided to make the curves so this thing would cut through the water the way it does. It's just amazing to me. But for me to paint a boat, I've been on a couple of cruise ships, and in terms of a fishing boat, maybe I've been on one or two in my life, so I don't understand votes. So if I'm somewhere where there are boats, I want to paint boats because I don't get them. So, you know, it's a it's not the challenge. I just don't want to be incapable of painting something, you know, and I don't perceive it as a challenge. But yes, so our work is growing. For me, I like that change. It can be frustrating. I can do a horrible painting happily. I paint on ampersand gesso board, and I've discovered that, oh, I can sand it down. A year later, after the paint is all dry and cured, I can sand it down. Yeah, and use some of that residue color that's left on the board, and you incorporate that into a new painting. But doesn't mean my painting successful, and I still don't like painting boats, even though, intellectually, I know they're just a shape, but I will still go paint them if I happen to be where they are, until I feel comfortable.
Shanna Kunz:I really like to simplify my values as down to as few as possible, and then create the activity within those values with temperature shifts. I just I had a professor that told me one time that high contrast, high value contrast, is like pounding somebody over the head to get their attention. Low value contrast and temperature shifts, is like somebody's playing the violin, catching your attention, and it just grows and grows and grows and grows on you. So my work is very rarely about the pound on the head. It's just not a lot about extreme contrast in value. It's it is so much more about the color temperature shifts within and holding a value playing together. That's a that's a really big deal to me.
Scott W. Prior:You know, when I was going to Orange Coast College, taking junior college by my mom and dad's house, and I was taking drawing classes and stuff, and I was sat down by one of my favorite instructors there, who Dory Dunlap rip. She was like, You should study illustration. Gave me the hub of the wheel talk and how illustration goes into fine art and the graphics and the animation and all the stuff. And I'm like, Okay, that would be smart, you know. And, and I learned there's a lot about, you know, telling a story with your images, and a lot about that is composition. Part of that is composition. And that just naturally came to me being able to, you know, people are like, 1/3 two thirds, or this or that, or I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just drawing it out so that my I'm happy with it. You know? They're like, well, you're doing it automatically. I'm like, Well, cool. Whatever you want to, whatever you say, are awesome, you know? So illustration has definitely helped. Given me that part of my painting, with my painting, it's helped with that. That's just part of it. It's part of the package, you know. And I learned from a lot of people I didn't like you have a lot of others, a lot of people that are out doing plein air, and they just take workshop after workshop with one guy or girl or, you know, whatever, and they study with the same person all the time. You're not I had the opportunity to study with tons of insanely great illustrators, and I dabbled in the fine art department too. So I was going over to the fine art department, painting with these amazing Fine Art painters. So what? And then the best thing that I had made, move I made at while I was at school, is I got offered a job to do college work study. So I worked for the illustration department, and I had a set of classes, you know. And so then I was, I'd set up a class, and I'd have my my stuff outside the classroom or right by the door. So sometimes I would sit in with the instructor if I didn't have anything to do in the office. So I got extra time with all these and the school doesn't know this is illegal maneuvers people, the school doesn't know that I did this. They know now, but I was sitting in on a lot of classes as well, so I had an opportunity to study with tons of people and learn and pick their brains, and then the archive, you know, searching through the stuff. So then I was working for the illustration department that director left, I went over to the fine art department and worked with Craig Nelson. And so my last year was doing work study with the fine art department, but I was still an illustration major, so it was overlapping, you know, trying to keep it going and learn as much as I could while I was there. And, you know, it helped you gotta, you know, you got to put yourself out there so you. You have to take those chances. One of the things that helped me out was the director of the illustration department. When I started working there, she started like, watching me, and she had a sit down like with me, telling me what I was needing to work on. I'm like, Okay, thank you. And she's also, I need to have a sit down with your wife. Okay, so we had another meeting, and she basically was like, Scott screwing around too much. He needs to work his ass off if he wants to be competitive. And my wife's like, yeah, that's what we're here for. She's like, so you're going to hardly see him, because he's going to be working his butt off all the time. And I was like, okay, everybody's in on this now. So I just wasn't all in on it, you know. And here we are today. Excuse me,
Julie Davis:plein air is because the Laurel, whom I mentioned earlier, she taught two classes still life and plein air painting at the school here. And so I jumped into both of them, and she taught one for six weeks, and then the next for six weeks, and then and I ended up taking, you know, two years, three years worth of classes from her. So my introduction to landscape painting and to any painting was still life in in plein air. I didn't really have an option of, you know, doing a landscape indoors. So, but instantly, when I did that, I knew that this was a blast. It was a huge challenge, and it was kind of a nightmare, and it was a lot of chaos, but it was also like, I can do this. I can I can draw, you know, I can be creative outside you kidding me, you know, I mean, it's just the best thing I could have ever created. So that was a no no brainer to me. And and still is, and, and then trees are sort of my focus on. Those became came around when I was really new in her class. And every time, you know, we'd go outside, I would just be like, oh, like, what do I do? How do I compose anything? How I am terrible at it, at this I'm terrible at painting trees. Like, you can't be a landscape artist if you don't paint trees. Well, right? Like in my brain, okay, this is it became. It began as a challenge to myself to improve, basically. And I said neck for the next year, for every single time I go out painting, I'm I'm not going to try to compose anything. I'm not going to mess with, you know, racking my brain on that. I'm going to just find a tree or a bush. But, like, the trees here kind of short so, but I'm going to find a tree, and I'm going to paint it, and that's what I'm going to find. And so it took out, like, you know, it's like changing your wardrobe to just white shirts and jeans or something. It was like, oh, okay, this is so much easier. And you know, I was terrible at it for a while, but at the time I was I was blogging, and so I was in the daily painting. Thing was big deal. So I was really pushing myself to do studies and just small little sketches outdoors and always on trees. And so then I started getting some momentum, you know, on the blog, and people seeing that and watching that, and watching my process and my evolution. And you know, as with anything, when you study and you practice, you get better, and you have aha moments, and you put those in your in your your pack, and you're like, Okay, I'm beginning to, you know, you get some traction. And so, you know, along that, that path I got, I got better, and I developed different ways of, you know, different brushwork, or just all kinds of stuff. I have very specific memories of, you know, paintings that I did that was like, oh, that's how you can do that, you know. And that's the benefit of doing a ton of small sketches or studies. Instead of trying to do a completed painting outdoors, every time is that you're you you get the miles in and the whole process, you know, you condense it to much shorter process by by doing that many and the small ones, the big ones, you know, takes a lot longer to complete. You don't, you don't get the process of beginning the painting. And, you know, all that goes into that and and the drawing, and just all of it. It's compressed applebrush.
Laura Arango Baier:We inspire. Artists to inspire the world, because creating art creates magic, and the world is currently in desperate need of magic. BoldBrush provides artists with free art marketing, creativity and business ideas and information. This show is an example. We also offer written resources, articles and a free monthly art contest open to all visual artists. We believe that fortune favors the bold brush, and if you believe that too, sign up completely free at BoldBrush show.com that's B, O, L, d, b, r, U, S, H show.com. The BoldBrush Show is sponsored by Faso. Now more than ever, it's crucial to have a website when you're an artist, especially if you want to be a professional in your career. Thankfully, with our special link, faso.com forward slash podcast, you can make that come true and also get over 50% off your first year on your artist website. Yes, that's basically the price of 12 lattes in one year, which I think is a really great deal, considering that you get sleek and beautiful website templates that are also mobile friendly, e commerce print on demand in certain countries, as well as access to our marketing center that has our brand new art marketing calendar. And the art marketing calendar is something that you won't get with our competitor. The Art marketing calendar gives you day by day, step by step, guides on what you should be doing today right now, in order to get your artwork out there and seen by the right eyes, so that you can make more sales this year. So if you want to change your life and actually meet your sales goal this year, then start now by going to our special link, faso.com, forward slash podcast, that's F, A, S, o.com, forward slash podcast
John Morra:that can also, that can also mean when you've been on a project for a long time, a real long time, what's a long time? Some people think working for on a painting for a week is a long time. I think working on a painting for six months is you're approaching long time. And by the way, you can get tunnel vision and really screw yourself up. All right, there's a famous story of Titian starting paintings and then turning them against the wall so he didn't see them for a while, and then when he flipped them back around again and said, Oh my god, now I see what's wrong with it. Okay, that's a very good idea. Which is, which is why, if you can help it, having something going on the side is really a good idea just to break up your tunnel vision. Easier said than done, because when you're really excited about something, you get out of bed in the morning, you want to go jump in and, you know, solve these problems. Taking a break from it can be really good, because then you'll, you'll, you know, it's the same way. That's the same way you check your design in a mirror. You see it with fresh eyes. Beware of the mirror, though, because anything looks weird in the mirror at first and so, yeah. I mean, if you're looking in the mirror to see if the figures forearm is way too long or way too short, or the nose is too long, yeah, you'll see it. But watch out, using that on your composition, because that can that can really introduce all kinds of serious doubts. Yeah, be careful with that. It can. It can really show some things, but don't overdo it. Or else you can just say, you'll never get anywhere. You'll never make a painting. You look in the mirror and you say, oh, no, it's all wrong. I Oh, it's a disaster. And then you just give up. That's why I sometimes call it the mirror of shame, you know, because it it shows you your mistakes, but it also makes you feel like, you know, I'm an imposter. I'm a terrible designer. It can do that too, so watch out. What those damn mirrors. Be careful.
Michelle Dunaway:Yeah, and I guess it depends on whether it's like a Studio Gallery, kind of larger portrait, or an alla prima, or, you know, landscape. I'll start first with the, you know, more simpler, you know, when you're traveling and you're, you know, either doing plein air, or, you know, painting someone, to me, that's a little bit like a treasure hunt, right? It kind of brings out that kid explorer in me, of like, looking for a buried treasure where, you know, I was recently teaching at the portrait Society of American DC. And we do this. They do this faculty, face off the first night, and you don't know what model you're going to get. You don't even know where you're going to set up or what artists you're going to be painting with. There's three artists to a model. You draw a number out of hat. You go to that where that number is, and you don't really have control over the model and lighting. You can collaborate with the other artists, but it has to be a good view for everybody. So you just kind of extract treasure from the viewpoint you have, the lighting situation you're in. And there's something beautiful to me about that lack of control and that excavation of that and the same with the landscape, with, you know, changing light and even bugs and such and nature, you know, just like having a limited amount of time to just capture something from life, and, you know, with light and and it that really, to me, hones your sensitivities to what moves you as an artist, right? And someone could get that same. Experience that I got at portrait society if they go to an open model workshop, you know, and you set up and, you know, pick your space to draw or paint often before the model has set the pose. And sometimes, you know, you'll get a pose you really like and a view you really like, and sometimes you won't. And I actually always learned more on the poses where I didn't have an inspiring view, because I had to find something that moved me and pull it out and make it the dominant feature in the painting and and so that really kind of hones your sensitivities on the other side, you know, the flip side of that. And I try to do that, you know, a lot paint from life, especially when I travel and have time to, you know, spend a few days, you know, here and there, doing landscapes, or you're painting from life, is working on something in the studio. And of course, I'd love to paint from life all the time, but, you know, that's just not realistic. You know, some, especially, even some of the poses that I'd want to do, someone can't hold for, you know, they might hold it once and then never speak to me again because it's too hard to hold, you know. So it's like I always want to take care of my models, you know, and keep them safe and healthy, but so I do utilize photography, and I think as long as you paint from life regularly, you'll know what to change in photography, because even the best cameras, and I have a really good camera, but it lies to you, it pushes the contrast, it dilutes the color, it makes everything A sharp edge, you know, especially even with the more technologically advanced the systems get. You know, I had this new camera that I took in Africa, and when I was going there the first time a couple years ago. And it's like, you can zoom in and see the dirt on the whisker of a lion, you know, it's like that detailed. I don't need that for painting. So a lot of times we with photography, you do have to really selectively edit what you're going to paint so that your painting looks more like you painted it from life and how the human eye sees. But often for me, I'd say from the genesis of a creation of a painting, like why I choose certain things to paint first, it comes from observation, which we already talked about, just just being really observant of people around you, whether you're interacting with them personally or seeing them from a distance. And sometimes I can, if it's a friend of mine, I can recreate it or take a picture in the moment, or sometimes, if it's someone I don't know, maybe ask them to model or recreate it with another model, because it may not be about the particular person, but about a gesture or a feeling or some of their humanity that I'm seeing come through, and I can kind of replicate that same thing with with the model that I bring into a photo session with. And so after that inspiration, it's gathering reference. And I try to do that pretty quickly, after I have the initial inspiration, even if I may not have time to paint it for months, or, you know, I have some things that I have had reference for that I haven't painted for years, that I will still paint at some point, but gathering the reference. And, you know, doing a photo shoot. My ideal situation is to get you know, if someone inspires me that I want to paint, try to paint them from life for a couple hours, even if it's a different kind of pose, and then do a photo shoot with them over a couple days. So just like you and I converse for like a half an hour, getting to know each other before doing this interview, that we have time to converse with them, get to know them, and maybe do some photos the first day, and then bring them back for a second session and do more photos, because I don't just want to overly art direct to get my idea often when I see who they are and what they do naturally, what develops in the best reference develops out of a combination of an idea I had and allowing them to just bring themselves to the moment. And that kind of creates this other thing that I couldn't have come up with on my own, these beautiful moments, right? And it might be how someone tilts their head, or how they move their hand, or something that you pull into that and it, and then it becomes this kind of collaboration, so to speak, you know, honestly, I know that I also love doing commissions, for that fact, because it's more of a collaboration, but so once I have the reference, then the process between that and painting, and this is Something I teach to my advanced online class, is they'll, they'll send in their photos, and I'll teach them what, something that I do on all of my reference, that I'm using photo reference for is I don't, generally don't have one photo that I know, oh, I'm going to paint this photo, right? I will have five or six photos from a session, and maybe take the hands from one or background from another, and kind of combine it. And I'll do it in Photoshop, very basic Photoshop, because I leave it really rough because I know I'm going to paint it. So it's just equivalent to doing a color study of merging elements, creating the composition, figuring out the parameters of the canvas, and also. So problem solving and strategizing as if I were doing the painting before I ever put paint to Canvas. And this is a very important part that's not often talked about enough in like a in person all the prima class, but it's something I learned, not in art school, but I learned from being friends with other fine artists that were in galleries and doing this work before I was doing this work and I was able to observe them and ask them questions in their studios, this is that pre planning, right? You're there many different ways from a photo that you can compose it, crop it, subdue elements, enhance elements, because it's still very important to get the essential focal point versus the peripheral elements. You know, a hierarchy of importance. What do you want to say in the piece? Right? We don't want to just copy a photograph. We're not a copy machine. But what? What do we want to say? And when you do that same process with photography as you would do painting from life, then often people are like, Oh, you painted this from life? And it's like, no, I couldn't have painted this person in this pose from life. They're walking, or they're, you know, whatever. They're out in a forest and there's moving sunlight, and sometimes I'll do a quick little study, but doing, doing those, those comps in Photoshop. Some people like to do it in oil paint. Do you like little comps? To me, I love to do it on the computer. And I'm like, it's really, really rough. I mean, it could be so much better, but I don't spend time learning how to do photos. I mean, I use Photoshop Elements like the really basic basic because I don't want it to be overly refined or polished. I just want it to be enough of a jumping off point for me to know where I'm going and at that point. And this is what I teach the students, because I do it with their photographs and screen share and and ask them, like, what do you want? And like, ask them the questions, like, what do you want to be the dominant focal point? What do you want? Where do you want the eye to go? How can we orchestrate the rhythms to to bring about that visual story that you're wanting to convey through this piece of art? And sometimes that's dark in an area, bringing out light in another area, things that mimic what a brush would do. And we're we're problem solving basically, so that when you start the painting on the canvas with your brushes and your paint, you've problem solved 90% of it, and you have a clear idea of where you want the finished painting to go. Then there's the balance of you know, and I guide them through this where, you know, we work over weeks on certain paintings that they've chosen their own private work, and I share what I'm working on for galleries. And then the process for myself is you kind of know, 80% where you're wanting to go. You have a clear intention, you've strategized, and you start painting. But I still try to leave that 20% open to the fluid creativity of the moment, because I might start painting and it might start going in a slightly different direction, but I might like that better. And to me, I find it's very important to have that balance and not be so attached to what I wanted to do that I miss out on something even better. You know, there's stuff that comes through. It's kind of like you and I were talking about traveling before we started the recording, right? It's kind of like when you're going to a new city you've never been to. Yes, there are a few key things that I might really want to see. Maybe there's an art exhibition or a landmark or historical building or something, but I always want to leave in big swaths of time open to wander and explore and discover things that I couldn't have found in a tour book and I don't have, you know, I don't want to over schedule myself, and that's the same way with painting. I want to have a clear intention, a game plan, but I want to be really present through the painting process, and be open to the fluid creativity of the moment, because sometimes that can be just so beautiful. And so that process is, you know, varies the time scale, you know, as you're working through things and and then when I'm like, think I'm almost done, but I want to change just maybe a few things, right? But you've been looking at it for a long time, and that's where I recognize in myself the perfectionism comes in. I'm like, I just want to refine a couple things. The best advice. And I got this from my mom in high school when I was working on a painting, and I was like, just working on a painting for myself, you know, and I would overwork things. And she's like, when you are 99.9% done and you just want to change a few things, leave it for 24 hours. Don't look at it. Leave it. Come back with fresh eyes. If those things still bother you adjust them, but a good portion of the time you won't remember what they are. And I'd say, Good 70% of the time I come back and I'm like, I can't even remember what I wanted to change, because I know, like it is done, and that keeps you from overworking. Because I get that question a lot from students. And then if something still really bothers you. Then you come back and you can see it clearly, you know,
Chris Krupinski:no, they're, they're, they're very, very intertwined. Graphic Design, everything you do, has to have a reason. You can't just say, you know, if a client says to me, Well, why did you use that color? I can't just say, oh, because I liked it. That is not an acceptable reason. There has to be a reason. So it's not just color. With everything you've used, you have to have a reason. So I think that's carried over into my painting, because everything I do has a reason. You know it's it's, for instance, when we, when I was talking about shadows before in the foreground, I will never use Kodak's color palette ever. I use my I use my photos as reference only, and I develop my own color. So in these shadows, if I, if I relied on Kodak, my shadows would be great. But I don't, I think, Okay, what am I going to use? What, what palette am I going to use in these shadows? And I pay attention to, I pay attention to color overall, throughout all of the shadows. So if I use a violet, you're going to see it everywhere in the shadows, and then also temperature from from warm to cools as it moves away. But all of it has a reason in my head, all of it. And I think, I think that's so important that you think about this and you have a reason for what you do, just not arbitrarily throw things down. And I think because of that, it, it just, in the end, creates a better a better painting, because it, it causes you to really look at what you're doing and understand what you're doing. In fact, one time I was doing a step by step, and what I did is, after a step, I would stop, and I would look and I would sit down and write all my thoughts down, not just what I did, why I did it, you know, why did I put this here, and why was it important to me, and why did I use this color, and blah, blah, blah, and, you know, so that just reiterates how much time I spent thinking about what I do. But anyway, so this is so yes, graphic design definitely has a play in my fine art.
Bill Davidson:Actually, that's a very good question, but I'm not sure I've ever told anybody this. I was going to a studio and trying to learn from this guy, and then, and I saw plain air, and I went, wow, there's workshops and plein air. And part of it is this, the greatest fun of it's being out there. I mean, it's and you learn so fast when you're out there, but you need studio to prepare yourself. I'll never forget, I took my teacher out plein air painting. I said, Well, go play near painting, because I go into a workshop. He went out there and did it one time. Went right back into the studio, and I went see so I changed teachers. But here's, here's the thing. It's just and the plein air. People are fun. They're a lot of fun. They're all helpful. And you get together so like, it's really fun. I'll teach four indoor workshops, maybe a year, and then I teach one. I live in the Monterey Carmel area, so I teach two a year out here because it's so beautiful, and it's six to eight people. And I actually, I'm getting ready to teach one in the Eastern Sierras this year, where I'm going to do the same thing, six to eight people. And you're there, you paint a solid four days. But what happens is this, you get to know each other. They start forming groups. You go to dinners. I mean, it's a game changer. It's not just painting. It's a whole life experience that's just amazing. And when I was teaching them in Europe before covid, we would have 30 people, 15 students and 15 partners, and we would go to Italy, all over everywhere, and we'd go for like, eight, nine days. But the amazing thing was, you form bonds and friendships, and then you know each other all over the country. And the other thing was this, each time, when we announced the workshop the following year, it'd be sold out in four hours. So it's like, wow. So you just get all these bonds. I mean, it's turned into more than art. I would say now, most of my best friends, or a lot of the ones my newer best friends, were all formed in art. And I've met even though, when I was a trial lawyer, I met lots of people. I've met way more people have been seen way more of. Amazing things, being a playdare artist. So it's a life changing, altering experience. And I encourage everybody. You need to go to these live workshops. You need to be in, like around the artists. You meet them. I mean, I know artists now that because of the workshops they they go across the country, they can stop at almost every city and visit with an artist they met in one of the workshops. So it's really fun. So that's why. And I mean, it's like, I mean, I don't want to be in the studio, I want to be outside, and I want to learn. And you learn faster painting from life. Everybody will tell you that now you do the studio work, because I teach out at the booth Museum, I think every summer, in July, which is wonderful in Cartersville, Georgia. So I do that when I teach up at Highland. So I do teach indoor ones. And I think you have to have that before you get outside. I think you can go outside too. I just throw you. Here's what I would say. You throw yourself into it, and don't judge yourself. And you get around people that are supportive and that can teach you things where you learn, and it becomes a lot of fun. I get a lot of doctors, dentists. I mean, it's amazing. What little the people that are coming to workshops, they all get to know each other. It's, it's just, it's a life altering experience.
Jill Basham:Well and then. And in that sense, it's maybe, for me, when I'm painting, I try not to get too defined with it too quickly. Because, yeah, you know, I think the thing is, and I've done it both ways, where I do get defined in an area too quickly, and then I do get precious about it and like, Oh, I just want to hold on to that little bit. But I think that if you can sort of be a bit more abstract in your start, yeah, and just looking at shape and overall, just the big picture simplifying put it in simply. It can end up, as long as you have a strong design and value structure, and end up being a very solid thinking.
Laura Arango Baier:Thank you to everyone out there for listening to the podcast. Your continued support means a lot to us. If you've enjoyed the episode, please leave a review for the podcast on Apple podcast Spotify or leave us a comment on YouTube. This helps us reach others who might also benefit from the excellent advice that our guests provide. Thank you.