Composition and expressive brushwork is the key to painting. Nothing else in painting matters if you don’t have that a good composition worked out before you start to paint. Here is the story of one of my paintings that illustrates this point. And some tips on how to achieve expressive brushwork, without killing it with overblending.
Cat. No. 1023 And Then The Sun Came Out, Carmel Beach – 16in x 20in – Oil on Canvas.
About the painting
I went down to Carmel Beach in California a few years ago looking for a composition for a painting. I was participating in the Carmel Art Festival competition after a gap of many years. I had returned to the US for my nephew’s wedding, and so I thought, why not try the festival again?
The problem with beach and sky paintings is balancing the cool blue shapes and the warm shapes of the sand. It is important to have a dominant temperature in a painting. Because the sky was the most active part of the painting, and the part I wanted to emphasize, it meant that I needed another blue/blue green shape in order to balance it.
As I worked out the composition, I realized that the shape of the ocean needed to take at least 2/3 of the width of the canvas. This meant I need it to be very close to the water’s edge in order to have a large enough shape for the ocean. This was going to be a little tricky!
I needed a good stable easel because of the wind, and so I setup my Take It Easel, which is a Gloucester style plein painting easel. I have found this easel to be the best design for a outdoor easel when are you are painting on a relatively large size painting support. This easel is highly stable, and also allows you to use a very large palette. It accommodates small paintings very well too – a highly flexible design.
The only problem with positioning yourself at the water’s edge is that it can be bad news when the tide is coming in!
Unfortunately the tide had already turned before I started my painting. So I knew that before the painting was finished, I would be painting in the water. But the composition was king. The was nothing I could do about it. The good news is that here is nothing like a bit of time pressure when you are plein air painting to ensure you have bold and confident brushstrokes!
In general, one of the advantages of speed in painting is that it helps you avoid overblending your work. By showing your confident expressive brushwork, you will end up with a much more interesting painting.
So, the most important thing in a painting that you absolutely must get right, is that you need a really strong composition. No matter how well you copy a scene, if your composition is not working, the painting will fail. When you are out painting outdoors, you may have to sacrifice certain things for your art. Usually it is comfort, but as you can see, there can be other problems when nature has other ideas!
By the way, the water caused a problem with my TakeIt easel. There are holes in the base of the legs for a leg extension. But these holes do not have the waterproofing in them that is applied to the rest of the easel. Being under water for an hour caused the wood to warp, and now the legs don’t slide easily every time the weather is damp. I sanded it four times and it is still a problem. So don’t do what I did!
Final note: Despite all the problems, this painting won the Best Oil or Acrylic Award in the Carmel Art Festival Carmel, California in 2016
Advice for painting students: how to achieve expressive brushwork
Confident expressive brushwork, such as in this painting, has nothing to do with style. It is a function of how well you master fundamental skills such as mass drawing and color observation. You cannot create expressive brushwork like this without that foundation. My recommendation is, if you want to do this type of work, spend a year or two on really mastering these fundamental skills. There is no shortcut.
One of my students wrote this in a letter to me a couple of years ago. This says it all.
“In about 2004 I rediscovered art, becoming a passionate “serious beginner.” Your program was exactly what I was looking for. I found your material to be succinct yet thorough, principle-based vs. “paint-along.” I had been dabbling with materials and “paint-alongs” until I realized that serious art wasn’t about copying, it was about composition. My wife is a musician and she agreed that for her, composition is much more difficult compared to performance. Your units on Notan and thumbnails were just what I needed to gain confidence in composing art. Now that I’m retired I’ve been entering shows and winning some awards with my pastels that I believe are based on the ‘far music’ Notan structure of my work. It speaks to the strength of your program that, even though it doesn’t cover pastel [specific techniques] at all, I have been able to apply nearly all of your lessons to my favored medium of pastel.”
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you find it useful. If you would like to get free painting tips by email, please sign up for my free tips newsletter.
If you are interested in a structured approach for learning how to paint, take a look at my online painting classes.
Happy painting!
Barry John Raybould
Virtual Art Academy
What The Students Are Saying
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Since I started the programme I can see improvements in my composition and use of colour
My painting “Primitive Pots” recently won the award given by the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour at the recent selected exhibition of the Society of East Anglian watercolourists. I have been working through the VAA course for over five years and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their painting. There is… Read more “Since I started the programme I can see improvements in my composition and use of colour”
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I finished the VAA course a few years ago, but always refer to the notes, rereading the course many times. This is not a course the day you are finished, you are done. No, you keep practising the assignments getting better and better over time. When I look back at my work when I had just… Read more “No need to buy expensive art books…. Just do the VAA 4 year course. I still refer to it”
The small steps are easy to do
I am extremely impressed with the process that Barry has developed for VAA. Learning to paint can be intimidating, but when broken into many small projects it is very do-able. I just did my first live model painting session- a 5 hour, one day session. Thanks to VAA, I was able to break the painting… Read more “The small steps are easy to do”
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Before repurposing my vocation into avocation, I spent 20 years in the corporate world as an instructional designer and performance consultant creating training curricula for diverse clientele from NASA to General Motors. I know curriculum development and how to guide a learner from beginning to certification. VAA is the only online learning program I have… Read more “Only online learning program I have ever discovered using a training industry best practice”
The most comprehensive, in depth and well-organized painting course available online
After a thorough research, my personal conclusion is that the Virtual Art Academy (VAA) is, by wide margin, the most comprehensive, in depth and well-organized painting course available in the internet. Unlike most tutorials and color mixing recipes commonly found online, VAA’s philosophy is rather to provide the students with detailed information about all aspects… Read more “The most comprehensive, in depth and well-organized painting course available online”
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