Learning to Paint Looser

I have another seminar coming up soon. I have watched some video footage of this guy painting. It’s loose and gestural – but also refined and controlled. He makes his paintings look like they just magically happened. The kind of paintings that are exciting to look at from 3″ away in addition to from a normal distance.

I love this.

It is also all sorts of intimidating. Obviously I have no idea how to paint like this or I wouldn’t be taking a workshop. So after seeing a little bit of this in action I decided to experiment with it myself.

These are not perfect. They are learning exercises. I have learned lots. There are things I like about each of them and things that I don’t. Some of them are more successful than others – that isn’t the point. Practicing and learning are the point. Therefore there will be more of these to come.

Tomorrow I hope to start on some full size pieces that I have laid out – but I intend to continue to make these little ones in between other projects (each of these are 5″x7″ on canvas board done with conventional oil paints).