a critique is a good thing

I feel honored when an artist whose work I respect is willing to critique my work. To be given the opportunity to learn from another who really knows what they are talking about is good, but to also hear that person talk about your  work in a helpful constructive way is a great gift. A critique is different from a criticism, and it takes a while to learn this point as a young art student.
I have been following the blog posts of several artists for a couple of years now, some of whom are amazingly generous with information. Since I have discovered the world of blogging, it has opened up a lot of new ideas for me, I think I would have to attend a pretty amazing graduate school program in painting to get all of this, and it is free.
One artist whose work I very much admire is Stapleton Kearns (isn't that a cool name) , he is an accomplished and successful landscape painter. I consider my reading of his blog to be a graduate level class online.
One of the many generous things Mr. Kearns does is to offer a critique of reader's work. After reading a few of these, I sent in a jpeg of my recent painting of the fountain in the park. Within that week, he had posted my work with a very instructive critique. With Mr. Kearns' permission, I am going to quote his words here and post my work again to demonstrate.
 Stapelton Kearns in his own humble words explains his approach to the critique; "Thank you mystery artist for letting me crit your work. I know it takes a lot of courage to allow me to rip into your painting. I hope you and the other readers will profit by my criticism. Of course you are you, and the painting is something you have made. I critiqued the painting, and not you. For our mental health it is important to understand that. What a great guy I would be if I could improve myself as easily as I can improve my painting."


Here is the link to Stapleton Kearns' blog http://www.stapletonkearns.blogspot.com
And here is his website with a selection of beautiful landscape work. http://www.stapletonkearnsgallery.com

back to the park

I returned to the park, on a very sunny warm day. This time, I sat on another side of the fountain, in the shade, but somewhat at the same angle. I was in the shade but the fountain was in full sun.
I spent more than 60 minutes on this, probably more like 90 minutes to finish the tree details.
I used Golden Open Acrylics for this open air painting. It does not dry too fast, giving some time to blend even with the effect of sunshine and breeze.
It's an improved effort? I will continue to paint with this method. As the artist says "it is brush mileage that improves your skill."

outdoors in the park

Lovely summer days here lately, although on the hot side.
I have been reading a book by Craig Nelson, "60 Minutes to Better Painting". The inspiring idea here is to sharpen your skills of observation and decision making as a painter by doing quick studies. These are the beginning stages as I have worked though the lessons. A really rough composition sketch first, breaking up shapes with a geometric approach.

Then, another quick study using what Craig Nelson calls a two-value study. And this is as far as I got in the 60 minutes. I decided to return another day to the same little park to practice the steps again and maybe get a little farther.
I am not at all happy about this first effort, but I am eager to learn something from this book and improve.
Craig Nelson graduated from the same school where I earned my degree; The Art Center College of Design. He also was teaching there at the time that I was a student but I didn't take a class from him, although I remember some other students talking about his class.