Original Painting -acrylic on board six foot artworkBy Wincuinas
Buy new: $1,200.00 First tagged “feng shui” by Jason Wincuinas Customer tags: original art, abstract art, feng shui
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Ozello Palms12x16 inchesmixed mediagold or copper frame800.00Purchase HEREPainters TipDon't throw out that old furniture!!My entire studio is furnished with old junk furniture. After all, it is all going to have paint splatters on it anyway. If you have an old dresser, chest of drawers and a night stand with a drawer in it, you have just about everything you need to furnish a small studio. I took the mirror off an old dresser from the 70's and now use it as my framing table. I taped several rows of bubble wrap on the top, a long piece of foam rubber would work equally well. The drawers hold unframed paintings,and all of my tools, tape,glue, and anything related to framing. It is just the right height for comfort to frame and install hardware. I put one of those cabinets in the wall over it that holds screws, nails and so forth in little drawers.I made a combination taboret/palette stand next to my easel with an old night stand with a drawer. I pulled open the drawer and nailed in the
Aucilla River30x40 inchesoil on canvasSOLDSee more of my paintings HEREPainters TipUsing Directional CuesIn composition, you have many ways to lead the viewer through your painting. One of my favorites is color. I will often use tiny hits of repeated color in places where I want the viewer to go. Let's say that you have a field with grasses and a few trees. You want one of the trees to dominate the others. Of course you will want to put more texture and refinement of brushwork in that tree, but you can also lead the viewer to it from the land as well. If you have flowers in the field you can use a hint of their color in that tree trunk. If you have tall grasses, you can add a color to them which will lead up to that tree and on to the trunk, pulling the eye along. It can be very subtle or overt, depending on your style of painting, but in either case, the viewer will be drawn to that tree. You are using the color as a road map through the painting, placing it here and there along
United Kingdom Trees8x10 inchesacrylic on panel500.00silver or gold framePurchase HEREPainters TipIn my opinion, the three most important areas of study in painting are color, values and composition. I call them the big three. We all have limited time for painting. I believe concentrating on those three areas will bring you the best results. This is no small task. I have been studying the big three for many many years and I have much to learn. Composition and the design elements are a lifetime study for most painters and should be. Composition is the alpha dog of the trio. I promise if you will take the time to study the design elements and composition your work will improve. Use your painting study time wisely. Focus on the big three and you can't go wrong.
6x9 inchesacrylic on panel350.00silver framePurchase HerePainters TipEnlarging PhotosGriddingThere are a couple of handy ways to enlarge a photograph. My favorite is by the grid method. Draw a grid on your photo or a copy of your photo if you don't want to ruin the photo. Then make the identical grid pattern on your canvas. Then it is just a matter of filling in each square accurately. Look at the squares as individual contour drawings, not as a definable objects. Pay attention to positive and negative space, curves angles or line placement within the squares. At the end, you have enlarged the photo fairly easily and it is a fun project. As a bonus, you may end up with some pretty cool abstract painting ideas. Opaque ProjectorThe second method is by opaque projector. This goes much faster than the grid method but you will need to be aware that if you don't have straight angles it can look distorted. I would suggest that you actually hang the canvas straight on the wall before starti
12x16 inchesacrylic on panel800.00gold or silver framePurchase HEREPainters TipWhen you are painting objects like towers or light houses it is important to make them pretty even and straight. It will help you to first draw a vertical rectangle as a guide. You can split the rectangle vertically so that you know the middle and the edges and then make adjustments in the shape. It will still be centered. When you get the outline correct, You can paint over the rectangular shape which was your guide. I like to carry a little 6 inch ruler in my paint box so that when I go out on location I can make the corrections with it when painting architecture. My example was quickly done without a ruler. If I were doing it to get an accurate painting, I would definitely use a small t-square or ruler.
The Million Dollar Race art exhibition is nearly upon me and I finally put the finishing touches on all my paintings this morning before driving them over to the gallery. In all I am displaying eight paintings of various sizes, all acrylic and all on canvas. My hands, arms, eyes, legs are all sore from the frame building, stretching and painting! Yes, I do stretch all my work, by hand, myself.
I am still not ready to show any of the eight pieces online until after the opening night of the show this weekend but I am posting a picture of the painting that will be auctioned tomorrow evening at the Ritz Carlton MDR gala dinner. It is called “Boys Toys” and has been done in a stained glass technique, for want of a better description. Let me know what you think!
Click Here For High Res Image Of Boys Toys
That’s all for today - I’m beat!
Nickola
8x10 inchesacrylic on panelGold Frame500.00Purchase HEREPainters TipStudio VisitsI'm very pleased to have a studio visit from a person from Michigan today. She saw my web site and wants to have a personal visit while she is in the area on vacation. It is always exciting to have people come from far away. She is going to go out of her way to visit my studio and that is an honor. I always do a little research on visitors if I have any information about them. It's nice to know what they do and what they are interested in seeing before they come. I looked up her web site and read about her. I just Google searched her name. I spent yesterday spiffing up the studio and putting things in closets, pulling out paintings and arranging them attractively around the studio. I also put out my guest book and a pen and my brochures and business cards.Last night I made a quick coffee cake and got some juice and soft drinks to put in my mini fridge. I want her to feel comfortable, like a guest in my
24x24 inchesoil on canvas1800.00Purchase HEREPainters TipWorking With Commission ClientsCommissions are a lot more work and hassle than doing paintings to sell in galleries or your studio.Clients have an image in their minds that you cannot know. It is very important to have excellent communications skills, and to be willing and able to leave your ego at home while working on commissioned paintings. You are the artist and instinctively know what works with paint and what does not, and you have your own unique vision for your work, or, in other words, your "style". This does not always work with their vision. In fact, it seldom does. You are happily painting along on the painting thinking to your self, "this is really going well". You show the stage to the patron and they are not at all happy with the version so far. It's time to put your ego aside and really listen to their thoughts and possible changes.Remember, this is about them, not you. You cannot possibly understand the emotion
This is the painting that I made at the Minnesota Safari Club State Convention - a Cape Buffalo (my first one! ). This piece was painted on Saturday during the show. I took a few photos of a number of mounts on display during the VIP preview on Friday night of the show for [...]
After much work here is the 2nd Carnival painting, this is 18" x 24" and surely inspired plein air. I came this close _ to taking a pair of scissors to it. The day before yesterday I has said that's it I'm done and walked away.
and then in a sudden fury of palette knife hours that tumbled by I finished the piece into something that makes sense visually for me. I was trying to explain to my
18x24 inchesoil on canvassilver frame1500.00Purchase HERE Artist Journal This is a completed work in progress I showed you a few days ago. Evinston is one of my favorite places to paint in North Central Florida. It is a very old town with historic architecture and it has Florida's oldest working post office, The Wood Swink Post Office. The PO has lots of cool stuff in it, including a general store, just like in th old days. They sell fresh produce from Freddy Wood's garden behind the PO. It is a meeting place for the community and has one of the old timey drink boxes. I just love painting in that area and the scenery is first class. Painters Tip Cloud PaintingIf you want to make your clouds the focal point of your composition, remember to give them ample room. Drop the horizon line well below the middle mark of your painting surface and keep the rest of the landscape simple. Like everything else, clouds follow rules of perspective. Those closest to you are likely t
8x10 inches oil on panel SOLD Painters Tip We can Help Each Other A few months ago I tried an experiment of putting Google ads on my other blog. I never thought anything else about it. Time went by and I heard nothing from Google. Two days ago I received a nice check in the mail and was surprised and delighted. I decided this is a very good thing. I added a small ad to this blog too. It made me realize that I can help my fellow artists and other bloggers by reading the ads on their blogs too. It only takes a moment or two to read them and knowing I am adding to their income makes me happy. Not to mention that it helps the folks who run the ads as well. Perhaps we all need to be more diligent in reading the ads on our favorite blogs and at our favorite artists sites. The more we help each other the better for all of us.
Cape San BlasPort St Joe, Florida18x24 inchesoil on canvas1500.00Purchase HEREPainters TipPainters need to draw. I talk to painters everyday who say "I don't like drawing, I'm a painter." I believe that drawing is the skeleton of all art. Without competent drawing skills there are all kinds of problems with perspective, figures,portraiture, architecture, animals, florals and other subjects. Drawing is very inexpensive and takes but a bit of practice every day to see huge improvement.You can sit in front of the TV and draw for 20 minutes. Draw everything you see,including furniture, family, the dog, fruits and vegetables.Try blind contour drawing as a warm-up.You will need:PencilsPaperEveryday ObjectsWhat You Do:Choose an object to draw . Pick a point on the object where the eye can begin its slow journey around the contour or edge of the object. Remember, the eye is like a snail, barely crawling as it begins its journey.. When the eye begins to move, so should the hand holding
