I’ll be doing a one-day plein air workshop in Sag Harbor for anyone in the neighborhood. The date is Wednesday the 25th of August from 10am to 5pm and the cost is $145. For sign-ups or more information, you can use the Hamptons Studio of Fine Art website or call 631-603-5514.
My painting of the Marsiliana from eleven years ago. 100 x 70 cm
After the success of our Trevi plein air workshop, Daniela Astone and I have decided to do a second course in Maremma (near the coast in southwestern Tuscany). As with Trevi the area is one of the more picturesque in Italy and one of my favorite places to paint. We will stay in the Marsiliana, a stunning castle/hamlet perched on a hill and near enough to the coast for day trips to the beach. It’s an area where I have already scouted extensively over the years, and I had a painting breakthrough of my own there 11 years ago so the place has a sentimental value to me.
The dates will be from the 17th to the 27th of September and the cost for the ten days will be €1900 for a shared double room with everything included (food, lodging, wine(!), and we will buy materials for everyone this time, so people aren’t using poor quality equipment). Single room accommodation is available at an additional cost, and spouses are welcome at a discounted rate.
Spaces are limited so send an email to marc@ritratto.com if you’re interested in joining.
This is a video from a series I’ve been doing trying to demonstrate single ideas on painting using short films. I thought it was useful to post it now seeing as the landscape season is in full swing and all. There is an HD version as well, change the setting from 360p.
(Cool fact: the video was edited on a Dell mini 10v while sitting in a meadow).
Today is the last day of the ten day plein air course around Trevi, Umbria. One of my favorite landscape painting spots in the whole world. We had great weather after the first couple of days and I was helped immensely by the multi-talented Daniela Astone who assisted me in teaching.
White roads and hay bales.
Poppy fields below Trevi.
This is the first time I’ve done an extended intensive workshop and it was interesting to see how much the students improve after ten days of straight painting. We were also lucky that two professional painters, Charlie Church and Takuma Kaneko joined us. So often the best teaching is a good example.
Takuma finishing off the day from the parking lot of the hotel.
Charlie helping Denise with her painting.
Ben Fenske also did an excellent demonstration one afternoon on aerial (atmospheric) perspective and planes.
Ben giving a demonstration below Trevi.
We stayed at a charming little agriturismo, Le Vedute, on the hill outside Trevi, where Pietro and Marta looked after us splendidly.
Here are a few more action shots from the trip:
Daniela painting ducks on a river bank.
Maike at the end of a long day.
Bob painting in the shade in the valley.
Luigi painting at the Clitunno Springs.
Overall the course was a a great success and we got good feedback from everyone. Daniela will scout around Maremma for a location for our next workshop together and hopefully we can set something up for September.
A few people have asked me about the weekend workshops in July. I have an invitation to Sardinia so I wont be here this year. Instead I’ll try to do weekend workshops before then in a private garden in Florence. The dates will be the 12th and 13th, and the 19th and 20th of June from 8 to 12 in the morning. There are only a limited number of places so let me know via email if you’re interested in joining: marc@ritratto.com
View of Trevi from the Bed and Breakfast.
I’ve posted the dates and location for the first of two plein air workshops I hope to do this June. The area around the town of Trevi in Southern Umbria really amazed me for it’s picturesqueness when I was in Spoleto a few years back. I’ve been back a couple of times since then to scout the place out and I feel it has incredible potential for a plein air painting location.
The town is also quite beautiful and without much traffic, if the group is interested in cityscapes.
Picture taken in the center of Trevi this September.
For more information, head over to the courses page.
Using the sight-size technique for landscape painting.
There is a lot going on right now in my life and haven’t been posting much. This is just a quick post to help better explain to my weekend landscape students the principle behind using the sight-size method for plein air sketching. In the photo above you can see how the camera was held in a position where the subject is the exact same size in nature as the painting on the panel. When using sight-size in the studio, the painter moves back to view the subject and the painting together from a distance. In the case of sketching the large view of a landscape onto a small panel with the sight-size method, the trick is to make sure your head is always in the right position where the subject ‘fits’ onto the panel. I personally believe many painters do this instinctively without realizing it.
The sight-size method is incredibly useful for landscape painting as it allows the painter to focus on the colors, values and edges, and the shapes almost seem to take care of themselves. For atelier-trained painters especially, who have spent years painting with the sight-size method already, it seems a waste not to continue using it outdoors.
Painting at the Badia a Passignano.
Above is a panoramic photo of Wendy, Takuma and I painting at the Badia a Passignano this weekend.
I gave a portrait demonstration two days ago at the Long Island Academy of Fine Art in Riverhead and talked about why sight-size is the best thing to happen to oil painting since lead white. The whole thing was filmed so I’ll try to put up a digital version when I get an edited copy.
For anyone looking for art lessons on Long Island, Jim Daga Albinson and Robert Armetta have done a great job setting up a couple of traditional painting ateliers in Riverhead and Glen Cove. They also get some excellent teachers for short workshops on a regular basis, and I know a few of the Florence Academy instructors will be doing short courses during the summer break this year, for those of you who can’t make it over to Italy.
The other evening Charles Cecil came to our open studio and, as usual, had a few things to say. One of the more interesting was a discussion on the use of temperature terminology when critiquing painting.
According to Charles, critiquing painting using the terms ‘warm’ and ‘cool’ was never done in R. H. Ives Gammell’s studio (where he studied) and is less accurate than describing the actual hue, i.e. too blue, too yellow, etc.
I find that using temperature to describe hue is much easier but not necessarily better. As a teacher, you get an immediate visceral reaction if something is too warm or too cool and it takes a second longer to figure out what the exact hue is. On the other hand, it is, at the end, much more helpful to the student both in the moment, and also in the long term to think in terms of hues and not temperature.
Charles’ exact words on the subject can’t be repeated on a family blog such as this, but I think he has a good point. At any rate, I’m now trying to get back into the habit of correcting student’s work by using hue and not temperature.
Edit: It was just pointed out to me that a quick search of Google books turns up a number of pre-1900 writings on art (notably Eastlake) which mention warm and cool, I still think it is less precise.
Sean and Sara painting this morning.
At the moment I am teaching the Florence Academy of Art’s landscape painting class along with Jordan Sokol. Princess Giorgiana Corsini has generously given us the use of the private gardens at her palazzo, which is one of the more beautiful places to paint on an April morning. I took a few pictures this morning as the place is so stunning.
One interesting thing about the course in general is that the advanced painting students tend to have more difficulty that the intermediate group. I think they assume that because they have painted so much in the studio already that it should be just the same outside. It is actually very different, and they tend to get frustrated quicker that the students with less experience in painting. Another problem I notice every year is that the students bring the wrong materials and think they can just wing it. Painting is so difficult even when your materials are all perfect, it becomes almost impossible if you have missing or incorrect equipment.
This year the class is going well. Today was only our second meeting and already the work is showing great improvement.
Judson painting a backlit view.
Pablo painting the portico.
