"Another Summer Day" 5x7 Oil on Copper panel.  SOLD!  To a wonderful lady who owns this sailboat!  Amazing! 

  "The Robin's Nest"  This painting was accidently destroyed.  I worked on it the next day.  It just turned into a pycho nest.  I sanded it down!  Such is life!  Nests are hard to paint!

     Today was another amazing Summer Day!  I went to Fort Point State Park with The Art Mentor.  We painted birches again as you can see.  The Art Mentor was on fire today!  He was giving me such great information I had to start writing it all down!  Here are some of the things he told me!

     Norman Rockwell was asked what materials he used to create his paintings.  He replied because of the deadlines, as an illustrator, he used many types of dryers not known for their durability.  He then stated he hoped his paintings wouldn't blow up. 

     The Art Mentor was painting on canvas.  I was painting on copper.  A tourist came up to me and asked me about the copper.  I told her I painted on copper because it was the most archival substrate to paint on.  The Medieval artists painted on copper and their paintings, 500 years later look perfect in museums.  The Art Mentor replied, "My paintings are going to blow up!"  We all laughed as he explained he was painting on canvas and it would disintegrate the minute they purchased the painting!  So funny!

      Yesterday The Art Mentor told me about Sandlers Sales System.  He took this sales class each morning a long time ago.  Sandler would make a customer sick and then cure them to make the sale.  He would ask them why they came out to the car lot that day?  He would listen to their answer knowing then what happened to their car.  Then after listening to their story, he would find a cure for them by finding a car on the lot.  The Art Mentor told me much of Sandlers is dated.  Some of the information would be useless.  He did learn about how to help a customer to make a sale.  

      The Art Mentor was working on a painting he had started a few days ago.  He asked me to come take a look at what he was doing.  He had lightened the painting on purpose.  The shadow the birch trees casted was lightened.  He then put lavender in the grass shadow up against the sunspot that was a light greyed orange.  The lavender made the grass look flat on the ground as well as brightening the sunspot by being the complement of the sunspot.  It also introduced a nice new color. 

     He then told me about a PUFFOPOD.  He learned this from another landscape artist Anthony Sirrino.  A puffopod are accents scattered through painting or spots.  They break up areas that are too flat.  They add vibration to a painting.  An example of a puffopod:  He places a color he invented called Porn Star Pink into grass shadow areas.  This Porn Star Pink looks to me like hot pink salt water taffy. He throws this Porn Star Pink in the shadow areas of the cool green grass colors to make a dull area look lively.  Puffopods add sparkle into dull areas and enhance liven the painting.  He also added dark accents that would be leaves fallen on the grass.  These few dark accents on top of the shadow grass areas lightened the shadow area. 

   He called me over to his easel again to show me how he makes the sky a positive shape instead of negative.  He paints in the tree leaves in the sky.  Then he paints the birch trunks.  Then he paints the sky to make the sky positive shapes.  He paints the sky holes darker than the actual sky.  

    He then told me about a very important principal.  Painting is a dance between observation and invention.  The strickly observation artist will have his lunch eaten by the inventor artist.  The observation plein aire artist is the artist who paints only what he sees.  He copies exactly the landscape infront of him in terms of composition nature provides and colors.  The Inventor artist creates a better composition, changes values, changes colors to create atmosphere and emotion.  He may change or introduce anything he feels will make the best painting possible.  Because after all, a painting should not exist unless it is painted well! 

    I asked The Art Mentor about the color he invented called Porn Star Pink.  "How do you make this color?"  He answered giving this some thought.  For a moment I didn't think he would tell me his secret.  Then he answered, "You can buy this color made from Williamsburg oil paint called Persian Rose.  You could also create this color yourself by mixing the right combination of Quin Red, White, and a Dioperolyperol Red."  I am not really sure about the name of the last red there. 

     He did say this Porn Star Pink can be a hot or cold color.  It can have an orange glow which is the perfect complement to green! 

     Several days while out painting with The Art Mentor and his famous painting friends, I heard several say, "The light is failing."  I didn't think the light was gone at all.  They would look at each other.  I didn't get it.  Finally he told me.  Ives Gamble his teacher would tell him, "We will paint till the light fails."  This meant until the golden hour was over before sunset.  There would still be sunlight, but the light for their subject was gone.  The light they were looking for was over.  Complicated!  A secret saying!  Ahhh!

     He told me to come look at what he did next.  He took a rigger brush, loaded with a mixture of Ultramarine blue and Permanent Alizarin.  To create rhythm he made convexes and concaves in the branch areas within the trees.  He added these dark similar shapes that interchanged across horizontally gracefully and subtle. " They related to one another." he explained.

     He then showed me how he used this massive two inch flat brush and lightly very lightly dragged this brush over some areas of the painting to "fuse" the painting together.  He showed me how he took a small flat brush and tapped along the island in distance to soften the line.  

    He told me of another secret.  Professional painters (people who only do painting for a living) and NOT a persona called  Artists too ( people who come up to Professional painting while they are painting and claim they are artists too)
Artists too do not show their work in galleries.  They do not work to support themselves as an painter.  They work another outside job and try to learn how to paint.  They may sell an occassional painting.  After I understood this principal, then he shared another insider secret.  A "Pagoda" is a location a plein aire painter goes to that only has one thing to paint.  This location does not have many paintings all around, but one subject.  Painters will gather near this one "Pagoda" and paint the same thing of course, in a different manner.  A "Monet Garden" is a location a plein aire painter goes to that has many painting possiblities.  

       The baby seal presented himself on the beach while we were painting.  A man and his son told us the seal might be injured.  The seal's flipper seemed not to be working.   I went down to see the alleged injured seal for myself.  The Art Mentor was ready to carry the seal down to the water.  Instead the seal decided to scurry over the rocks back into the water.  He swam away.  He must have been resting from swimming.  He was very little!  He seemed fine!   I think this was a great photo.  I may paint this seal.  So tiny!  Sweet!

     I sold two paintings today while I was painting!  This is just great news! Not 100$ paintings either!  I had given Daisy and Duke a raw hide bone earlier this morning.  When I came home Daisy had stolen Dukes bone.  He looked so sad!  I gave him back his bone!

 

     Tomorrow Daisy and Duke will receive ice cream made for dogs called "Paws" as the painting sales was exceptional this week!  Thank you!  

     When I came home I also received more great news!  I was invited to a beautiful hotel on Nantucket called The Century House.  They have excepted me into a Fall Artist In Residency.  I will travel to Nantucket.  They will allow me to stay in their hotel for almost a week!  They will select one of my paintings completed during this stay for their permanent collection.  They are also hosting a "Art on their Veranda" on Thursday night.  They invite dealers, galleries, neighbors, and hotel guests to see what I have painted during my stay.  They sometimes sell paintings during this event.  I can keep these painting sales.  I am so excited about this! 

     I hope you had a great day.  I am going to paint really hard tomorrow!  It may rain outside, by I will be painting inside!  Paint outside when you can!  The Art Mentor says, "Painting a landscape from photos is like learning to swim inside on the couch!