Oil Painting Demonstration at Fermi Lab Art Gallery

On December 15th I did a oil painting demo for an audience of about 35 people. Several were art students from Geneva High School and they were great to have in attendance as they asked probing questions. I even was asked what music I listen to in the studio, and how to spell the musician's names (Loreena McKennitt & Deva Premal, mostly). I learned that I can spell and paint at the same time. I was going over the basics of composition when their teacher said, "See guys, I am not just making this stuff up, he actually uses it in his paintings." I probably did not paint a masterpiece that day given the constraints of time and having my attention divided by painting and talking at the same time. One thing I did that seemed to work, was not concentrate on color accuracyas much  as I would in the studio, (or out in the field) but made sure the values were right. So if the value was right and the color was close it went on the painting. A painting will always look right if the values are correct.

This is the demo painting, I kind of like it's looseness. It allowed me to show some of my painterly tricks such as: painting with a rag, wiping out branches with a q-tip, and smearing paint on with a palette knife.

I feel the demo was a success, especially after a sincere, young art student named Luke, came up to me after the demo, shook my hand and thanked me. It brought back memories of the day when I was 14, and at my local library a nun who was also an artist was doing a portrait demonstration. She picked me for her subject. I was painted in an expressionistic style. The memory of that day stayed with me all these years and probably was one of the reasons I became an artist. Perhaps in my way I was passing it on, and one of these bright Geneva High School art students will one day in the future be giving a painting demonstration of their own.

Some photos from the demo. No, I wasn't doing my Michael Jackson impression, the glove was to keep paint off my hands so I wouldn't leave my fingerprints all over Fermi Lab.