New Animal Portrait

A new animal portrait recently completed and a winning entry in a local art competition.  More updates of new paintings will follow. I have mainly been working on portraits.  

Below is another portrait I finished awhile ago...

New painting

New E-book for beginner oil painters

I have recently completed a new e-book for beginner painters.  It has lots of really fun stuff and lessons for beginners to try and get more confidence.  Just go to my website www.oil-painting-for-beginners.com and click on the bottom menu button. Or you can click on the link below to check it out.


http://www.oil-painting-for-beginners.com/how-to-oil-paint.html

Still painting and learning

Hi all, it has been awhile since my last posting. On the left is a photo of a portrait I have done recently. This is Harry. It is a 3/4 length portrait I worked on at a portrait workshop I recently completed. I learned so much at that course. I needed lots of help with my brushwork techniques and have improved quite alot from taking this class. Since painting Harry I have gone on to paint a few other portraits which I will try to post on this blog in future postings. I found the eyes (for me) are the key to painting a successful portrait. I will continue to paint portraits and try to improve my skill.

Where has the time gone?

Wow i hadn't realized how long it has been since i have posted in this blog. I have been busy painting new paintings and posting them on my website. Here is one of the new ones i've done for anyone interested in seeing: This painting is called "Black Mountain" and is a landscape of an open cut mining area in South Australia. It is a smallish painting about a 12" x 12" size.
I have been painting landscapes for many years and have decided to go more into painting portraits. You should paint what you enjoy doing. I will probably go back to landscapes again, but would really like to increase my skills in portrait paintings. Also, another helpful hint for artists learning to paint is get many books on the topic you are learning as these will definently help you increase your skills. I have learned so much from my art books and am always going back to them for reference material or just to remember about something i was trying to do with the painting. In the painting listed above i had to learn how to make the special green colours here in Australia. They are typical to the trees here and i had to get some "australian red gold" paint that Art Spectrum manufactures and mix Ultramarine blue or yellow or white to get the special Australian green colour that is native to the area here.

Updates on new paintings

Hi all, I haven't posted recently as I have been busy painting in my studio. I have been working on several new paintings and am pretty excited about them. I recently did a new self portrait and have posted it in my gallery website here http://www.marilouoloughlin.com Just click on the Gallery button and go to Portraits and scroll down to the bottom and you will see what I look like in a painting. Sign my guest book and leave a comment if you like.
In this posting I will put in the floral painting I have recently been working on. Here it is ...
This is a smaller painting; about 8" x 8" on stretched canvas.
Also, just wanted to remind those artists who would like to contribute information to the other website http://www.oil-painting-for-beginners.com that I have set up a number of the websites pages so that other people can add new pages to the site to make it have more information and just grow and be a wealth of information to people who are interested in learning how to paint. You can add you website or blog under the Artist Directory and get another link to your site as well. If you have some good content you would like to share on the site, don't be shy, go ahead and enter it in the site. Eventually I would like to have it set up where people can go to their favourite artist contributor to the site and get updated with new information. I will be pretty busy the next few weeks with Christmas coming up and the new year stuff so will try to do the next post in early January. I wish you all a great Christmas and happy New Year. Keep painting, you will get better!

Still Life painting

I purchased a couple of Capsicum peppers or "bell peppers" in the shop recently and set them up under a lamp to give them some good lighting with shadows. I wanted to have some brilliant colours in this small piece (6"x8") size. I have found I do a much better job of painting when I can paint the "real" thing instead of using a photo. But I still use photos as reference material. I had to paint this small piece relatively in one short painting session as the peppers were starting to go "off" the next day as I noticed they were beginning to wrinkle and turn brown in areas. But I was pleased with the result and this is a nice cheery painting.
Also, for those artists who visit my other site http:www.oil-painting-for-beginners.com
I have decided to open the site for other artists to enter information to help keep the site informative and alive and growing. This will definently improve the site and give it more valuable information if I'm not the only artist entering information to help people learn. There are a number of pages that request information from viewers including the gallery menu button which I am opening up as a "Artist Directory" for other artists to have their website or blog links listed in that area. This will be good for the artists too as it will give them another link for their site to improve their traffic with. I am not the "end-all, be-all" authority to learning how to paint with oils and would like other artists to have their say about this topic whether it be what paints are the best to helping with critiquing new artists paintings. If you have any further suggestions on how the website could be improved please leave a comment or email me through the contact me button on the site. Hope everyone has a great Christmas! And happy New Year!

Series of small paintings

In South Australia we have just been going through spring season and I had some blue-violet irises blooming so I thought they would be a good subject to paint. I took a few different photos of the flowers and then began a small painting on stretched canvas. I thought the colours were unusual because they were different shades of blue turning to a majenta shade. I tried to capture this colour variation in the painting.
In the photograph the background colour was trees and tall grass and I thought these things were distracting to the main focus of the painting so I intentionally painted a plain dark background to enhance the bright colours of the flowers and bring out the brilliant colour contrasts. Sadly the flowers didn't bloom for long but now there is an image of the beautiful flowers that will. This small painting will be the first of a series of small paintings that I plan on creating. I have since painted another small still life painting which will be listed in the next post. Thanks for reading about the art.

News and updates on new paintings being added to the website

For this post I would like to write about when I add a new painting to my website in addition to giving information to new painters. The paintings will be listed in my website at the following address:
http://www.marilouoloughlin.com

I would like to write some comments about some of the paintings I am doing and thought this blog would be the ideal place to put the comments in. I will begin with a painting that I did awhile back called "Cow Shed" (above)
This painting was painted on location just outside the small town I live in South Australia. The cow shed was located off a dirt road. I was intrigued with this abandoned stone building that used to be a cow shed. I think the building must of been nearly 100 years old. I was interested in painting this because I thought it was very unique and unusual. These old abandoned buildings tell alot about the history of a place. I wanted to "capture" this bit of "time" on canvas before it disappeared forever. The view I was looking at was into the shed and there was a hole on the other side with a view of the outside. The roof of the shed was a type of metal. There was lots of old "junk" laying around inside the shed. I wasn't game to actually go inside the shed for fear of snakes or spiders. I welcome any comments on any of these paintings if you so care to write about it.

What do I paint when I first begin to learn oil painting?

This is the question many people beginning to learn how to paint with oil paints ask. For an answer I recommend you try all the different subject types to get some painting experience with all of them and then you can decide what subject you like the best. The subjects you can choose from are:
Landscape
Seascape
Cityscape
Floral
Still Life
Portrait
*Human (face or whole body)
*Animal
Abstract
Fantasy

There are many more but these will get you started. For beginners I recommend doing a few still life paintings as you can control the lighting and subjects.
Try as many of the different types of painting subjects as you can so you can decide what you enjoy painting the most. Then do your favourite subject.
With my own experience I began doing landscape painting and some still life and floral paintings. I have gradually gone on to doing portraiture. I still love to paint landscapes but would like to get better at doing portraits.
If you find you are trying a new type of subject matter and learn you don't enjoy that particular type of painting then you don't have to keep on doing that subject. Stop and try something else new you haven't done before.
The main thing is you should enjoy the painting process and you will be getting valuable experience too.

Try to practice your art on a regular basis

If you want to get better at your art and painting; you must make time to do your art on a regular basis. Even if it is only 10 or 15 minutes a day, or every other day. Every time you pick up your paint brush and make an effort to paint something you improve and grow your skill. It is as simple as that. You have to practice to get better. The more you practice, the better your painting skills will get, I guarantee it. If you cannot paint, then just practice on drawing some small "thumbnail" pictures, re-arranging items for composition purposes. If you have never heard of a "thumbnail" it is just a small picture size such as 3" x 3"

I have wanted to practice and get better at my portrait painting and have been working on this type of painting recently. I have just finished a painting of "Ken" who is 90 years old. You can see his picture on my website under "portraits". Ken has some unusual colour eyes, extremely light blue colour. I have also seen people with extremely light grey eyes here in Australia. They almost look like albino eyes.

For people just learning to paint just practice very simple subjects to paint. For example just paint some fruit (maybe an apple) under a lamp to get some good shadows and lights. Still life set ups are great because you are in control of everything, including the lighting. You can also paint from a photograph, but pick something simple. Nothing too complicated or difficult or you will get discouraged.
The main thing is to just keep practicing and working on your painting and you will improve. Keep some of your old paintings and look back at the way you have grown with your painting skills, you will be amazed and pleased.

More Handy Useful Tips for Painting in Oils!

In addition to healthy tips for painting in oils; I would like to write about some other useful tips that some people may find handy and be interested in learning about.

First, when laying out your paints on your palette try not to be skimpy or stingy on how much you put down (I know that some of the paints are expensive). Oil paint usually takes several days before it starts to dry out and will stay moist for several days. If you can put your palette (with your paints) in the refrigerator in between painting sessions, this will keep your paints cool and slows down the drying time of the paints. Some colours will dry faster than others. The earth colours will dry quicker such as yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw sienna.

Another useful tip for painting with oils is always clean your brushes after every painting session. You don't need to buy the expensive brush cleaning stuff for this job, you can just use ordinary dish detergent to clean your brushes with. First clean them with your turp or paint thinner then wash them with your dish detergent. Put a small dab of dish detergent in the palm of your hand and rub your brush in this soap. Rinse with water thoroughly and lay flat to dry. Try to not stand them up when they are wet as this causes water damage to the ferrel of the brush. After they are dry you can pop them in the can standing with brush side up.
Hope this helps. I'll have more useful tips in another post.

A Few Tips on Staying Healthy when Painting with Oils

Tonight I wanted to write about some health issues with regard to painting with oil paints. If you can I hope to just give you some helpful tips on working with this type of medium. First, always paint in a well lighted area. Painting is a very "visual" art and you need to have good lighting to be able to see the colours you are working with. For lighting if you can have some good windows that let plenty of light in and be able to open them for ventilation is great. Have a well ventilated work space for your painting area. If you can open a window or try to use the low odour or odourless turp to clean and thin your paints with. There are water soluble oil paints on the market that you just use water with also. Another issue to think about, health wise, is try avoid skin contact with your paint, especially the cadmium oil paints. Some artist use rubber gloves to protect their skin from exposure to the materials in the paint and the solvents. Another tip to try to remember is to wear clothes you don't really care if you get paint on or wear an apron over your clothes to protect them. If you get the paint on your clothes, I believe it is very difficult to get it out. I got some oil paint accidently on the sleeve on one of my sweatshirts and have never really gotten it completely out after numerous washings. Another health issue is to never put your paint brush in your mouth like a pencil. some people will put the end of their pen or pencil in their mouth (a nervous habit) and this should never be done with your paint brush. The paints would be toxic to you if injested. Another important safety thing to remember is to never light a match or lighter to smoke around the solvent such as turp or mineral spirits. These fluids are highly flammable and you could set fire to yourself and your house/studio. Hopefully this information is helpful.

What do I need to get started painting with oils?

When I started to paint with oil paints back in 1985 I asked myself that question and had to basically figure out what all I needed as a beginner to get started painting with oil paints. I think I ended up buying an expensive oil paint box. This box comes with everything you need to get started painting with oil paints. The only problem is it is quite expensive and prohibitive for many people who cannot afford to pay for a nice paint box kit. I was living in South Africa at the time and actually ended up leaving it behind when I returned to the U.S. a year later. My husband bought me a new paint box kit to replace the one I left behind in South Africa. But while I was in South Africa I basically began to paint with oil paints and began to teach myself to paint from a book I had about oil painting.
Anyway in this post I will list the basic art material you need to get started with oil paints.
You will need:
Oil paints (I recommend primary colours: red, yellow, blue) Of these colours you can virtually mix all the other colours on the palette. As a beginner I would have the following colours to start:

*Titanium White (get a large tube of this as you will use lots of white)
*Cadmium yellow
*Cadmium red light
*Alizarin Crimson
*French Ultramarine Blue
*Winsor Green or Viridian
*Yellow Ochre
*Sap Green
*Paynes Gray
*Black (for beginners)
*Raw Umber (dark brown)
*Cadmium Orange (optional as you can mix this colour)

You will need brushes, try to get long handle bristle brushes
*brights, rounds and flats are good to start with
(you can get a variety of sizes, size 6 or 8 are good to start with)

You will need something to paint on. If you want to save money you can get a canvas pad. You just need to tape the sheets to a cardboard or glue them to a board of some type. You can also purchase canvas board or canvas panels as these are fairly economical.

You will need mineral spirits or turp to clean your brushes and to thin your paint with.
You will need some sort of easel. A table top easel is easy and cheap for beginners to start with.
Also linseed oil or poppy seed oil is good for adding to your paint. You will learn more about these things later.
You will need some sort of palette to put your paints on and to mix your paint on. You can buy disposable palettes or buy a plastic one or a wooden one.
Other items that are handy for painting with are an apron to protect your clothes, paper towels, a palette knife (I use mine to mix the paint with) an old rag is handy for wiping your brush occasionally. Old jars to put your turp in to wash your brushes.

You will need lots of patience as painting is a skill you have to build up and many people get frustrated because they do not like the results that they get. It takes time and lots of practice to get really good at painting with oils. Eventually you will improve and get better with practice.

You will need an area to paint in that has good lighting and good ventilation as this is a very visual art experience.

When you buy your supplies to start painting with keep in mind that "you get what you pay for" so if you buy cheap brushes, you will get cheap brushes that lose the bristles, and lose their shape easily. Try to get good quality art supplies and you will notice the difference either in the colours or brush performance almost immediately.

Glazing - What is it?

Glazing is a painting technique that is used in oil and acrylic painting. It is a process of painting "layers" of thin (hopefully) transparent paint over a dried painting to produce a rich deep colorful painting that has layers of transparent colors one on top of the other. Acrylic paint works great for this glazing technique as it dries very quickly. After you begin your painting you will have to wait for it to dry completely before you can proceed to paint the second layer over the first one. You need to use very thin diluted paint in the process. You can use oil paint with this technique but it will take longer to dry unless you use the Griffin Alkyd type of oil paints that dry faster than the regular oil paints. Some artists will have many different painting "in process of being painted" and can stop and let one dry and then just go on to another project they had put down for awhile. Sometimes it helps an artist to put a painting down for awhile and then come back to it with a fresh eye and then proceed with the project on to its finish. Glazing is great for painting such things as a creek bed with transparent water so see the rocks and things under the water. Painting water drops is another subject that you would use transparent glazing on. I recommend you try this technique, it is fun and can provide great results with your own paintings.

Using Acrylic Paints

In this post I wanted to write about using acrylic paints. I am primarily an oil painter but I do use acrylic paint from time to time for various things that I want to do because of the quick drying time and the ease of use of acrylic paints. One of the ways I will use acrylic paint is to tone my canvas with a yellow ochre or light orange colour prior to painting on it. What this does is gives the painting an all over colour or harmony as the initial painting is being done. The other reason I will tone with acrylic paint is you can see the colours better when you paint on a toned canvas than a white canvas. Another way I may use acrylic paints is after the toned colour is dry, I will paint an under painting with acrylic paint. Then go over that with oils where needed. I like the versatility of acrylic paint in the fact that it dries quickly and easy to clean up. No solvent smell as you use water to thin the paint and clean brushes with. Sometimes I feel a little pressured to hurry up due to the fast drying time and I like to take my time when I paint. But you can add a retarder medium to slow the drying time on acrylic paints if needed. So if you haven't tried acrylic paints I recommend you try them and see what they are like. Acrylic paint works great with oils as an under tone or under painting.

Cold Winter Weather

I just wanted to post about the winter weather here in Australia. The studio I have now is located out in a shed and is very cold in the winter. I have a small heater out there but it is still very cold. The studio I had before in our other house was located inside the house so I never worried about the weather because it didn't affect me. So I will have to wait awhile to work in my studio until the weather warms up to a more comfortable temperature to be able to paint in my studio. We have been getting alot of rain too which I was told was way more than they usually get in addition to the cold temperatures. I understand the temperature should start to warm up in September. I am looking forward to the warmer weather then I can work on my paintings again.

Painting on location or "en plein aire"

I have been living in Australia for a little more than 2 years and have been searching for other artist who enjoy painting outdoors or on location like I do. So far I have run into a brick wall as the people in my area just are not interested in this type of painting so I thought till last Saturday. I volunteer my time at the local art gallery for several hours a month and last Saturday I was there to do my volunteer time. Well, I finally met a fellow artist who is interested in painting outside! She has been trying to find someone to paint with her outside too for some time. She knows an artist that lives up north near Clare who goes out but not to our area very often. So we are planning to start to go out and paint in our area of our little town. There are numerous places to go to and lots of exciting places to check out and paint. She has been in this area for a lot longer than I have and knows all the good spots to go to but up until last Saturday couldn't find anyone to go paint with her till she met me. I have found that my paintings are much better when I do them on location than when I use a photograph. Seeing the real thing works better for me when I can paint outside.

Back on Australian Soil to Paint!

We got back last Tuesday, July 8th, and it has taken me nearly a week to get over the jet-lag. I am finally starting to feel my normal self. It was abit of a shock to come back to middle of winter after leaving summer in California. I was able to purchase a good camcorder and will start to create the video art lessons for the web site as soon as I can.
My next lesson I plan to teach to my class is going to be about "Brushstrokes" and what different types of brushes do. How to manipulate the brush to get the particular type of brush stroke you are striving for. Hopefully this lesson can be video taped for the website too.
I got really lucky while I was in California and got to meet two pretty famous artists who actually live in the same town my sister lives in. She knows one of them through her church friends and she didn't even know they were artists! She took me over to meet them and it was so exciting to get to meet Marilyn Simandle and Ted Goerschner! I actually have Ted's book and love his painting style. He paints in a very impressionistic "painterly" way. Here is a quote from Ted: "Most people overwork their paintings. Someone once said that detail is not a sign of industry but a sign of boredom. I feel that if you can create an effect with just one brushstroke, that takes genius. I like to give praise to painterly painters." Marilyn is also a fabulous artist and does some absolutely stunning work. I understand she started out painting in water-colour and now works with oil paint. Ted gave me some valuable advice and that was to paint as often as I can. That is what I tell my students also. He also gave me some tips on what art supplies to use such as canvas and paint brushes. It was such an honour to meet both of them.

On Vacation in U.S.

Hi all, I just want to say thanks for all the people who are waiting to read my next art post. I have been in the U.S. visiting my relatives and will be back in Australia in July. I am really excited to get back to my painting and art lessons. I have some wonderful resource material in photos I have taken. It has been wonderful visiting my mom and sister and will miss them again when I go back to Australia. Upon my return I will continue to add to my website: www.oil-painting-for-beginners.com and will begin putting in the video art lessons I had planned for the website.