Pet Portrait "Jackson Brown"

Pet Portrait "Jackson Brown", 12"x12" acrylic on canvas, Toni Youngblood ©

Dias de los Muertos Exhibit at Artes Americas - Fresno, CA

 Above:  Katrina Ecuestre, Watercolor with hand-painted frame
 ~ Toni Youngblood


Click on the link below:

'Dia de los Muertos' exhibit to open in downtown Fresno

Sunflowers in Blue and Yellow Vase September 2019

Sunflowers in Blue and Yellow Vase ~ 11x14 inches Watercolor on paper ~ Toni Youngblood

Pet Portrait Commission: Sophie

Sophie, 12 x 12" acrylic on canvas, Toni Youngblood

Too Bright to be Invisible

Too Bright to be Invisible - This is how I feel about all my Intelligent, creative, hardworking "Sisters". 24"x18" Acrylic on canvas ~Toni Youngblood

PAZ AZUL (BLUE PEACE)

Paz Azul, 36"x36" Acrylic on Canvas, Toni Youngblood

7,500 Watercolor Paintings of Every Known Fruit in the World

In 1886, the US Government Commissioned 7,500 Watercolor Paintings of Every Known Fruit in the World: Download Them in High Resolution

High resolution and downloadable!

The Limited Color Palettes Artists Can Use to Excel at Painting

Creativity

Link to original article here:  Artsy - Ingrid Christensen: The Limited Color Palettes Artists Can Use to Excel at Painting

Ingrid Christensen

Jun 21, 2019 2:08pm

Painters today have more pigments to choose from than any other artists in history. They can buy traditional, historical varieties that

Rembrandt

would recognize, such as siennas and ochres, or 20th-century innovations like phthalocyanines and quinacridones—pigments with an intensity that would have startled even the color-loving

Impressionists

. Despite this abundance, many artists and art educators endorse the use of a restricted “limited” palette as a way to develop coherent, harmonious, and personal paintings.

Monochromatic palettes

Limited palettes are great learning tools. Students are often taught to paint in monochrome, using only a dark brown or black pigment, plus white. This allows them to focus on accurate shapes, degrees of light and dark—called “values” or “tones”—and paint application, without the additional complexity of color. By mastering these austere palettes, students build a strong foundation for the later introduction of color.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

A more contemporary monochromatic approach involves using black and white, plus another color. In this example, phthalocyanine blue is introduced to produce a work of tonal accuracy that transcends the academic flavor of a strict black-and-white exercise.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

Palettes with one warm and one cool pigment

To add more versatility to their palettes, painters may choose to select one warm and one cool pigment, plus white. In this example, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue are mixed to create a full tonal range, as well as temperature variations from cool to warm. Color temperature is a useful tool for creating the illusion of depth on the two-dimensional canvas.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

Warm colors appear to come forward in a painting, while cool colors are recessive. This effect is visible at the inner and outer parts of the bowl. Both areas are greyed because they contain all three colors of the palette, and they are exactly the same value. Yet mixing a larger amount of burnt sienna into the front of the bowl results in a warm color, while mixing more ultramarine into the inner bowl makes it cool.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

Notice how the warmer mixture appears closer to the front of the picture plane, while the cooler color recedes into the middle ground. This effect, added to the use of value changes, can create works that convey both form and space.

The Zorn palette

Limited palettes aren’t just for beginner painters. Many professional artists limit the number of pigments that they work with. Perhaps the artist who is most well-known for doing this is

Anders Zorn

, a Swedish painter active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries who developed a color palette that bears his name. This self-portrait from 1896 was created with the four-color “Zorn palette,” which you can also see him holding in the painting.

Anders Zorn, Self-portrait with Model, 1896. Courtesy of Nationalmuseum.

Detail of Anders Zorn, Self-portrait with Model , 1896. Courtesy of Nationalmuseum.

Though scholars have debated the exact colors the artist used, the Zorn palette is often considered to be comprised of yellow ochre, vermilion, ivory black, and white. Some believe he used a cadmium red rather than vermilion; regardless, cadmium red light is a modern substitute for vermillion, which is toxic.

These four pigments are capable of making a full range of color, despite the fact that the palette contains no blue. Ivory black’s bluish undertone allows it to act as blue; it can be mixed with vermillion to create muted purples, and with yellow ochre to suggest green. The Zorn palette is also effective for creating rich dark colors and beautiful greys.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

The Zorn palette results in subtle, tonal paintings, but it may not satisfy artists with a passion for color. Even Zorn himself didn’t use it exclusively.

Other limited palettes

Painters who want the potential for both bright color and greyed color can choose from many other limited palettes, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

For a broad range of color, a simple palette made of saturated red, blue, and yellow pigments, plus white, is key. Whenever pigments are combined, they lose some chroma, so starting with high-chroma colors ensures that your mixtures will be intense.

This color palette combines cadmium red light, ultramarine blue, and cadmium yellow light, plus white. As with the Zorn palette, it can make a version of every hue, but the saturation level is much higher.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

Cadmium yellow light mixed with cadmium red light produces clean, high-chroma oranges; mixed with ultramarine, it results in saturated, slightly warm greens. The weakness of this palette is in the purples. It’s excellent for depicting something like these weathered pavers, but incapable of painting the high-chroma purple flowers.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

Substituting cool alizarin permanent for the warm cadmium red light results in high-chroma purples that could do justice to the blooms.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

However, alizarin would alter the orange scale. Mixing this cool red with cadmium yellow light creates cool terra-cottas and siennas, rather than true orange.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

Every three-color primary palette will have some weaknesses in color rendering, and artists who want to be able to achieve pure purples, oranges, and greens will have to add colors to it. One way to address this weakness is by adding a single missing pigment, such as green or orange, or by choosing to use a six-color split primary palette instead.

The six-color palette contains warm and cool versions of each of the primaries—red, blue, and yellow. A sample palette may contain cadmium yellow and cadmium yellow light; ultramarine blue and phthalocyanine blue; and cadmium red light and alizarin permanent.

Courtesy of Ingrid Christensen.

Charting the greens alone shows the broad range of hues—from warm olive to cool lime—that can be achieved with two yellows and two blues. No single green you purchase can achieve such variety.

4 Images

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A painter’s palette is, ultimately, an expression of how they see the world and the colors that they love. By exploring a variety of limited palettes from earthy to intense, painters can discover the combination of colors that best helps them convey their world view.

Ingrid Christensen

A Painter Describes Process, many techniques of which are centuries old and applicable today.

Artist Spotlight: Painting the Ordinary

By

Fine Art Today

-

May 12, 2019

“The Fallen,” oil on gessobord, 30 x 40 in.

By Dianne Massey Dunbar
Having always wanted to be an artist, I assumed I would paint landscapes, which is what I was taught, what I knew, and where I thought my passion was.

It would be years before my dream of being an artist would be realized, and surprisingly my journey would take me away from landscapes to an entirely different focus. That focus, as I call it, is “painting the ordinary.”
A Little Background
I am a Denver native who began oil painting at the age of seven. As the story goes, an elementary school teacher told my parents that I showed unusual talent in art.
My parents searched for an art teacher, but few art teachers wanted to work with a child so young. After some time they located a local artist and illustrator by the name of Harold Wolfinbarger, Jr. I clearly remember my lessons and the welcome odors of paint, turpentine, varnish, and linseed oil that permeated the room.
My lessons were on Saturday afternoons, with a small group of other students who were adults. We sat in a room, painting from a slide projected onto a screen. The images were all Colorado landscapes.
With Mr. Wolfinbarger’s help, I learned the basics of drawing, value, color, and mixing and applying paint. I continued studying with Mr. Wolfinbarger for several years and also studied art in school. During my teenage years, however, I became disillusioned with some of the contemporary art I was introduced to. I turned my focus from art to other endeavors, working and raising a family.
Although I was always dabbling in art and painting murals throughout my home, it took many years before I began to realize my dream as an artist.

“Parked,” oil on gessobord, 18 x 24 in.

In 1997 I discovered the Art Students League of Denver (ASLD). It was at a time in my life when I needed to make a change, and I was ready to rediscover my art. I noticed there was a year-long professional studies class then offered by the ASLD and taught by Quang Ho.
I applied for admission into the class and was accepted. That class changed my art and my life. It launched me into a three-year amazing and intense honeymoon with art, testing new ideas, questioning my underlying assumptions, experimenting, and relearning. During this time I also sought out other instructors, including Mark Daily, Ron Hicks, and Kevin Weckbach.
In 1999 I began painting professionally and was accepted into my first gallery.
True to my roots, I resumed painting landscapes. But during my studies at the ASLD, I was introduced to figurative and still life work and I began to play with those as well as other ideas. I wanted to discover where my voice was, where my passion was. And bit by bit, painting by painting, the “ordinary” began to emerge.

“Some Like it Hot,” oil on gessobord, 8 x 8 in.

“Plane,” oil on gessobord, 5 x 7 in.

Why the Ordinary
I love seascapes, landscapes, portraits, gardens, and the like. They are unquestionably beautiful and certainly art worthy. I am grateful to artists who bring us breathtaking vistas and panoramas. However, the more I painted, the more I was intrigued by ordinary objects and scenes. Almost all of life is lived in the ordinary. I wanted to honor what we see every day, our shared experiences. Rain. Street workmen. Coke bottles. The more I looked, the more I realized there are wonderful shapes and colors and beauty to be found everywhere.

“Fire Truck,” oil on gessobord, 5 x 7 in.

I also tend to be a storyteller in my work, and I create paintings of objects or scenes out of my own experiences, or an image I want to say something about. I have painted ketchup bottles to celebrate the ketchup I pulled out of the refrigerator nearly every day when my sons were young.
I painted a series of Lego cars and trucks to recall the time my younger son and I walked into a Lego store together to investigate key chains. I did a painting of a parking lot from the upper window of a medical office that I would stare out of while waiting to be seen. People probably best know me for my paintings of bottles and jars, as well as rain, workmen, and fallen leaf paintings.

“Cement and Tree Shadows,” oil on gessobord, 30 x 24 in.

The workmen series started years ago when I drove past a road crew working at night and was fascinated by the bright lights and heavy equipment. I returned to the site a few days later to take photographs, only to discover my tripod was broken and would only stand about two feet high. So I literally took photos while crawling around on the sidewalk with my camera on a broken tripod.
It was fairly late in the evening, and a policeman stopped to ask what I was doing. I explained and he let me be. I admit it was a rather humiliating experience. However, the painting from that photo shoot won Best of Show in the 2007 Oil Painters of America Central Regional Exhibition.
Then, several years later, roadwork was being done in my neighborhood. I would visit the site daily to take photographs. I was struck by the skill and artistry of the workers.
I took hundreds of photos as they worked on the streets for nearly two months. I wanted to honor their weeks of labor, hard work, and ten- to twelve-hour days.
I have proudly done a number of paintings highlighting those men and their work.

“Rain on Windshield: Left Turn,” oil on gessobord, 12 x 36 in.

My rain series started with an intense fear of thunderstorms. That fear bothered me for years, and I would strive to be safe in my studio whenever rain was predicted. However, one afternoon I was caught under a thunderstorm during rush hour traffic with nowhere to take cover. Sitting in my car, feeling trapped and anxious, I instinctively picked up my camera and began to take photos of the rain on the windshield. The more I got involved with looking at the rain and taking pictures, the less anxious I became.
When you really look at raindrops, they are amazing, from their shapes to their color. When they hit the windshield, they are transformed and often look like dragons or fish or other creatures and they reflect wonderful colors. Thus began a healing process and a series of paintings featuring rain on windshields, rain on windows, rain falling in puddles or ponds. And, while I still don’t like tornado warnings or hail, thunderstorms rarely bother me now. Sometimes I actually look forward to rain so that I can get more resource material.

“The Fallen,” oil on gessobord, 30 x 40 in.

The fallen leaf painting arose from a walk in the park during autumn. I was in a reflective mood, musing about life and legacy. The leaves had fallen off the trees and I was shuffling through them, noticing the patterns of the leaves as I continued to contemplate. I pulled out my phone and started taking photos of the leaves, and then began to arrange the leaves on the ground. As I worked with the leaves and continued to think about life, it occurred to me that the leaves fall, but are never lost. They nourish the soil for a new crop of leaves. So “The Fallen” is a tribute to those that came before, those who will come after, and our place in space and time.
As to my still life paintings of bottles and jars? I love them!
Bottles and jars are full of exciting reflections, they come in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes, they are readily available, and they can be arranged in an infinite number of ways. I never tire of painting them.

“Soda Bottles,” oil on gessobord, 18 x 24 in.

“Jar Collection,” oil, 24 x 18 in.

Painting and Process
Of course, the subject matter is only the beginning step in creating a painting. A thought, a good idea, is not enough. An artist needs to use the tools available to turn a thought into a painting. There is intention, composition, shape, value, color, texture, and edges. And then there is painting with love.
I paint slowly. It takes me weeks to months to complete some of my complex paintings. During that time I am looking at the subject matter, trying to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary with paint.
I need to love what I paint because I will be staring at it for weeks.
As to my painting process, I begin each painting with a value sketch. If I am doing a still life, I will work from the objects themselves, set up in my studio. I will then do a thumbnail or a series of thumbnails to solve as many problems as possible. Once I am satisfied with the composition, I might lightly draw the still life onto the painting surface with light pencil strokes or simply block it in with paint. Then I will begin the painting process, working in a conventional fashion from the background to the foreground, larger shapes to smaller shapes. I prefer working on gessoed board because it gives me a stable surface for heavy brushstrokes, knife work, or even occasional sanding.

Close-up of “Rain on Windshield: Left Turn,” showing the grid system I use

The process is different, however, if I am painting one of my larger, complex paintings, as in the case of the rain, workmen, or leaf paintings. For these I use a grid system to ensure a more accurate drawing of these complex paintings.
It is easier to transfer information from one square to another than to try and draw or paint thousands of small shapes on an entire large painting surface without getting lost. In that case I use my own photography and I narrow down my choices for the painting to about five or six photographs. I then make black and white enlarged photocopies of the images I am interested in painting.
I will choose the top three to five photocopies and use black, white, and gray tempera paint to paint directly on the photocopies to create a three- or four-value study of the scene.
Although this is labor intensive, I prefer to do this work by hand rather than rely on the computer. I can make different decisions when working by hand, and I become much more familiar with the image.
Sometimes I will use the same image in different ways, making different value decisions. I may play around with cropping an image. Then I tape the value studies around my studio, turning them upside down and sideways, and spending a few hours or a few days looking at them and studying them.
After I have decided on what I think is the best composition, I enlarge the chosen photo, then I grid the photo as well as the painting surface. (If you decide to try this, the photo and the surface must be the same ratio or this process will not work.)
When I grid a photo, I tape the photo down on cardboard. I then use a needle and thread and sew the grid in place. That way, I can simply move the thread aside if I need to see what is underneath it. When I grid the painting surface, I use light pencil lines.

Rain on Windshield: Left Turn,” in progress

When I paint, I work from the color photo, using the value study as a guide for the values. I will paint each square individually, making changes and integrating the painting as I proceed from square to square, beginning with the upper left-hand square and working across and then down, square by square, row by row.
This work requires a great deal of patience as the painting slowly emerges. When the entire painting is in place, I will then do finish work, softening or losing edges, building up areas of texture, or adding hints of color. I generally take a nearly finished painting outside into natural light, or into the garage to back well away from it to see if it has all come together.

“Looking Down From One World Observatory,” oil on gessobord, 30 x 30 in.

Dianne Massey Dunbar, contemporary artist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dianne Massey Dunbar has been painting professionally since 1999. She is a Master Signature Member of American Women Artists, a Signature Member of Oil Painters of America, and a member of the Art Students League of Denver. She is proudly represented by Gallery 1261, Denver, CO; Grapevine Gallery, Oklahoma City, OK; RS Hanna Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX; and Edward Montgomery Fine Art, Carmel, CA.

"Pink Moon" Returns from a year on display at Adobe Offices in Lehi, Utah.

Pink Moon, 36"x36", Acrylic on Canvas ~ Toni Youngblood

Portrait of Lilly

"Lilly", 12x12 inches acrylic on canvas, Toni Youngblood

"Lilly" and Lilly at home.

300 PLATES at Art Access 2019

It's that time of year again:
  

2019  Art Access 300 Plates Fundraiser

Above:  "Guardian"

Above:  "Tell me..."

2018 - did not participate


 2017

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2013

What is 300 Plates?

300 Plates is the annual Art Access fundraiser and exhibition. Now in its 17th year, this signature event presents unique artwork that is both affordable and highly collectible, created by approximately 100 established and emerging artists from the local community. Using 11 x 10 inch plates (either aluminum, tempered panel or plexiglas), each artist prepares small works in their recognizable style. Finished plates include everything from landscape to assemblage to pop art to photographic emulsion and more. During the fundraiser and month-long exhibition the plates are hung in the Art Access Gallery, creating a kaleidoscope of one-of-a-kind artwork. This year a small selection of plates from previous years will also be on sale.

History of 300 Plates

by Joe Ostraff

The story of the 300 Plates Fundraiser begins in Thailand in the summer of 1993. My family and I were the invited guests of a family living in Cha-am, Thailand. As part of our weekly activities, we would visit one of the many Buddhist Wat (monasteries) found in almost every community. On one such visit, a monk approached me and gave me a packet of photos of King Rama V. He blessed me and promised that if I incorporated the images in my art I would bring about good fortune. I held on to the images for many years, waiting for an appropriate time to use them.
In fall of 1998, I was driving home from a field trip with BYU art students. John Ohran was among the group. He and I got into a discussion about art ideas and he shared his interest in a project that Ed Kienholz (an internationally acclaimed installation artist) had completed, numbering prints one through one thousand and selling them for the corresponding number. It seemed to me a critical statement on the commodification of art, and John and I wondered if we could give the idea a positive twist.
During the conversation, I mentioned my Thai experience and one thing lead to another. Hence, John and I had a two-person exhibition at Art Access in 1999 entitled Restoration of Good Fortune: One Through Three Hundred and Fifty, with the prices matching the numbered art. Images of King Rama V as king, military leader, and father found their way into all the mixed media paintings on aluminum plates, and the sale proceeds were divided between Art Access and the Sudanese Refugee Fund.
In 2002, Art Access was looking to diversify its funding base since the majority of the organization's funds came from a single source. I was a board member at the time and suggested that we try a fundraiser using progressive pricing, and that we invite multiple artists to participate. It was very successful, and I feel that the Thai monk's blessing continues to be realized each year through the 300 Plates fundraiser.

How can you participate?

Plate previews are held during the week prior to the event to provide art lovers and potential buyers with a sneak peak of the artwork. On the evening of the event during the preview hours, culinary delights, beverages and music are enjoyed in the outdoor tent, and each patron is issued one colored wristband in anticipation of the sale. Beginning at 7:00, and every few minutes thereafter, a random color is announced until all wristband colors have been called. Those patrons are invited to enter the gallery and purchase one plate each. Plate prices start at $75 and increase sequentially in one-dollar increments. This year, approximately 20 plates will be set aside for a blind silent auction, selling from $300 – the sky's the limit. Also, for the the first time, for a $5 donation, attendees will have the opportunity to obtain tickets for a drawing for three framed plates. Plates that do not sell on the night of the event may be purchased at Art Access during regular business hours throughout the exhibition.

Who benefits?

Art Access provides accessible and inclusive arts and cultural opportunities to many people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to participate, as well as equal opportunity for established and emerging artists with and without disabilities in a nurturing and supportive environment. Funds from the annual 300 Plates fundraiser and exhibition allow Art Access to offer programming throughout the year, including: education and engagement with art to special needs children and others in Utah schools; the elderly and other institutionalized individuals or those participating in community social services programs; teens with disabilities, those who are at-risk or are otherwise underserved, and young people in the mainstream; youth and adults living in rural areas of the state; emerging and established artists with and without disabilities; and the community at large. Over the years Art Access has demonstrated that its philosophy and programs are successful in uniting and strengthening the community through art.

Participating 2019 Artists TBA