Get a discount on the Portable Painter range of Palettes

I am a Brand Ambassador for the Portable Painter watercolour palettes, and they have just released a DISCOUNT CODE for anyone wanting to purchase one of these great palettes.

There’s a 10% discount waiting for you if you use the code ANDY when you are purchasing from their website. Please share this around so your friends can also enjoy this discount.

I have used their palettes for a couple of years now and I personally think they are the best plein air palettes around. I’ll be making some more YouTube videos on using the palettes outdoors.

This is the Micro palette in action – a sketch I did last week in England.

And in some other news, we are going to be manufacturing this handy board as a new product in the range. I have designed it to fit both palette sizes and it makes it easy to hold your sketchbook, palette. brushes etc all in one hand. Look out for it at some point in the future on the Portable Painter website.

So, I hope that’s helpful for you. (I’m sorry the “thumbs up to like” button is no longer available for these blog posts. I am in the process of bringing all my websites into one place and hopefully I can then resolve this then.) Andy

#PortablePainterpalette #enpleinair #art #sketching #paintingtips #portablepaintermicro

Give your painting energy!

Diagonal lines bring energy and movement to any painting. Vertical and horizontal lines are stabilizing and indicate calm and peace. So bringing any form of diagonal into a picture that is calm and steady adds a sense of activity, even if the subject matter is static.

Take a look at this painting below by Leon Holmes.

Leon Holmes – Herd a Rumour

(Original oil painting on sale at the Rosslare Gallery , Rosslare, Ireland)

At first glance it’s a painting about a herd of cows. It’s a scene that should be pastoral and calm. The cows aren’t moving – they are static and just chewing the cud. However, to me it’s painting that is dynamic and full of movement and energy. Why? Because of the strong and clever use of diagonal lines. I’ve drawn some of them in below.

These add movement where there is none. They create a visual excitement in what could otherwise have been a fairly “normal” picture.

And check out the active brushwork, which relates back to my last post. All in all a masterful painting by a master painter! Thanks Leon.

#painting #LeonHolmes #learningtopaint #oilpainting #Composition

On your marks – painting with abstract brush strokes

I’m learning to not mess with my paintings. What I’m trying to do in a conscious way is to lay down a stroke of paint and then leave it alone. Now that is easier said than done, after all we all like to fiddle and to try and “improve” on any mark we make. But when we do this we lose the freshness and energy of our original stroke.

Lori Putnam – Sunrise Sonata

(Original oil painting on sale at the Rosslare Gallery , Rosslare, Ireland)

I saw this painting in the gallery and was immediately impressed by the marks Lori Putnam had made. From a distance the palm trees are clearly defined. But look up close (below)…

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It’s all just abstract brush marks!

OK, they are carefully placed, and carefully intended, but the whole painting is just a collection of small abstract marks. When seen close up they make no sense, but when you step back, then – wham! – the trees against the sunset make complete sense.

Another example

Here is a beautiful painting by Kevin MacPherson. Let’s look at bits of it close up…

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It’s just abstract splodges of paint! Each brush-mark has been rendered with precision in colour and value and direction, and together they create vegetation or rocks or shadows. See how each stroke is different from those around it. The differences might be very subtle, but they are there and they are what make the painting zing!

So, next time you pick up a brush to paint, think about making each mark different to the last one in colour, value and direction. I think your paintings will sparkle with life!

#art #painting #abstract #abstractart #oilpainting #KevinMacpherson #LoriPutnam #brushmarks #paintingtips #watercolor #abstractpainting #RosslareGallery