Carmel Mission Demo

by Armand Cabrera

I was in California this last week teaching a private one on one class with one of my students. We had a great time and painted all the sites around the central coast there in Monterey and Carmel.

One morning was spent at the mission. The property is still active and has tours all day long but we picked a spot against a wall to paint out of the way of the crowds.

I started with a careful drawing made with my number four brush and a thin wash of paint. The first thing for the drawing was to establish the longest axis of the mission ( in this case the Dome and tower) within my picture plane, this insures everything will fit into the picture. All my subsequent marks will be measured against this as proportions of its height

Once my drawing is done I check it and correct any inaccuracies before starting to paint.

Because I am looking into a bright foggy sky I establish my dark areas to keep me from painting the mission walls and foliage too light.

Next I work on the middle tones throughout the painting at this point in the day the fog is starting too lift and I have to bounce around the canvas more than usual while I wait for the light to stabilize.

I paint the larger shape of the plaza and paint the shapes of the details on the mission, leaving the rendering of their forms for a little later.

I fill in the sky and work on the garden areas surrounding the mission and the patterns in the plaza.

Just as the sun breaks through the fog, I finish up with the tree and plants and model the more precise architectural details on the mission and within the grounds. My total painting time is three hours.

Carmel Mission 12x16 oil on linen.

Road Trip

by

Armand Cabrera

Sorry for the delayed post. I've been teaching in California and have had limited access to the blog for some unknown reason. Here are some of the outdoor paintings I've painted while here. I will post the complete process for a couple of them when I get a chance.

The weather has been mild and perfect for painting outside. Painting the ocean from life is always satisfying. I've been working  on 12x16 linen panels. Just having one size makes travel a lot easier.
I shipped the OMS to the hotel ahead of time. and there was only one slight hitch with that.

It seems you can't ship OMS or any solvent in containers larger than 32 ounces in CA anymore. Of course the way the law is written, you can ship as many 32 ounce containers as you want ; go figure. So instead of shipping a gallon can of OMS in one box, I had to buy and ship four 32 ounce cans in one box, which is still a gallon last time I checked. So all this law has done is made it more expensive to buy  and ship OMS because you are now buying it in smaller units. I love government.

Charles Muench Workshop

I want to announce a great opportunity for artists. Charles Muench is offering a workshop in June.

 I've known Charles for quite some time now and he has become one of the best painters around. I know that phrase gets thrown around  a lot these days but in Charles' case it is backed up with a string of top awards from some of the most premiere events in the United States.

  Charles just recieived the Southwest Art Award of Excellance at the California Art Club's 100 Gold Medal Show this year. In 2010, Charles won the Edgar Payne Award for Best Landscape at the California Art Club's 99th Annual Juried Exhibition. He was unanimously elected a Signature Member of the California Art Club. Charles received the First Place Award at the 2008 Heritage Art Exhibition presented by Joan Irving Smith as well as the Collector’s Choice Award at the 2008 and 2005 Maynard Dixon Country Invitational. Charles was awarded the First Place Award and “Best Painting of the Cove” Award at the 2007 and 2005 Crystal Cove Alliance Invitational in Laguna Beach, CA. He also was honored with the Best of Show/Artist’s Choice Award at the 2006 Telluride Plein Air Show. Charles received the Gold Medal Award at the San Luis Obispo Plein Air Event in October 2002. Charles has had his work included in the Arts for the Parks Top 100 Exhibit. His work is accepted annually in the California Art Club’s Annual Gold Medal Exhibit and the Gilcrease Museum’s American Art in Miniature Exhibition

Don't miss your chance to study with one of the best contemporary painters in the country. Here are the details

HIGH PLAINS PAINTING

Five Day Workshop Painting the Eastern Sierra

CHARLES MUENCH WORKSHOPS

Locations include the California Sierra alpine of Hope Valley to the high plains desert of Nevada- all within 30 miles!

Two states and a lot of scenery!

June 13 – June 17th

$550.00

E-mail Charles Muench for deposit and reservation information.

There’s a lot of land between the eastern Sierra and the high plains of Nevada to paint! Come on out and catch the transient beauty of spring in this unique country. We’ll make the most of each day- demonstrations, painting, critique, and taking in the gestalt of a group of artists painting together. We meet each morning at a different location. Having lived in this area for over ten years, I know of a lot of sweet painting spots and late spring in the Sierra is a truly unique experience. We will paint the ranch lands of the Carson Valley. We will paint the vast landscape of the Pine Nut Mountain range looking across to the Sierra range. We will paint the architecture of the rural Sierra town of Markleeville (my personal mountain Wobegon!) I will also offer a special hiking trip, for those who want, to paint the spectacular spring run-off of Markleeville Falls- less than a mile but some up hill (and with the amount of snow, this will be a record year!) For those who don’t want to make the hike- no worries! I will do two demonstrations during this day! I have attached a class description as well as a materials list.

There are many good hotels in the Carson Valley. Here are a few. Budget hotels are also available.

Holiday Inn Express

Carson Valley Inn

Best Western Inn

Contemporary Realism and Modern Technology

by
Armand Cabrera



As an artist in the beginning of the 21st century one of the things available to me is ease of travel. I can paint anywhere in the country and to a larger extent the world because of relatively inexpensive travel.

I can drive to just about anywhere on the east coast in a day and in a couple of hours I can be anywhere in the country by jet. These facts separate my body of work from artists who were painting 50 or a 100 years before me. Many of these artists spent the majority of their lives in one place making only a handful of long distance trips away from their homes .

As a painter this allows me to build a career based on the quality of my work not just the subject matter where I live. Galleries, because they are mostly brick and mortar establishments have been slow to accept this fact of modern life. Many galleries only deal in regional subject matter and won’t even consider taking work based on scenes outside their geographic area.

I think this is to their detriment. My best selling galleries ask for my best work; they aren’t concerned with location as much as my other galleries and I think it is reflected in my sales for those galleries. What other galleries fail to realize is long distance travel is a fact of life for most people who can afford to buy paintings. If they take the time to use the technology available to them they can quickly build a following of collectors not based in their little region of the country and in fact the better galleries do this with blogs and newsletters and a strong internet and social network presence.

Artists have changed quicker than galleries and if galleries want to survive they must change too. Sitting in a gallery waiting for people to walk in and buy something is no longer a viable business model. This is reflected in the amount of galleries that have closed their doors in the last three years most of which failed to grasp the importance of information networks and social media.