Stewart Fletcher Studios » Stewart Fletcher Studios – Les Ateliers Stewart Fletcher

Oil or Acrylic Painting Class (July 5th – July 26th)

Stewart — Thu, 17 May 2012 01:19:48 +0000

OIL AND ACRYLIC PAINTING (4 WEEKS)

This course is for student of all levels . Group discussions and demonstrations will further the participants understanding of technique, mediums and the processes of painting. Students will be encouraged to begin to create a coherent body of work and to broaden their creativity through the exploration of their own subject matter and imagery.

Not included: materials (approx. $150)

Maximum 6 students per class!

Tuesdays 7 pm to 10 pm

4 weeks (July 5th - July 26th, 2012)

$150.00

$ 7.50 (GST 86500 8031 RT0002)
$ 14.96 (TVQ 1090079642 TQ0001)
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$172.46 (taxes included)

If you wish to secure a spot in this class, please click on the icon above. I accept cash, checks, credit cards and PayPal. Credit card payments online are processed securely through PayPal.

Please Note: We reserve the right to cancel any course for which there is insufficient registration; in such a case a full refund will be given. A $25.00 registration fee per student, per course and / or a charge for each class attended will be deducted from any emergency cancellation. No refund will be given after the first class. There will be a fee of $5.00 for any cheque returned by the bank. We reserve the right to postpone classes due to unforeseen circumstances.

A Sunday at the Studio (le 10 juin, 2012)

Stewart — Fri, 04 May 2012 00:29:32 +0000

A Sunday in the Studio (Painting)

This workshop will give the student the opportunity to spend the day painting with a small group of people in my private studio. There will be lots of coaching, discussions about art, technique and demonstrations. Participants in my workshops are always encouraged to work with their own subjects and ideas. Bring your lunch and spend the day doing something you love!

Oil or acrylic painters welcome!

(Material not included)

Sunday June 10th, 2012.

10am to 3pm (one hour for lunch)

Maximum 6 persons

$79.00

$ 3.95 (GST 86500 8031 RT0002)
$ 7.88 (TVQ 1090079642 TQ0001)
_______________________
$90.83 (taxes included)

If you wish to secure a spot in this workshop, please click on the icon below. Credit card and debit card payments are processed securely through PayPal.

Concerns of Abstraction

Stewart — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:06:34 +0000

Abstract art when done right can be a life altering experience. Abstract art done badly can turn you off for the rest of your life. All serious artists have reasons behind what they do and there are reasons why some choices are made in the work. Unfortunately most people who chose to work abstractly do so because they lack both drawing and painting skills. They get into abstraction with the belief that they can get away with it. Few realize that the principals and elements of design still apply to non-figurative works.

To be honest I love abstract art. I sincerely enjoy works done by many contemporary artists like Harold Klunder for example. I enjoy seeing fresh ideas in abstraction. What is important in my opinion is that a contemporary abstractionist develop some of their own ideas and refrain from creating derivative works. This means that the abstractionist may have to spend a great deal of time at the drawing table instead of mindlessly moving paint around on the canvas. It is equally important that an abstractionist be aware of the processes and correct methods of painting to avoid mechanical failure of the work. Just because you are painting intuitively doesn’t mean that you can get away with breaking the rules of paint application and the principals and elements of design, because there is no skillfully painted figure to hide behind!

A Realistic Approach to Art

Stewart — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:23:55 +0000

“To draw does not simply mean to reproduce contours; the drawing does not simply consist in the idea: the drawing is even the expression, the interior form, the plan, the model. Look what remains after that! The drawing is three fourths and a half of what constitutes painting. If I had to put a sign over my door [to the atelier], I would write: School of drawing, and I’m certain that I would create painters.”

~ Ingres ~

Drawing and art has to go beyond technique as Ingres justifiably points out. He said that drawing is even the expression, the interior form, the plan, and the model. Then why pray tell is so much emphasis being put on “copying” from the model these days without taking into consideration all of the other elements that make up a successful work of art? Learning to copy from the model albeit an essential part of skill acquisition on the part of the art student should also include the even more essential elements and principals of design. Honestly I have seen very little of this in the so-called “classical” art classes these days. I even question how high the bar is being set in these so called “technique” classes. Models are relieved to find out that I retain the maximum traditional 20 minute pose in both my private and workshop settings. If an artist -teacher cannot capture the essence of a pose in 20 minutes and let his / her model stretch then perhaps thery should not be teaching art. Student who are exposed to this unprofessional pehaviour then in turn expect a continuation of something that shouldn’t exist.

How to get your art noticed.

Stewart — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:19:02 +0000

How does one go about getting their art noticed?

There seem to be as many answers out there as there are artists and like everyone else I’m going to add my own voice to the fray.

One of the things I hear artists telling other artists all the time is that you have to get your work out there. What pray tell does that mean? Well quite frankly I haven’t got the faintest clue. A friend of mine with a decades worth of experience keeps telling me that I need to get myself out there. WTF????

Sorry but I have already gotten my work out there with over one hundred exhibitions to my credit so far in the thirty plus years of my career. Has getting my work “out there” really helped? I would have to say it has. One piece of advice I gave him and I will give you is that you have to be careful how you decide to show your work. An artist has to carefully select his / her venues. Vanity shows have always been a big mistake and are known as career killers. Just showing anywhere can have the same result. To use an analogy if we were looking for a good long-term relationship with someone we wouldn’t stand out on a street corner in the red light district would we? We may get some attention but then it would be of the wrong kind. The same can be said of art and artists.

The first question I always ask those I am mentoring is the following:

What kind of artists do you want to be?

Very few realize that there are many nuances in the art world. Many fail to see any difference between a Sunday painter and a professional artist for example. There are different degrees of success as well.

The only way to become a successful artist is through your work. If you are able to create non-derivative work then you will have a better chance at success than someone who creates work that could easily be attributed to another artist or genre.

Be yourself. Do work that is representative of you. Don’t join any art “movement”. Stay true to your own vision.

Everything else will be seen as derivative.

Write about your work and your ideas.

Learn to talk about your work clearly and concisely. Record yourself and play it back. Listen to how you sound. Are there too many “likes” or “do you know what I means” peppering your speech? Do you sound believable and is what you’re trying to say understandable?

This is the first and the most important step to getting yourself noticed.

Once you are able to speak about your work then you can make those all important contacts with galleries and art dealers.

The Life of a Working Artist

Stewart — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:28:28 +0000

“The arts are not a way of making a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

~ Kurt Vonnegut ~

Kurt Vonnegut has been brainwashed. The arts are a very viable way to make a living. Like Vonnegut, most envision the life of an artist as being carefree and without responsibility. In our beloved country of Canada art is something that many people consider as a hobby or look forward to do when they retire. Art is simply not important for most Canadians.

I identify myself as an artist when asked what I do for a living. I often get asked the same question several times until the grand inquisitor in front of me realizes that I am telling them the truth. The query is usually followed by a “but you teach too?”. There is usually an audible sigh when I reply in the affirmative for no one believes that anyone can make a living from their creativity except the blessed chosen few.

Financially speaking I don’t need to teach. Then why pray tell do you do I often get asked. I teach because without an interest in the arts or a community where people can learn about the arts there would be nothing cultural left in this beloved province and country of ours. A community of artists supported me in my early years so in gratitude I support others.

But what is the life of a working artist really like?

I get up at 7 am every morning. By 7:30 am I have already begun to check my correspondence with galleries & collectors. Many of my “clients” are in different time zones so this means that I have stuff coming in 24 / 7. More often than not I have “working” breakfasts where I am catching up with the “paperwork” and “correspondence” items from during the night. After breakfast I travel to the studio.

My studio time like most working artists is the most valuable time. This is where you absolutely must be focused and disciplined. A true artist has to know what has to be done and when while at the same time being flexible enough to work with the unexpected. Besides a tight creative schedule , there are models to be scheduled, materials to be bought and works to be photographed and catalogued. There is a continual stream of correspondence that needs to be taken care of too. Then there are the sales.

There is a lot more to selling art than simply getting paid for your work. There is this illusion that selling art is a different kind of business when in fact it is just like any other business. There are invoices to be made and taxes to be collected. There is just as much accounting to be done as any other business out there. Artists need accountants! If you are selling art then you need to ship your work to your clients. The work needs to be packed. The paperwork needs to be done for customs and transport arranged. All the while there is correspondence to be done with your client.

If you are lucky enough to have gallery representation, then there are shows to be scheduled, work to be planned and created for the show. If you are selling work regularly then this means that you have to create work in excess to what you normally do. This requires even more time in the studio and many more long hours working if you are going to meet your deadline.

I work weekends more than I do not. I take very few holidays and when I do I have to plan them well in advance. In some cases things get cancelled at the last minute because something unforeseen gets in the way. It is a fact of life for the working artist. People mistakenly think that I am either unwilling to meet with them or that I am completely disorganised. The fact is is that I am extremely busy all the time. People seem to think that I have all the time in the world when in fact I have less time than most. I am not only the creator of my work but also all of the support workers too. Add the teaching, the correspondence with students and class preparations and you get a glimpse of a very hectic life.

This is only a brief summary of some of the things I have to do on a daily basis. It is not only a full time job but is is a very respectable career choice.

Has this changed your view of what it means to be an artist?

Canvas: Buyers Beware!

Stewart — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:17:27 +0000

Buying canvases to paint on everywhere these days can be a little like buying a car from a used car salesman. You must know buy now that you’re not getting what is being advertised unless you’ve read the fine print. Here are a couple of examples:

“(Name left out) is the highest quality canvas for the discerning professional. Premier uses a heavy duty 10 oz pre-primed 100% cotton canvas that is then double coated with acid-free titanium gesso until it reaches a final post-primed finished weight of approximately 15 oz, making it an ideal canvas for heavier paint applications. We’re confident you’ll love our warp-resistant frames, which feature heavy-duty pine stretcher bars. Premier canvas features tailored corners and is hand-splined, resulting in a tight, even stretch.”

15oz canvas ACTUALLY was 15oz with sizing and a double coat of gesso making it closer to 200z when I was an art student. 10oz was considered inferior grade canvas once upon a time.

Here’s another one:

“(Name left out) is economically priced for students and professionals. We start with a 7 oz, pre-primed 100% cotton duck canvas and add 3 coats of acid free titanium gesso. Final post primed, finished weights reach approximately 10.5 oz. This canvas is then hand stretched and stapled around solid wood stretchers. You can forget about time consuming preparation. Studio canvas is the perfect balance of high quality and economy.”

High quality? I have heard that some canvas manufacturers are going as low as 6.5oz or 6oz single prime in an attempt to keep the prices low.

The local market is flooded with inferior product that buckles within a few days of manufacturing and before an artists brush has even touched the surface. It becomes even worse once you actually paint on the surface. Most manufacturers have stopped supplies keys (the small wooden wedges) which to me is just another sign of product inferiority.

Is there anything we can do? No not really. The raw canvas that is currently being sold in rolls is pretty much the same stuff the are using for the pre-stretched junk we see in stores. There may be a few “old” rolls of canvas out there but you’ll probably pay premium price to get your hands on them.

At issue is the “white stuff” that is being called “acrylic gesso”. I suspect that it is neither acrylic nor is it gesso. I also find the absence of the word “titanium white” a very disturbing omission in many of the “locally producted” canvases. Any serious painter knows that a substitution for a certain other “white pigment” will have disastrous effects on the paints applied on the surface especially for oil painters. Acrylic painters…who knows. The paints are becoming so cheaply made I’m pretty sure some of them will start peeling off too!

Doubled primed isn’t happening either.

And sizing??? Most people ask me what sizing is….has it really come to this?

The problem with art supplies is that everyone is paying attention to prices and no one is paying attention to product. Good products are few and far between these days. Many artists have called my warnings alarmist and quite frankly a bit of a nuisance. I have taken this stance since 2008 when I started seeing problems arise both in the quality of the canvases as well as the paints and brushes. Since then I have witnessed many mechanical failures in other artists works due to poor substrates, gessoes and paints.

What can we do?

Read the fine print. Stop buying low quality materials. Demand better quality and only buy better quality.

For god’s sakes respect your work enough to invest in artist quality materials!

Drawing

Stewart — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:09:13 +0000

“Drawing is the backbone. It is no good having a lovely sense of light and color if there isn’t the firm foundation underneath.”

~ Alexander Creswell ~

Like Creswell I see no point in discussing colour with anyone who hasn’t taken the time to learn how to draw. This may sound harsh to many of you, but the reality is that without any drawing skills you will always struggle with your paintings. I hear many people say that their teacher doesn’t agree with me. The fact of the matter is that the teaching of art has become a business for many art instructors out there and many of them will tell a student that which they want to hear so they can collect a few dollars more from their courses.

In a nutshell drawing teaches us how to see. If you haven’t learnt to see then how do you expect to paint well?

Drawing teaches us about light and shadow which in itself is one of the foundations that painting is built upon. Drawing also teaches about proportion, prospective and composition. Drawing is the foundation upon which all the other visual art forms are built. Whether you are a sculptor, a ceramist, a printmaker or a painter you absolutely need to know how to draw.

People always ask me how much drawing they should be doing. If we look at the drawing-painting ratios of some of the greatest painters in history you will be surprised how small their actual painting output was in relationship to their drawing. The great Gustav Klimt’s ratio was about 500 to 1 or 500 drawings for every completed painting in his life.

Many painters erroneously believe that they can make innumerable corrections on the canvas. Very few amateurs and even a few professionals haven’t heard about the “Pentimento” effect in oil painting where images and corrections beneath the visible surface begin to appear through the paint. For those of you who have been mislead or told otherwise, this is why drawing is important. If you use drawing to “plan” your painting before you actually start smearing paint on the surface you may actually avoid making a million corrections, which eventually will appear over time.

Many will proudly announce that they are acrylic painters an therefore what I have just said is irrelevant to them. The fact of the matter is that we do not know what acrylic paint will look like in the next five decades. Add the cheapest quality materials and pigments to the mix and we have a recipe for disaster on our hands. In any event I am here to make you a better artist. My mentors and teachers felt the same way about art and the teaching of art.

Every painting should include at the very least the following steps:

1. Rough sketch.
2. Value study or Finished drawing.
3. Colour study (One to several)
4. Final painting.

By the time you get to your final painting you most definitely know where you are going. You will have a clear idea of the values and the colours you intent to use as well as have worked out any problems with perspective and proportion.

Many people think that copying a “photograph” will help them avoid learning how to draw. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Digital photography is a horrible stand in for working from life. The auto-focus feature and poor colour rendering on most cameras distort reality with results that already look unreal to begin with. Interpreting something that is false to begin with will only give you an even poorer result. A clear understanding of drawing will help anyone correct the unavoidable mistakes of photography.

Learning how to draw will make you a better painter period.

The Myth of the Self-Taught

Stewart — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:24:30 +0000

“When I was in art school, I thought art was something I would learn how to do, and then I would just do it. At a certain point I realized that it wasn’t going to work like that. Basically, I would have to start over every day and figure out what art was going to be.”

~ Bruce Nauman ~

Many people I meet claim with a sense of great pride to be self-taught artists. As a matter of fact many “formally educated” artists I know tend to try and make everyone believe that they are self-taught too. In my opinion the desire to be viewed as self-taught stems from the idea of being thought of as a “prodigy” or as someone unique and special. But really, what’s so special about you when everyone else claims to be self-taught? Everyone it would seems would rather be viewed as a “raw” talent than to have had to study and work hard to achieve the level of success they have.

Let’s get one thing straight. Every great artist in history has studied under the tutelage of at least one other artist and for varying degrees of time. Van Gogh is often erroneously championed as a self-taught artist when in fact he studied with Cormon where he met Monet and some of the other Impressionists. Our contemporary world is filled with videos, online seminars and books which in my mind equate to getting an education albeit once removed from the artists studio. By reading, viewing or listening to the information that you are given you are in fact studying art with someone.

Who we decide to study with is extremely important. What was important to me as an art student was whether or not my teachers still had an active studio practice and exhibition record. I was also interested in their formal training as well. At the time I was not interested in studying with someone who no formal training or was only “self-taught”. One of my mentors and most influential teachers was someone who did not have the same opportunities to go to art school as I did because he was too busy jumping out of planes and fighting Nazis during World War Two. He made up for his lack of a completed diploma with more knowledge and skill than any artist I have met since and will probably ever meet. He worked honing his skills every day seven days a week and three hundred and sixty-five days a year. His formally trained peers forgave his lack of a completed diploma because of what he knew and what he could do as an artist.

Amongst those who claim to be self-taught are those who simply don’t know what they are doing. They shroud themselves under the guise of being “self-taught” as a way to excuse the horrible work they create and horrendous mistakes that they make. I wonder why so many “good” artists want to be know as self-taught if you look at the company they will be keeping.

It is important that an artist at any level continue to learn about his or her craft. I am wary about artists who claim they know everything. There seems to be an increasing number of them amongst those who practice traditional representational art and subjects. In comparison all of my mentors called themselves students of art well into their eighties and some still do.

We have major issues with the use of labels in the visual arts. Even the use of the word “artist” has some very gray areas. The language we use to describe ourselves as well as the work we produce has to be carefully reflected upon. There are far to many “artists” claiming to be things that they are not with the hopes of elevating their status in the art world. We will often see artists appropriating the words “international” or “world renowned” in an attempt to bring themselves attention when in fact it has the opposite effect of making them appear to be the “amateur” that they are. The word “artist” has been picked up by pretty much anyone who has any language skills.

If we really reflect upon the meaning of the words “self-taught” and the implications of how what we create is perceived then we may be less inclined to use it. Many of my colleagues may strongly disagree with me but there is no such thing as a pure “prodigy”. There are of course people who seem to have been born with certain abilities, yet these “talents” all need to be brought out, honed and shaped under the guidance of a skilled teacher.

If you are an artist that has taken a few classes at an art centre or art school then you have had an education and therefore cannot call yourself “self-taught” in the true sense of the word. You should be proud of the fact that you actually took classes and had the guidance of a teacher. You can mention who you studied with on your CV. You can even go as far as mention what kind of course you took with them either a class or a workshop.

Taking an art history class is just as important as taking a painting class. Many museums have art lectures that you can sign up for as well. If you have done any of these things you are no longer self-taught.

Be proud of your hard work, your knowledge, your teachers and your accomplishments!

Oil or Acrylic Painting Class (Mar. 13 – Apr. 3)

Stewart — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:30:10 +0000