Today I went up to Sedona where the 2009 Sedona Plein Air Festival is taking place this week. My objective was to meet artist, Michael Chesley Johnson, and observe him paint. Michael is one of the artists invited to participate again this year and was scheduled to do a demo from 11:00 to 1:00 at the Sedona Art Center. As with many pastel artists Michael paints in both oil and pastel. Although the demo today was in oil my interest was to get a feel for Michael as a teacher. Michael and his wife are from Campobello Island in the Canadian Maritimes, but plan to spend January through March in Sedona. During that time Michael will be holding weeklong mentoring workshops for intermediate to advanced painters in pastel and/or oil. The workshop is plein air, but the mentoring includes career goals, strategies, etc. as well as painting. This aspect is something of great interest to me as an emerging artist.
I found Michael to not only be a great painter, but able to describe the hows and whys of what he was doing as he painted. The session was informal in nature with participants invited to ask questions. I greatly enjoyed the session and learned a few things about oil painting. Michael made an interesting statement regarding oil and pastel painting that really resonated for me. Many pastelists also paint in oil and I have frequently heard them say that increasing their skills with oil results in better pastel painting and vice versa. However, Michael pointed out another advantage of painting with both media. He stated that painting in pastels builds knowledge of values because pastel sets typically include a range of values of each hue or chroma. On the other hand, oils builds knowledge of color as one must understand color theory to mix the color in the correct value, temperature, etc. for the piece being painted. As with most master artists, Michael goes first for value, second for temperature and a distant third for hue or chroma. Here is a picture of the painting Michael completed during the demonstration:
It was a beautiful and informative day in Sedona that was finished off with visits to a few galleries I have not visited in a while before heading back down to the valley!
I found Michael to not only be a great painter, but able to describe the hows and whys of what he was doing as he painted. The session was informal in nature with participants invited to ask questions. I greatly enjoyed the session and learned a few things about oil painting. Michael made an interesting statement regarding oil and pastel painting that really resonated for me. Many pastelists also paint in oil and I have frequently heard them say that increasing their skills with oil results in better pastel painting and vice versa. However, Michael pointed out another advantage of painting with both media. He stated that painting in pastels builds knowledge of values because pastel sets typically include a range of values of each hue or chroma. On the other hand, oils builds knowledge of color as one must understand color theory to mix the color in the correct value, temperature, etc. for the piece being painted. As with most master artists, Michael goes first for value, second for temperature and a distant third for hue or chroma. Here is a picture of the painting Michael completed during the demonstration:
Karen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information. I am an oil painter living in Sedona. I have painted in studio for thirteen years now with only an occasional foray here and there into plein air work. I'd love to get into it and will contact Michael when I get a chance.