Don needs no introduction to Art Guild members, but others should be made aware that he has been a excellent artist and art teacher in Waco for many years. His program this month presents an exciting, shimmering, broken-color painting style that produces an impressionistic effect.

Broken-color refers to the technique of subdividing local color into several related segments. A fairly large amount of local color is first mixed up for a part a painting, such as a building, a sky, trees or grass patterns as parts of a landscape. These local colors are then divided into three equal amounts. One of each the three primaries of red, yellow and blue are added to each of the divided amounts. Red goes into one of these, blue to another and yellow goes into the third mount. This way we get three different variations of each local color in a painting.

This is done only for the main local colors in the subject matter and in the larger areas of a painting. This can be done for larger dark or light painting areas. When painting, the artist reaches down and gets a different variation of the color being used at the time and places them side by side on the painting without much blending. When coupled with short patterned brush strokes, this technique becomes even more vibrant. This is what gives the shimmering effect to the art work.

Also included will be the visual effects of aerial and linear perspective.  You are most welcome to bring any form of mixable color media and paper/canvas to work on, as after the talk/demo, we will play with this concept of color mixing and enjoy literally "PLAYING with color".

We will meet at our usual time and place: Waco Charter School, 615 N 25th Street, at 1:30 for refreshments and conversation, with the meeting beginning at 2:00 and ending by about 4:30. First time visitors are free. Those who want to join may do so for only $8 for the remaining months of this year. Also, please bring your art for Show and Tell, which we share during the break.

For those who would like to enroll in Don's classes, they are available in six weeks segments, beginning in September at his 2400 Fort Ave studio, across the street from the Waco Charter School. An outline his program will be available at this meeting and on the first day of each series of classes:

Tuesday PM     6:30- 8:30  PM-  Sept 13

Thursday AM 10:00-12:30 AM- Sept  15

Saturday AM  10:00-12:30 AM- Sept  17

Call Don for additional information at  254-753-6844.

Don began by saying that playing is very important in learning to paint, and in enjoying it. He believes the process is trial and error, and that there are no failures because we can learn from mistakes. He used a video camera, whose image was projected on a large screen, to show his work. He discussed 1 point, 2 point and 3 point perspective, and passed out copies to everyone of illustrations of them (at the right). He said our basic learning is done with straight and curved lines. He stressed that if we are going to paint, we need to see.

He displayed a painting of a street scene that was done by one of his students several years ago (right). His demo was to be a similar scene, but using the broken-color style. He had already prepared a canvas before the demo with an all-over wash of a pale lilac shade, and had sketched in the basic outlines of the buildings, street, sidewalk and sky (left). On the larger areas, such as the street, he used a medium which was made of equal parts of Damar varnish, linseed oil and turpentine. Smaller areas do not need it.

The only colors of paint he used were yellow, red, white and blue (palette at the right). For example, to get stucco color he used more yellow, but still used all of the others to get an appropriate hue and tone. He mixed a large quantity of the stucco color on a mixing surface and separated it into three piles, so that he could add extra yellow, red and blue into them to get the related colors that would be placed near one another in the painting.

Don proceeded to fill in areas of the painting using the three related colors in small patches so that the overall effect was the average color, but the surface was vibrant, rather than dull. He said that everything he does is an experiment. He suggested that if you don't know what to do, just do something. If it doesn't work, you can always paint over it. He said we make no mistakes in painting, only learning opportunities.

 

Thanks to Don for a challenging demo, to those who brought refreshments, to Linda Green and Charleen Isbell, who provided the photos and notes for this report, and to those who brought works for Show and Tell, examples of which are shown below.

 

Show and Tell:

                                 
  Julie Cash            Deanie Chastain         Frank Gutierrez 

 

                                           

            Gloria Meadows              Christine Niekamp

There will be a reception and gallery talk at the museum for oil painter Ann Ekstrom. The event will start at 5:30pm, and is free for the public. Also on view is the McRay Magleby exhibition.