Category: Art Blog

May 24, 2021

A Written Art Lesson Part 7 – The Tree

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog / painting tips, written art lesson /

A Written Art Lesson: Part 7

Today we will paint our tree. You may catch up with past lessons by visiting the Blog page on my website. You will find lessons about paints, supplies, and composition.

During our last session you were working on a landscape and had created your field. The landscape includes mountains with a tree in a field in the foreground. You now need to paint the foreground tree while the paint is still wet on the field, mountains, and sky.

Remember that our composition requires placing the major elements at the third marks. Therefore, you should begin to “grow” your tree at least as low as the bottom third of your painting and about a third from the right side of your canvas. You will make it taller than the mountains. Try NOT to line your tree up with one of your mountain peaks. It’s good to have vertical elements intersect horizontal lines in your painting. And by making the tree so large compared to the mountains, the tree will appear closer while the mountains appear distant.

I always tell my students to use the right sized brush for the job. Choose a flat brush that will be no more than the width of the widest part of your tree trunk. (How does your #8 flat look?)

Use the Grab and Go method to get some of your previously mixed “dark” on the tip of your brush. It’s okay to hold the brush like a pencil because you will paint a straight line from the bottom up. Place your brush where the tree begins to grow in the field. Pull the paint up to create the trunk. It’s okay if the line wobbles as it gets higher. It will look more like a real tree. As you get higher, slowly rotate the brush to the thin edge as you continue to paint from the field through the mountains to the sky. Don’t worry if you run out of paint. Because you are painting “wet on wet” your brush will still make a mark as you drag it through the wet paint. You should end in the thinnest, barely visible top to your trunk. This was all ONE stroke. (Breathe!) Make your trunk thicker at the bottom if needed by making more strokes.

Wipe your brush to remove most of the mountain and sky colors from it. Reshape the bristles with your paper towel so that the brush is back to its flat edge. Switch to a smaller flat brush if you like. Let’s paint the branches. Grab a small amount of your dark on the tip of your brush. Don’t bend that brush as you grab the paint! Elbow in the air and a gentle grab. Back to your Statue of Liberty grip please! Start at the trunk and paint branches twisting from the trunk. All the very ends of the branch tips should angle up to the sky. (Trees are always striving upward to the light.) Continue to wipe and reload your brush until you make as many branches as you like.

Some branches will likely be just a hint of a line dragged through the paint. That’s alright. You can always add more color to the wood.

You already know where the sun is coming from since you had to paint light and shadows on your mountains. Do the same with your tree. You will notice that your tree already has a nice blend of colors since you dragged it through the wet field, mountains, and sky. Use yellow ochre to add the look of sunlight where it might be hitting your trunk and branches. Use French Ultramarine Blue to make deeper shadows. Do not strive for perfect smoothness; it’s bark and should look rough.

We’ll continue to add details to your painting during your next “Written Art Lesson”!

May 2, 2021

A Written Art Lesson Part 6- Greens

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog / written art lesson /

A Written Art Lesson: Part 6

Today you will mix greens to create a field in the foreground. You may catch up with past lessons by visiting the Blog page on my website. You will find lessons about paints, supplies, and composition.

During our last session you were working on a landscape and had created your sky and mountains. The composition includes mountains with a tree in a field in the foreground. You now need to paint the field.

Because the mountains and sky are “cool” colors, why don’t you create a field of golds, yellows, and warm greens to add some contrast to your painting?

You will need to mix your greens from the colors previously squeezed out onto your palette. Use your palette knife to grab some Lemon Yellow and deposit it in a new pile a few inches below the master pile of it. Wipe your knife and grab some of the Yellow Ochre and make another pile of it under that master pile. You should now have two piles of Lemon Yellow and two piles of Yellow Ochre.

Wipe your knife and use it to grab some French Ultramarine Blue. Grab about a quarter as much as the new pile of Lemon Yellow. Add it to the new pile of Lemon Yellow and mix until it looks marbled. Wipe your knife and do the same with the Blue and the Yellow Ochre. You should have created two piles of different looking greens. You can divide those new greens and add more French Ultramarine Blue to each new pile to make darker greens. You should now have your two original yellows and four piles of greens.

Use the Grab and Go method to get some of one of the greens on the tip of your brush. You are going to use X-Strokes like you did when you painted the sky to cover the entire bottom of the canvas under the mountains. Except now you will be using your new greens as well as both the Lemon Yellow and the Yellow Ochre. You will use a medium sized flat brush. Wipe your brush and keep changing from one green or yellow to another. Paint little areas all over your field. Cover all the white of your canvas. The field should be completely painted with your greens and yellow.

Now wipe your brush. Do not grab more paint. The grass in the far distance near the mountains shouldn’t be tall and defined. Use the flat side of your brush to blend your X-Strokes flatter back there. Move about halfway down your field. Then hold your brush like a pencil and use the thin, flat edge of the brush to make small, skinny strokes to look like tall grass. Just drag the brush upward through the paint you’ve already applied. Continue to move lower so that the grass at the bottom of your canvas looks “closer”. The lower you get, the taller you should make your grass. Wipe your brush often to keep the edge thin and flat.

You need to get your tree painted while your field, mountains, and sky are still wet.

I’ll help you with that during your next “Written Art Lesson”!

April 23, 2021

Tending Gallery Walls

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog / art curation /

Gallery walls need tending just like a garden.

Did you know that you may view an extensive collection of my paintings right on the walls of my Dover, New Hampshire studio? I design, prune, and plant those walls with
my art.

Last week, I spent the better part of two studio days completely rehanging all the art on them.

I hadn’t done that since March of 2020, just before COVID 19 shut me down.

I remove all the paintings from the walls and methodically work my way from the center out to the corners. I listen to classical music; assemble ladder, tape measure, hammer, nails, spackle, towels, magic sponge, pencil; dim the lights and fire up the laser level!

I carefully measure the width of each new painting, divide by two, and add four inches. I climb the ladder and mark the center of where the art will hang. That four inches is the space between that painting and the one before it. Down the ladder I go. Then I measure from the stretched hanging wire to the top of the painting. I re-climb the ladder and measure that measurement down from the red laser line and mark it to align with the previous center mark. I nail in the hook. Down the ladder I go and back up with the painting. I hang that painting and descend.

To hang a painting below that one, I mark the center width of the upper painting on the wall below. Then I measure down three inches from the bottom of the upper painting plus the wire to frame top measurement of the lower painting. I mark how low the hook will go and hammer it in aligned with the center of the upper painting.

And so, this dance continues around the giant room in our mill building until my garden has been freshly planted with new paintings!

For me, the result is always worth the effort.

April 12, 2021

A Written Art Lesson: Part 5 – The Mountains

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog / written art lesson /

A Written Art Lesson: Part 5 - The Mountains

Today we will paint in our horizon line. You may catch up with past lessons by visiting the Blog page on my website.

You were working on a landscape and had just painted the sky. The landscape includes mountains with a tree in a field in the foreground. You should paint in the horizon line and the silhouettes of the mountains while the paint in the sky is still wet.

You don’t want the mountain tops or the base of them (your horizon line) to be halfway down the painting. Remember our composition requires placing the major elements at the third marks. The mountain tops and the horizon should be closer to a third of the way up or a third of the way down your canvas.

I recommend using a small to medium-sized flat brush (perhaps your #5). Just grab a small amount of Cobalt Blue on the tip of your brush using the Grab and Go method. Then drag your brush right through that wet, light blue sky to paint the very tops of your mountain range. Then do the same and make a line all the way across the canvas beneath the mountains where the field begins. That horizon line can be straight or gently curved. It’s your choice.

Now grab some more Cobalt Blue, hold that brush with your Statue of Liberty grip and place the tip at the peak of one of your mountains. Slowly use the wider flat side of the brush to pull down and apply paint to the mountain. Continue to paint your mountains this way. Begin your strokes at the peaks and take them all the way down to your horizon line. Angle the brush stroke to follow the curve of your mountain down into the valleys. Decide which mountains will be in front of the others. The left side of a mountain might be in front of the one next to it. But you could have the right side of the same mountain be behind the one to the right of it. This would give the impression that some mountains are closer and other are farther back.

Decide which direction the sun is coming from. Make that side of the mountains lighter and the shady side darker. Decide whether a taller mountain blocks the sun from reaching the one next to it.

You may also play with colors of course. Add some French Ultramarine Blue to darken the mountains. Like purple? Mix the French Ultramarine Blue with Permanent Alizaron Crimson to make a nice dark purple. Too dark? Add a little Titanium White.

When you like your mountains, drag your brush through that horizon line again where the field meets the mountains. It’s good to get your tree marked in while the mountains are wet. We will work on this foreground during your next “Written Art Lesson”!

April 7, 2021

My Inspiration

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog /

My Inspiration

Visitors often ask me, “Do you paint from pictures?” Yes, I often do use photographs as references for my paintings. And I almost always use photos I’ve taken myself.

However, inspiration comes in many forms.

When I’m the passenger in a vehicle, I’ll study the way light and shadows interact with the scenery I’m passing. I look at the way the sun catches trees and pine needles. I’ll note the time of day and the quality of light. Does the sun make everything look warm and golden or do things look crisp and bright? What is the season? Is there snow and ice adding another dimension to forms?

I recall one moonlit ride many years ago. I was fascinated by the full moon’s glow on the snow and giant icicles hanging from the huge rock outcroppings along the highway. I would look at a spot ahead of us and follow it by swiveling my head until it wasn’t visible behind us. My husband finally had to ask what the heck was I looking at!

Although I had no photos from that evening, I later painted the scene from memory and added footprints in the snow.

When I do use a photo, I consider it inspiration and not something to be copied. After all, I already have the photograph!

Sometimes, I see a photo by another photographer that inspires me. Usually, such images linger in my mind. When I find that I can’t stop thinking about them, I will request permission to use the photo as an inspiration.

This happened with my newest painting, “Launched.” My friend and fabulous wildlife photographer, Wendy Wetherbee, allowed me to use her bluebird photo. She told me that it “wasn’t a great photo.” But the sense of movement made it perfect for me. (See Wendy’s art here. )

The blur of blue wings spoke to me on an early spring day.

I was inspired.

March 30, 2021

A Written Art Lesson: Part 4

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog / brushwork, painting tips, tips and techniques, written art lesson /

In our last lesson, we discussed the supplies you will need to complete your painting. Before that, we talked about paint colors and basic composition. You can access the previous Lessons on my website Blog if you need to catch up.

Now let’s get some paint on that canvas!

Remember that we were working on a landscape. The sky is the furthest thing away from us. So, let’s paint it. Make sure that your canvas is secured on your easel. And squeeze your paint colors out in the proper order on your palette paper as we discussed in A Written Art Lesson: Part Two.

Use your palette knife to put some Titanium White beneath the pile of Cobalt Blue. After wiping the knife with a paper towel or rag, just barely touch the tip into the Cobalt Blue and gently mix it into the White. Don’t “mix it dead”! Just mix until it looks marbleized. Remember: It’s always easier to add more color than to try to take it out. Add a little more blue paint to the white if you want a deeper colored sky. When you like your sky color, wipe the knife and set it aside.

Next choose your paint brush. I like to use a larger, stiffer brush when covering large areas like a sky. I recommend the #16 Bright we discussed in A Written Art Lesson: Part Three.

Apply the paint to the upper portion of your canvas using Grab & Go and The X Stroke. Hold the brush in an overhand grip I call The Statue of Liberty grip. Imagine yourself holding the brush overhead like the torch. I recommend using this brush grip instead of a pencil grip. Then put your elbow in the air and grab a blob of paint on the tip of your brush. We paint with the brush tip, not the side. Then apply the paint blob directly to your canvas with a stroke that makes X marks on your canvas. Make a mark first with your thumb facing down; then with your thumb facing up. Move your entire arm like you are conducting an orchestra. Don’t make “smiles”! We chose a bigger brush so that we could use the width to cover the canvas. I want to see nice, fat “X”s. Ava demonstrates these techniques here.

Make sure that you paint down to just below where your landscape will be painted. You will paint the hills and tree on top of the blue paint later.

When you’ve covered the top of the canvas, wipe the excess paint from your brush with a paper towel and place the brush handle-side down in a can or jar.

Next choose a large, soft brush to gently pull the paint across your sky. Start on one edge and pull it all the way across. Then do the next stroke lower starting from the edge where you ended. Don’t start or end your strokes in the middle of your sky. Those flat brush marks will be there forever once the paint dries. Always begin and end at an edge. If you like, you may even make these strokes at a slight diagonal. This will give the sky a sense of movement.

Remember that your brush work is important because the strokes will become a permanent part of your painting.

While the sky paint is still wet, you should paint in your horizon line. We’ll cover that in the next edition of “A Written Art Lesson.”

If you’d like to browse some of the items I’m discussing, visit my Teacher Supply List at Jerry’s Artarama.

Please subscribe to my new Channel on YouTube for short video clip demonstrations that will help you as we progress.

March 23, 2021

Resiliency

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog / art during Covid 19, bouncing back, pandemic choices /

Last year I wrote about being in somewhat of a “pause.” Now I think of myself as “resilient.” ‘

I created some beautiful paintings while working in my home studio from March to May 2020.

Thankfully, I am back in the studio again full-time.

However, I’ve focused on private and semi-private lessons since we continue to deal with the restrictions surrounding the pandemic.

I continue to produce larger oil paintings during the hours when I am not teaching. I keep regular business hours. But I sure miss the visitors!

The good news is that although last year wasn’t a record-breaker, my methods allowed me to lose less than many other businesses.

As the slow spin back to “normal” occurs, I’m going to change things up.

I will be fully vaccinated (two shots plus the two weeks) after March 29^th. At that time, I will offer mask-optional private lessons for those who are also fully vaccinated.

I’d also like to re-commence small group lessons for the fully vaccinated. What subject would you like to paint? Would you feel comfortable with 2 or 3 other fully vaccinated students?

I’d also like to reintroduce some type of monthly “art walk” here in my studio. I even have a live musician ready to roll! But with continued social distancing requirements, I worry that visitors will flood in and be frustrated when I limit in-studio capacity.

I’m considering a Saturday from 5 to 7 pm. What do you think?

If it feels right for you, won’t you come visit me? I keep studio hours updated on Google and on my website.

If you’re staying closing to home, I’d also love it if you would check out my newly re-vamped e-commerce website. You may now purchase my art directly from the site with shipping or pick up options. Please look the site over and send me feedback. I’m still (will always be) tweaking how it works and looks. SEHstudios.com/Store

So, be well my friends. Let me know how you are doing.

March 8, 2021

Creating “Under The Mill”

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog, art demonstration / oil painting, painting demonstration /

March 2, 2021

A Written Art Lesson: Part 3

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog / art lesson, art supplies /

A Written Art Lesson: Part 3

In our last lesson, we discussed preparing our palette with paint. During this installment of a Written Art Lesson, let’s begin to discuss the supplies you will need to complete your painting.

You need something to paint on. Artists call this a “substrate.” I use both fabric and metal substrates. Most beginners choose to paint on canvas. You can buy canvas glued to wooden or cardboard to make a flat substrate. These are easy to transport, store, and harder to damage. Many also choose canvas that has been stretched around wooden supports. These bounce a little while you apply the paint. They must be moved and stored with caution to avoid puncturing the canvas. If the wooden “bars” are thick and the canvas wraps all the way to the back, then we describe this as a “gallery-wrapped” canvas. It doesn’t need a frame. Obtain at least 11 x 14-inch substrates. Beginners have an easier time with larger substrates. You may also want to consider purchasing substrates that will fit into standard frame sizes to avoid the cost of custom frames.

Once you decide on your substrate, of course you need brushes. I recommend synthetic hog hair, long-handled brushes. I like the synthetic hog brushes found at Hobby Lobby. Their Master’s Touch line is durable and a good value. Flats or brights (not filberts) are the best for our purposes. However, any synthetic hog will do. Please don’t purchase sable or real hog bristle brushes. Sable is too soft, and real hog will shed bristles. For beginners, I recommend Master’s Touch Synthetic Hog long-handled “flats” #2, #5, and #8, and “Brights” #4, #10, #12, and #16. Long-handled brushes allow you to stand back from your painting while working. They are also best for painting outdoors and providing the opportunity to flex and move your hand and arm while creating your brushstrokes.

I recommend Winton Oil Colours for beginners. Learners usually waste a lot of paint. It’s a good quality product at a reasonable price. You will only need the seven colors we discussed in A Written Art Lesson: Part Two

You will also need a trowel type palette knife. You will use this to move and mix your paint on the palette. You may also use it to apply paint to the substrate if you like. You may purchase inexpensive plastic knives until you are sure you wish to continue painting in the long term. But the metal knives are easier to use in my opinion.

My students use disposable palette paper in classes. It comes in pads of two different sizes. I find students need more room; so, buy the 12 x 16-inch size. It will also fit nicely into a paint storage box. The easiest box to find is by Masterson.

If you’d like to browse some of the items I’m discussing, visit my teacher’s page at Jerry’s Artarama Supply List.

After you paint, you need to clean up. I’ll continue this discussion in the next installment of A Written Art Lesson.

You may enjoy subscribing to my new channel SEH Studios Art on YouTube for short video clip demonstrations that will help you as we move on to the actual application of paint to the substrate.

As always, I’d be delighted if you shared this newsletter or any of my social media posts. Word of mouth is still the best way to grow a business.

February 17, 2021

Detachment

Susan E. Hanna / 0 Comments / Art Blog / medical conditions /

Detachment

(First published by me as a newsletter on 12/19/2019. Recent conversations informed me that many adults continue to be unaware of this medical issue.)

So, what do you do when you’ve devoted the last two years of your life to building a business based upon the visual arts and, suddenly, you cannot see?

This was one of the primary thoughts I had the evening before Thanksgiving this year.

The day ended like many others. I cleaned my brushes, tidied the studio, and headed out into the early dark of a late winter afternoon.

“Oh, it’s snowing,” I thought. “I didn’t know it was supposed to snow!” I could see snow falling in the glow of the streetlights out of the corner of my eye. But, oddly, I couldn’t see flakes falling anywhere else. I focused on crossing the busy street and trudging up the hill to where I’d parked my car.

Now, I was in a darker area. And I could still see snowflakes glowing out of the corner of my right eye.

Uh-oh.

I drove home, slowly becoming more concerned as it even appeared to be snowing IN my car. Upon arrival, I splashed water in my eyes and inspected my face for signs of glitter from Christmas decorations. I used lubricating eyedrops. I asked my husband whether he could see anything in or on my eye. All to no avail.

Suddenly, I recalled associates who had experienced retinal detachment and sudden blindness.

Now I was frightened.

So, I Googled, “What does it mean when I see flashes of light out of the corner of my eye?” The results described retinal detachment and vitreous detachment. I’d never heard of the latter. The search results urged me to be “seen as soon as possible by a medical provider.”

Did I mention that I was frightened?

I was exhausted. It was the night before Thanksgiving. It was dark and I didn’t want to spend hours in an Emergency Room. So, I looked up local eye doctors and filled out an appointment request for one. I listed my symptoms as requested in the online appointment form. I figured that it was a holiday weekend and that I might get an appointment for Monday or Tuesday if they found it urgent.

An hour later, on the night before Thanksgiving, their Office Manager emailed me back and told me to go to the Emergency Room because I should be seen “as soon as possible.”

I didn’t go. Instead, I tossed all night in bed with a plan to go at first light. And that’s what I did Thanksgiving morning.

An EKG, blood tests, an ultrasound of the eye, and a CAT scan later, the emergency room physician told me it looked like Vitreous Detachment of the right eye. I even saw an Ophthalmologist in her office on Thanksgiving morning!

I now know that EVERY SINGLE PERSON experiences Vitreous Detachment as his or her eyes age. I had no previous knowledge of this. Why had nobody warned me? I guess because they want you to be seen “as soon as possible” because it could have been a stroke, retinal detachment, or another medical crisis.

I now feel stupid for not going immediately to the Emergency Room. But had I known that every human being experiences this detachment, I might have been less panicked.

My purpose today is to let you know that this will happen to you if it hasn’t already. Not everyone experiences symptoms. So, look it up to understand for yourself.

I also feel extremely grateful that I can continue working as I’ve been without any serious consequences.

Happy Holidays to you all, however you celebrate. I hope that any setbacks in the coming year are inconsequential. Be well.

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