Stephen Bennett Portrait Painter

I used this photo in my beginner oil painting class last night to illustrate the importance of values to my students. Showing students gets through to them more when they can see examples of what you're talking about. I'm only halfway through the class and I'm quite sure I've already worn out the word values. I explained to them that you can be off with your colors but you really need to get your values down pretty close.  I use Stephen's paintings to illustrate the point that you can change the colors all you want as long as you get the values correct. I showed them how he replaces hues in his paintings with these vivid colors but because he keeps the values correct, you can still recognize forms as a face.

If you're not familar with Stephen Bennett's work, please visit his web site. A strange thing happened a few weeks after I discovered his work. I was driving to my painting class with Stuart Dunkel and I was stopped at a intersection and as I looked to my right, I saw one of Stephen's paintings or perhaps a reproduction on the wall in a business. Really strange coincidence!

http://theportraitpainter.com/web/index.html

Here's one of my all-time favorite paintings by Stephen:

Djalu Gurruwiwi,

Caretaker of the Yidaki

Acrylic on canvas

80 x 64 inches

Paint your own Color Wheel

I've been enjoying my classes with Stuart Dunkel and we've been working on creating a color wheel for the past two sessions and discussing color theory and mixing as we go. We're working around the wheel starting with the Yellow and working around in order to the Blues.

In all honesty I'll getting tired of doing the wheel but I have learned a great deal in creating it and it's something I can keep handy in the studio for reference or for when I have my own students.
If you've never painted one then I highly suggest it.

PS - I hope I finish tonight because I want to work on something fun!

Taking an Art Class

"Balance of Good and Evil" (16" x 20" oil) ~ Stuart Dunkel

I signed up for art classes with Stuart Dunkel at the Nautilus School of Realist Art in Watertown, MA which is a small, seven person studio setup.  He's a fabulous artist and a great teacher as well.  You can visit his web site at:  http://www.stuart-dunkel.com/.

I discovered Stuart while reading through Jeff Haye's art blog and I'm glad I did.  I've learned a great deal in the four classes I've taken so far.  I've already learned a great deal more about coloring mixing and making better choices for my paint choices.  There's only four and sometimes five students in the class so it's very intimate and questions are quickly answered. 

Requirements at work and the huge amount of snow storms Massachusetts has received has prevented me from attending any classes in January but we're back on track this week.