Back in the day when I worked as an architect, my business partner Barry often talked about the Tyranny of Symmetry. Symmetry in building design is much like symmetry in designing a painting composition. The former in three dimension, the latter in two. They both share the same visual qualities: they’re stable, they’re static, they’re boring. Asymmetry on the other hand, has visual qualities of energy, movement and interest.

In this video I am painting on a 36x36 gallery wrapped, Raw, Unprimed canvas. It’s been a long time, probably 5 years since I have painted on raw canvas. It’s a very different experience and takes a different approach than painting on a gessoed surface.

In this video I am painting on a 36x36 gallery wrapped, Raw, Unprimed canvas. It’s been a long time, probably 5 years since I have painted on raw canvas. It’s a very different experience and takes a different approach than painting on a gessoed surface.

The second most common question I am asked both online and in workshops (second only to what kind of brushes do you use?) is, “Do you use mediums?”

What do you think is the #1 way to create more contrast in your art? For me it is all about value: the light against the dark.

Comparing yourself to other artists is never a good idea, because everyone is given a special set of gifts and no two sets of gifts are the same. Everyone uses (and should use) their gifts differently, thus everyone has an expression that is uniquely their own.

I absolutely love using blue in my paintings, and it is one of my favorites to be sure. I find that students are sometimes befuddled by blue and cannot figure out if the blues they are using are warm or cool. They also struggle sometimes using the right blue to mix greens and violets.

This is the third painting in my “Fusion” series. The paintings are my take on a monochromatic color combination where I am using one color family (multiple colors of yellow, in this case) plus black, white and grays. I am always hesitant to make a yellow dominant painting because they typically don’t sell and yellow can be hard to deal with, particularly when trying to make dark values. But, I thought I would give it a go, and I really like the resultant painting.

Many of you know that before I began painting abstracts I was a hardcore watercolor painter. I thought I would always be a watercolor painter and not get into any other kinds of media or types of painting. Fast forward 15 years and things have changed a lot for me in painting.

What do you think is the number #1 skill that artists need? I’m sure most will have differing opinions, but mine is that Drawing is the #1 skill that ALL artists need. I hear over and over again in my workshops from students (typically middle aged and above) that they have decided to take an abstract painting workshop because they didn’t know how to draw.