81 Thick Acrylic 1 of 2

IN THIS VIDEO I paint a 16" x 20" acrylic  painting using thick strokes of broken color. I also allow the paint to dry at certain points and "oil up" with a water based retarder gel. I have experimnted with a similar technique in the past but using the retarder gel is vastly superior to using the acrylic medium I used previously. Be sure to finish the painting with a generous coat of acrylic medium. This will ensure that all the layers will cross link (bind) and create a strong, non-delaminating surface.


I hope you enjoy this technique. Please let me know your results in the comments section.

80 THE THICK PAINT PROJECT

IN THE PAST YEAR digital publishing has evolved considerably. A digital book about thick paint could be extremely interesting. Imagine these blog entries placed in logical order, with new chapters and videos bridging the gaps, and published as a digital book. A book made with iBook Author would have text, video, and high resolution images that could be enlarged to see extreme close-ups of the textures of each painting. It is an ideal format for painting instruction and I am very enthused to complete such a project.

I'm considering Apple's iBook Author for its low creation costs and universal availablility via iTunes.

I really appreciate all the encouragement and kind words I've received since the inception of this blog. I couldn't do it without your support. Thanks so much.

Brad Teare February 2012

79 MAKING THICK PAINT





MANY people have asked me how I make my Thick Paint videos so I decided to do a short entry on the process. There isn’t too much mystery although some have inquired how I film as I paint. I hope you enjoy this and I’ll see you again March 2012.


Here are links to the items mentioned in the video. Note that I am using a Mac with OS 10.5.8:


Sony Cyber-shot (I notice they have a 14 mega pixel version available now.)
StudioBoom (be sure to get a stand AND an adapter).
Ott lites
Axiotron Modbook
Dragon Dictate (this link is to the Mac version.)
Sony MP3 recorder


All images and words © Brad Teare 2011

78 INNOVATION HAPPENS....

I AM making an exception to my No Blogging Until March 2012 rule because a friend sent me this great web site. I found Austin Kleon’s ideas both inspirational and practical.

The only thing I didn’t absolutely love about the essay (and this is very minor) was the idea that there are no new ideas. I only emphasize this small difference of opinion because I think it is important to believe in radical innovation, those quantum leaps that change everything.

I know it is a really small thing but my method of scraping the palette with the left hand and swiping paint off onto the canvas with the right is a new idea (albeit it a small idea). As far as I know that specific idea has no genealogy. It is dissimilar from any painting method I know (although I freely admit that someone else may have stumbled on this interesting but simple way to paint). We all make our contribution and small innovations can add up to large changes.

Not everything has been discovered relating to landscape painting. The genre is alive and well and poised for change by a series of innovations. Such discoveries will not be made by those who view painting as a series of recipes but by those who believe innovation is possible.

In short, I think it is best to borrow freely but be open and hope for true, unfettered innovation. Maybe these small innovations are like mutations (an idea I borrowed from this book). Innovations seem to come out of nowhere, but when they prove useful and are fused with other ideas they begin their metamorphosis as others borrow them and make them their own. One thing is certain; the rate of innovation increases as we share our discoveries with each other.

I admit that bolts of lightening from the sky are few and far between. But when they strike no other experience compares.

Brad Teare © 2011

77 TAKING A SABBATICAL AND LOOKING FOR A NEW CHAPEAU


AS I MENTIONED in my last blog I will be taking a break until March 2012. This will give me time to recharge the batteries as I work on a more commercial project. I also need a new hat and am willing to trade a painting for information on where to order one (see video). So next time I film I hope to be wearing a new chapeau (my old one clearly needs to be replaced!). I hope you have a great year painting and hope to hear from you again in March 2012. Many thanks!





Brad Teare © 2011

76 THE ART ADVENTURE

AFTER High School my friend Joe Hebert and I left our Kansas home and traveled to the foothills of Moscow Mountain (in Northern Idaho) where we built a log cabin. A nearby farmer let us salvage lumber from an abandoned barn which we used to build the floor, roof, as well as the door and furniture. It was an interesting project and allowed me to live frugally so I could pursue art full-time.

Toward the end of my one year stay in the cabin I enrolled at the University of Idaho and began my formal study of art. I took drawing classes and started learning the rudiments of oil painting.

An early influence was the work of Rockwell Kent whose work I discovered in the local library. I was fascinated by what I assumed was woodcut, although Kent worked primarily in pen and ink making the occasional wood engraving. But his strong composition and stark contrast deeply impressed me. Above all I was fascinated by Kent's adventurous life. Later I would purchase a printing press and begin my own adventure illustrating in New York City.

The artist's life seemed infused with vibrant potential. I look back with nostalgia on that era. There were many things I didn't know about an art career, that there are many factors outside an artist's control, that the economy can create seemingly insurmountable obstacles, that the tastes and fashions of the art world can present frustrating challenges.

Strangely, it was a recent trip over the Sierra Nevadas to San Francisco and down the San Joaquin Valley that sparked my introspection and rumination on my artistic roots. As I passed through a region of lush green foothills sprinkled with majestic outcroppings of rock I remembered an earlier phase where I painted large acrylic paintings on stretched watercolor paper mounted on plywood. My favorite motifs were rocks covered with moss and lichens.

I recalled other periods where I sculpted, painted in watercolor, created science-fiction book covers, illustrated children's books, wrote and drew alternative comic books, animated television shows, and of course, painted landscapes with strokes of thick oil paint.

I undertook all these projects with a sense of adventure. That sense of adventure is perhaps what I like most about the artistic life. Through it all my most persistent ambition has been to paint the landscape. Yet currently I find very little air beneath my wings. So for the next year I have decided to set aside oil painting and begin a new project. This project will be of a more commercial nature but ultimately designed to reinvigorate my painting career. If all goes well I will return to the Thick Paint blog revitalized and ready to create new videos and blog entries chronicling larger, more energetic paintings. Although I will not be making new blog entries or videos for a year I will monitor comments and continue to answer questions.

I look forward to sharing what I learn in the coming year. I hope you will rejoin me in March 2012.

Brad Teare © 2011

75 THE SLOW PAINTING MOVEMENT

THE PLEIN air movement has been good for painters and landscape painting. It sparked a renaissance in the art of observation and a return to artistic fundamentals. It helped refocus landscape painter's attention back to the source of its inspiration. I have benefited artistically by painting in the field and financially from invitations to various art festivals. I commend these festivals for substantially enlarging the number of landscape collectors in America. I plan to continue painting en plein air as well as attending plein air festivals.

However an unintended consequence of the resurgence of plein air painting has been an emphasis, perhaps an overemphasis, on painting as a virtuoso performance for the benefit of spectators. At such events the most prized paintings are often the paintings done the quickest. I don't criticize these events. They're a lot of fun. But the trick is to compartmentalize this mental state and relegated it only to the proper moment. And the proper moment for a virtuoso performance is not when you're in the studio struggling to express your inner vision.


Recently I've noticed that the mental state I have while performing at plein air events has invaded my studio painting. While painting in the studio I not only habitually intend that each painting be a virtuoso performance, but often that each brush stroke be one as well. The pressure became so great I needed an escape. So I have switched, perhaps for just a season, to a completely different medium. The medium I chanced on is encaustic. There is a roughhewn quality with encaustic reminiscent of the art of woodcut, accompanied by the mental state I associate with sculpting. Encaustic is a medium that can't be hurried. It is also a medium that doesn't need to hurry. The drying time is indefinite and I can reactivate the painting surface simply by reheating it.

I will explore this medium for as long as it takes to unshackle myself from the burden of virtuosity. I intend to immersed myself in the encaustic process until painting becomes a kind of meditation and I relearn the art of painting slowly.

Brad Teare © 2011

74 USING A WAX MEDIUM PART 2 OF 2


THIS video completes my experiment oiling up the canvas with a cold wax and oil medium. Specifically I used Gamblin's Cold wax and their appealingly thick G-Gel. There are few surprises here, I basically just complete the painting using ideas started in part one. But it was satisfying to note that the medium maintained its thickness despite wiping off, adding pure paint, and generally pushing paint all over the surface.