Masonry - Greg Mason Burns

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November 20, 2014

Behind the Painting: Calle en Ardales

[caption id="attachment_3869" align="alignleft" width="172"] Calle en Ardales - Watercolor on Canvas Board - 28 x 33.5 cm (2014)[/caption] I've been climbing for about 15 years now. That's so hard to believe when I look back on those first few years. The man who introduced me to climbing passed away during a climbing accident not long after he got me hooked. On the day I found out, I went climbing. I still can't tell you why. I guess I just felt it was the right thing to do.For many years I wanted to go climbing in El Chorro, in the Malaga region...

November 17, 2014

Greg

My Favorite Artists: The Restoration of Matisse’s Swimming Pool

[caption id="attachment_3883" align="alignright" width="204"] Henri Matisse - The Swimming Pool (1952) - MoMA[/caption] Henri Matisse has long been one of my favorite artists. This is in spite of the fact that he probably isn't my favorite artist to study or even look at. He has probably influenced me more than any other artist. I never chose to use bold colors, but it's certainly a strength of mine, and Matisse's paintings, particularly A Glimpse of Notre-Dame in the Late Afternoon, absolutely helped me to understand that my use of colors works in the public eye. When to Use Archival Materials One thing that I've...

November 11, 2014

Greg

Could Cadmium be banned in Europe?

Being an artist, it's a little disheartening to be held hostage to making color in today's world. Actually, that's too dramatic. I could always make my own colors, and to be honest I'd love to learn how to do so. But there are some colors that are really useful and I can't see myself making them on my own any time soon. The cadmium colors (red and yellow in my studio) are very useful. In fact, I typically work with just these colors: cadmium red, cadmium yellow, ultramarine, cobalt, cerulean, and titanium white. I mix in some other tones from...

November 5, 2014

Greg

Technique Instruction: Basic Forms

[caption id="attachment_3515" align="alignleft" width="300"] Basic Forms - Study of Boxes and Bottles in Blue[/caption] As a self-taught artist, I needed to learn some basics before I could move on to more complicated projects. Of course I'm still developing, and still need to practice just as any other artist needs to. But when I came across a site by Bill Martin I had forgotten how fun it is to go back and practice those things that one first learns. I like to keep things simple in my own art, often focusing on bold colors and basic forms. Going back to the basics...

October 31, 2014

Greg

Material of the Month: Why Cheap Oil Brushes Aren’t A Bad Idea

[caption id="attachment_3893" align="alignright" width="329"] Cheap oil brushes: Some of my tools are cheap, others not, but they all work.[/caption] What's the most important thing to oil painters after oil colors? The answer is probably the brush. There are many different ways to put color onto the painted surface, but brushes are the most common. I use brushes probably 80% of the time, but not all brushes are created equal, and the surprising thing that I have discovered is that the brand and / or quality of the brush may not matter that much in the grand scheme of things. As a self-taught...

October 27, 2014

Greg

Movement and Period: Modernism

[caption id="attachment_3896" align="alignright" width="137"] The Gate - Hans Hofmann - 1959-1960 - Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (via wikipedia) is Modernism[/caption] What in god's name is Modernism? It's a question that I've thought about often since a friend of mine figured I fit into the movement. I'm not sure that I fit into any movement, to be honest. I've been told I'm an Expressionist, partly because I express myself when painting (which seems a bit foolish) and partly because of the emotional reaction people get from some of my paintings. Another has called me a figurative painter with a flair for the...

October 23, 2014

Greg

Book Review: Watercolor Book

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="210"] The Watercolor Book by David Dewey[/caption] Bob MacEvoy has a lot of information regarding watercolors. Below is some text and a link to the site regarding his book review of The Watercolor Book by David Dewey. He has other book reviews, and if you click on his sitemap then you'll see a lot of other watercolor related links. "Dewey – This is one of my all time favorite art books, a model of concise instruction, wise advice, deceptively simple exercises, and compact design. Like they say on TV: if you buy just one watercolor book, make it this...

October 22, 2014

Greg

Art and Productivity: Trust in the Process

To read the first part of Art and Productivity, click here: [caption id="attachment_263" align="alignright" width="300"] Trust in the process: This painting took time to realize[/caption] In the first part of this series, I mentioned two things. One is how the artist can never shut off the artistic process. And the other is that the artist is just as productive as the normal corporate worker, if not more so. In this part I'll talk about the real reason why the starving artist exists. The Myth of the Starving Artist There is this myth that the starving artist exists because suffering creates great art. There may...

October 19, 2014

Greg

A History of the Color Blue

History of the Color Blue - Cidade à Noite - Guido Viaro Museum As a painter I have been fascinated by the history of the color blue. I'm certainly not alone. Picasso is probably the most famous of the past 100 years to have produced a significant blue period, so to speak. Of course, as was Yves Klein. In my paintings, since I really am completely self-taught and really only inspired by those who create what I have no interest in creating, none of these blue periods or obsessions have influenced me. My own blues come from my own tastes. I'm not...

October 9, 2014

Greg

Instruction: Step-by-Step Watercolor Painting

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] Step-by-Step Watercolor Painting: Mediterranean Beach Scene by Allan Kirk[/caption] Watercolorpainting.com has some nice step-by-step watercolor painting processes on how to paint specific paintings. I chose this Mediterranean Beach Scene by Allan Kirk to post here. He has a nice way of building up the painting. Although while I use much lighter washes than he does in the beginning, the technique is the same. I hope you enjoy this lesson by Allan Kirk. I do things a bit differently these days. For one, I start with light washes and build up over time, darkening the areas that need more...

October 6, 2014

Greg

Material of the Month: Watercolor Paint

[caption id="attachment_3913" align="alignright" width="291"] Watercolor paint: Puerto de San Antonio - Watercolor on Board (2014)[/caption] This is the first post of what I hope to be will be a "Material of the Month" string of posts. I'm a painter, and I'm also self-taught, so I see this series as a sort of informal education for me as well. This month I'm working with watercolor paint, which is something I've been getting into more this year. I began my career as an oil painter, and I still consider oil to be my main focus. However, I really enjoy working with watercolor because...

September 17, 2014

Greg

Art Transcending Science

[caption id="attachment_3250" align="alignright" width="300"] Zapatos de Flamenca - Art Transcending Science[/caption] This article by author Amy Kelly suggests that art and science have developed together over time, despite having opposite functions.Published by the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, the article suggests that art and sciences have long been linked. This is true even in the 20th century where it is rare to find people participating wholly in both areas. After all, art is supposedly more emotional while science is supposedly more logical. This is in spite of the fact that many artists create logic-based art (M.C. Escher, for example). Of course,...