Mitchell Albala in Bellingham

Mitchell Albala, artist and author of 'Landscape Painting'

Last Friday night artists in Bellingham were treated to an art critique by Mitchell Albala, artist and author of the book 'Landscape Painting.' It was terrific.

But before I say more about that, there's a couple of things you need to know.

First, Mitch is an exceptional painter. You can see his work on his website here.

Second, his new book, 'Landscape Painting' is a comprehensive and much needed book on the subject and I highly recommend it. It was published in November. My copy is often open on my studio table, that's how good it is. I like to look at the images of paintings because he put together beautiful art to illustrate his points. I also tried out his exercises in things like underpainting and following his lead, experimented with different temperatures in my underpainting. The book is best described as an updated Carlson's Guide but with more information, more readable and with great pictures.

So on Friday a number of local artists gathered in a classroom at BellinghamArt where Mitch spent 3 hours discussing paintings we'd brought for critique, and walking us through key ideas in his book using our paintings as examples. I was glad I went.

And if you don't have the book: buy it.

Comments

loriann signori said…
Sounds like an amazing evening.Lucky you. What is the most important thing you gleaned from your experience- the crit or talk?
May 18, 2010 at 6:41 PM
Lisa McShane said…
Hi Loriann -

I was so glad I went and glad that I took 3 paintings with me. I think the crit was exceptional but what was really good was that he wove the talk into the critique, drawing from his book. He also turned to the book many times to pull out specific points related to a painting he was critiquing.

I do like his book. It's one of 2 I keep in my studio. This and 'Like Breath on Glass.'
May 19, 2010 at 4:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My favorite love poem - West Wind 2 by Mary Oliver

Image
for Dan on Valentine's Day West Wind 2 by Mary Oliver You are young. So you know everything. You leap into the boat and begin rowing. But, listen to me. Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me. Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and your heart, and your heart's little intelligence, and listen to  me. There is life without love. It is not worth a bent penny, or a scuffed shoe. It is not worth the body of a  dead dog nine days unburied. When you hear, a mile away and still out of sight, the churn of the water as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the sharp rocks --- when you feel the mist on your mouth and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls plunging and steaming---then row, row for your life toward it. Still Waters. ©2010. Lisa McShane.
Read more

My favorite art inventory system

Image
Over the past couple of years I've looked at and played with a lot of computer programs for keeping track of artwork. Here are past blog posts on the subject: Art Inventory Systems, here's what I've tried and then this Update on Art Inventory Systems Alyson Stanfield has also written about this riveting subject on her great blog here . I come to these systems with built-in bias. I prefer a FileMaker based system to an Access based system because I think it's a more powerful and smoother software to use. I'd worked for a nonprofit that used Filemaker and it's what I know. I also prefer a system without goofy graphics. I'm an artist. I care how things look. If I open up software every couple of days I would like it to be clean and simple and not ugly. But computers evolve and the next direction is to the cloud. That is a system where software doesn't live on your computer but you access it via the internet. I operate on 3 devices: my iMac in my ...
Read more

#artinthetimeofcorona

Image
Tenino: Flooded River; Dalles at Dusk , 2020, Oil on Linen, 24" x 60". Shown here with Andrew Vallee sculptures. Hey check out this great blog article from Metropolitan Frame! It's an interview of me and where things are at with my work, given the virus. Metropolitan Frame is a custom frame shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota that produces most of the frames I use these days, including the one above. Their work is flawless and fits my work well. Click here for the article, #artinthetimeofcorona
Read more