“Tulip Tree Branch” by Stefan Baumann
With all the rain we have had in Mt. Shasta, I wanted to paint something with a bit more color. A good friend found this tulip tree branch. I really enjoyed painting it.
There is a difference between painting with intention (to do something with an agenda) and painting by connecting with your inspiration. Artists paint with an agenda when they try to re-create a painting that looks like a photograph or a subject from life. Connecting with your painting involves painting what you know: your reality, your inspiration, and how you see the world daily.
Artists paint by placing strokes of color on their canvas to recreate the subject they have chosen to paint. Then, there comes a moment when the focus shifts and the image becomes three-dimensional. This is when we are connecting with our art. It only happens when the right side of the brain relies on what it knows, rather than the process of how to do to it.
Try an experiment. Paint an image of one of your toys that you had growing up. Paint it from your memory. Try looking at the painting while you are painting as if you are seeing the toy again, but then look at if as if you have never seen it before. Do not ask how, just do it as if you know how. Keep looking at the painting and making changes – see the light on it, see the shadows. Before long, you will see it as real as if you are looking at the real object or a photo of it.
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Plein air and Alla Prima artist Stefan Baumann, host of the PBS painting series “The Grand View, America’s National Park through the eyes of an artist” and author of “Observations Of Art and Nature,” travels in his vintage travel trailer painting America’s western landscape. Baumann paints outdoors with oils and canvas capturing stunning vistas, wildlife, western landscapes, National Parks and still life, thrilling art collectors throughout the world. He has many collectors acquiring his paintings as investment internationally. His painting style is called Romantic Realism with Lumunism and the extraordinary way he captures the effect of light is a truly an American Style used to paint the Western Landscape. He can be seen painting in Yellowstone, Yosemite and in the Grand Canyon and Baumann’s “how to paint” DVDs filmed on location in the National Parks are the very best on the market.