DPW Spotlight Interview: Vinayak Deshmukh

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.

To enter to win Vinayak Deshmukh's painting, Repairs Before the Tide Comes In, go to DailyPaintworks.com and click on the Spotlight Giveaway button in the top-left corner of the website.

From Vinayak Deshmukh's DPW gallery page:

I am an artist from India. After graduating with a degree in engineering, I longed to return to my brushes. For the last seven years, I have been taking my art seriously. My work has been seen in state and national level juried exhibitions and today my paintings are in collections in India, USA, UK and Dubai.


Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I have been painting since I was a kid. I was fascinated by things such as railway locomotives, coaches, boats, etc. and would draw them endlessly from memory. That was when my parents felt that I had a genuine flair for drawing and encouraged me to pursue it as they thought it was time well spent.

In school, I would participate in various drawing and painting competitions and often win prizes. As I grew up, however, priorities changed and I had to concentrate on my studies and ensure that I got into a good professional course.

SPOTLIGHT GIVEAWAY: Repairs Before the Tide Comes In


(click here to see original image)

Enter to win by clicking the "Artist Spotlight and Giveaway" button!

In college I would often spend time in the Architecture library. This rekindled my interest in art and I started copying images from books there to learn the basic techniques of watercolor painting. After getting a degree in engineering and settling down in my job, I still felt the same inclination towards art. In the last seven years or so, I have been painting seriously and hopefully making progress...

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

Painting for me was only a pastime up until a few years ago. In school it was mostly an activity to be cultivated in the summer vacations.

The longest break I had was for about 5 or 6 years, when I was in high school and then in junior college. After engineering college, I could not paint for a couple of years again, as the priority then was to stop changing jobs and settle down in one I liked. For the past six years or so, I have been painting more or less regularly.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away? Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I have been using pencil and watercolour most of my life. In the last few years I have tried to explore oils and charcoal too. Each of them has unique characteristics that appeal to me. I love the fluidity and transparency of watercolour and also the impasto nature of oils. I haven’t tried many other mediums. I love works done in pastel and hope to add them to my repertoire someday.

As far as genres are concerned, I like all the three major ones in realistic painting – portraiture, landscape and still life. I haven’t done much of animal portraits though and would love to try my hand at that.

As If Nothing Has Ever Happened
(click here to see original image)

There's such a wonderful quality of delicacy and light in your work. Can you describe your process for making sure the whites are "just bright enough" to look right?

Thank you for the compliment. Yes, light and its effects are definitely the most important things I try to capture in my paintings. The light temperature, intensity and contrast are crucial in creating the mood.

I make many value sketches before I start a painting - sometimes as many as 10 or 12. They help me finalise my value scheme and decide upon my lightest lights and darkest darks. By placing suitable values around a certain shape, I can ensure that it appears just as bright or as dark as I want it to. All these things can be worked out much easier in a value sketch. They are even more useful with watercolours because of the limited extent to which watercolours can be corrected.

Adasa Rooftops
(click here to see original image)

What does procrastination look like for you? What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art and actually start painting?

Procrastination is a scary guest and doesn’t go away soon once it comes to stay. So I need to be really vigilant against getting lazy.

I have a day job and am often quite tired in the evening to take up any serious creative work. I therefore paint routinely in the mornings. I ensure that I do at least 3 hours of serious painting every morning before I start for work.

On Sundays and holidays, I start painting even before sunrise so I can paint for as much as 6 hours without compromising on family time. It’s not necessary that I come up with a finished painting every day, but I ensure that I follow this routine at least 4 days a week. Sometimes, depending on my energy levels, I do value sketches and other preparation for a painting in the evening. This way I ensure that I can directly start the final painting the following morning.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I am always on the lookout for new ideas and subjects to paint. Some of the most beautiful subjects present themselves in the most unexpected of places. I work both en-plein air and indoors.

When working indoors, I use photographs and outdoor sketches for reference. If I do not like a scene as it is, I edit out certain things and add others from my memory and imagination, but ensure that I retain the essential character of the scene.

I often make field sketches hoping to convert them into serious paintings someday. Alongside these sketches, I also take down notes regarding the direction of light, the general atmosphere and anything else that I found unique about the place. This information comes in handy to recreate the mood, especially when there is a long gap between doing the sketch and the final painting.

Anxious
(click here to see original image)

How do you keep art "fresh"? What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

It is very important for me that I understand my subject thoroughly and know exactly why it appeals to me. I then try to communicate the same with my brushes.

I find inspiration in the works of other, more accomplished artists. I feel trying out different mediums and genre once in a while helps to avoid stagnation. I love to travel and take lots of photos for future reference. A change in subject matter gives me new ideas and suggests the need to explore newer techniques of handling paint.

I make sure that I take up all serious painting only when I am fresh, energetic and in a peaceful mental state. I believe that a dull and bored mind will result in dull art. A bit of yoga and meditation before painting is really helpful.

There are occasions when I do not feel very enthusiastic and excited about putting paint on paper. At such times I do other not-so-interesting activities, which reminds me of the pleasures of painting that I am missing. This makes it easier to get back to the easel.

Plate with Fruits
(click here to see original image)

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

I guess right now I am learning a lot about the use of colour. Mixing the right colours is very effective in communicating a certain mood or feeling. One other thing I am definitely learning is edge control and the wonderful effects one can achieve with a judicious choice of edges.

What makes you happiest about your art?

The fact that I an enjoying every moment of it!

Thanks, Vinayak!

© 2012 Jennifer Newcomb Marine

Jennifer Newcomb Marine is the Marketing and Community Manager of Daily Paintworks. She's an author and blogging and marketing coach.

DPW Spotlight Interview: Clair Hartmann

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.

This week we are spotlighting Clair Hartmann, who is giving away her beautiful painting Summer Marsh, which you can see below.

To enter to win this painting, go to DailyPaintworks.com and click on the Spotlight Giveaway button in the top-left corner of the website.

From Clair Hartmann's DPW gallery page:

Clair Hartmann began daily painting in 2007. Her work can be found in private collections, institutions and numerous galleries around the globe. Her Downtown Dog Project (100 dogs in 100 days) is now available in book format.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

When I went to the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale to study graphic design, they offered painting as part of the required curriculum, so I started there. I remember sitting in the hallway in my dorm room first trying oil paints, looking at the muddy brown and gray mess, thinking, "How does anyone paint with this stuff?" Eventually, I figured it out.

Mutt

(click here to see larger image)

My first real painting was of my son, which I completed in one night for a grade in the morning. I got an A and it was on display at the school for a few weeks. I'm not sure how I got from a muddy mess to a legible painting, but I did somehow!

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career? 

Yes, my painting has been sporadic up until four years ago, when I seriously decided I wanted to stop my graphic design company and paint for a living. The longest stop ever was for about 8 years, when I quit drinking 16 years ago. Drinking became so much a part of my painting, it seemed impossible to separate the two, but painting pulled me back in.

When I was ready to get serious, I started doing a painting a day and although completing a painting a day was sometimes not possible, it was my goal. About a year into doing a painting a day, I didn't feel as if I was truly enjoying it. I knew it was what I needed to do with my life (my path, calling, etc.) but for some reason, I wasn't enjoying the process.

Eventually, I became somewhat fearless... not so focused on mixing colors, thickness of the paint, linseed or thinner, etc. and most of all, not afraid to make mistakes. It wasn't until then that I could fully enjoy just sitting and painting. Now it's evolving into a meditative process for me.

Fritz (commission)

(click here to see original image)

I guess it's like learning to walk, in the beginning you are so focused on the mechanics, you can't fully enjoy a stroll. Then when it becomes second nature, you don't even have to think about it. Then not only can you walk and enjoy, you even can skip.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away? Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I really love oil paint with a mix of 1/2 and 1/2 odorless thinner and linseed. I'm starting to use Gamblin Radiants and just love them. I have found that Williamsburg burnt sienna is opaque and Windsor and Newton is transparent, which is good to know because I use a lot of it painting dogs.

I don't use black anymore, using a mix of ultra marine and burnt umber instead (or orange or raw sienna for variations) to create a rich black in which you can lean to a warm black or cool black easily by adding more or less of either color. For larger brushes, Princeton are the best and worth every penny. For smaller, Rosemary and Co. last the longest.

As far as subject or genre, I like painting other subjects to stay fresh, but I always come back to the dogs and I have been really enjoying imaginary realism lately. I have had people say to me "Don't get pigeonholed into painting dogs," and I find it funny that no one ever says "Don't get pigeonholed into painting figures or still life..." I love painting dogs and I love my paintings of dogs and if that's what I get known for, it's fine with me.

King Martin

(click here to see original image)

I have no idea how you do this, but your dog paintings in particular do such an amazing job of capturing each animal's essence that I actually feel as if I could reach out and pet the dog! Thoughts?

I think as a painter, when you feel passionate about a subject, you tend to want to communicate it in your paintings. Dogs add so much to our lives and when I see an essence that pulls me in, I want to recreate it in my painting.

Eyes are so important in painting dogs. Eye contact is how we communicate with them. They watch everything we do, anticipating every move we make. We know when we look into their eyes, they love us and it makes us love them, it connects us.

Big City Dog

(click here to see original image)

What does procrastination look like for you? What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art? 

When I start randomly cleaning the house, I know I'm avoiding a painting.

So I start cleaning the studio and organize to stay in the zone and not avoid. I lay out a canvas ready to paint and my paints and brushes and when I get up early in the morning, the first thing I do is start painting. It helps to have music in earphones to get in a meditative state.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings? 

Just thinking, a lot of it. Sometimes preparation for a painting takes longer than the actual painting. I always have ideas going on in my head of what I want to do. I love metaphors and try to illustrate around a metaphor that tends to stay awhile in my brain. I use photoshop and move around photos with other photos to get an idea of how it'll look.

How do you keep art "fresh"? What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging. 

I try not to paint just dogs and go from a lot of other subjects. When I feel like taking a break, I do and try not to feel guilty, when I'm ready, I'll start to miss it and be painting again.

SPOTLIGHT GIVEAWAY: Summer Marsh 

(click here to see a larger image)

Enter to win by clicking the "Artist Spotlight and Giveaway" button!                  

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist? 

Color and brush technique. Last year I took a class from Susan Hecht and she introduced me to correct color and pushing color. It blew my mind and was very confusing at the time, but now I think I'm getting the hang of it and really enjoying the challenge.

As far as brush technique, I'm trying not to be so controlling and letting the stroke have a personality. Trying to keep a realistic style, balancing it with a painterly stroke and allowing mistakes. At a recent lecture I attended, Charles Movalli said "Mistakes are our signature..." Love that!

What makes you happiest about your art? 

That I'm doing it sober and really enjoying it.

Thanks, Clair!

© 2012 Jennifer Newcomb Marine

Jennifer Newcomb Marine is the Marketing and Community Manager of Daily Paintworks. She's an author and blogging and marketing coach.

DPW Interviews: Mary Maxam

From Mary Maxam's DPW gallery page:

A native of Idaho, Mary Maxam finds inspiration for her paintings in the beautiful scenery and gardens of the Northwest. She is a graduate of Boise State University and has studied in many professional workshops, teaching art for many years herself. Mary's work has shown in many juried national exhibitions and has contributed both painting and written work for book and magazine articles on painting and design.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I've been drawing and painting all my life it seems. I started to focus more on wanting to be an artist and/or teach art while in high school. I always liked crafts too, along with all the materials and processes involved with the visual arts.

Iris Garden
(click here to see original image for sale)

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

When I first began teaching high school art, time was so hard to find. I knew it would be important to try to continue my own work along with teaching. That turned out to be harder than I thought. I sometimes just didn't have the energy for real development of work at the end of a teaching day.

However, I did over time, get into a pattern of evening painting, and tried to get in an hour or two of either painting or drawing on most days. Doing so helped me to continue to be an artist in my own right.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away? Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I painted in watercolor for many years and loved the variety of ways watercolor can 'look.' It was also a pragmatic decision, because I just didn't have a realistic space for oil painting. About 10 years ago, the galleries I were with began asking more and more for oil, which I'd wanted to explore myself. So, I took it as a sign to make a change and primarily work in oil.

I also have a larger and better space now for working. While teaching, I both experimented with and taught using a variety of mediums, but for for my own work watercolor and oil 'stuck'.

His Best Side
(click here to see original image)

One of the first words that comes to mind for your art is lush. What have you learned over the years about accurately reflecting the intense colors you're seeing in your subject matter on the canvas? 

I love that compliment because I do frequently have that reaction to the subjects I'm attracted to. I want to paint their lushness somehow. I think one thing I keep relearning is that sometimes less is more. If all the colors on the wheel are on the painting, they all compete for attention. If I make one or two colors the stars of the show, so to speak, then I can use compliments or analogous colors to help them 'say more.'

I've been recently trying to use more colorful grays to contrast with pure tones, I enjoy that a lot. Also, transparent color next to opaque color is something I love to contrast and it's effective for me.

Fabulosity and Her Court
(click here to see original image for sale)

What does procrastination look like for you? What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I rarely have a time when I don't want to paint, so I guess I'm lucky that way. I tend to have the opposite problem, jumping into a painting before I've considered my aim long enough.

When the issue comes up, I usually just go make panels or clean brushes - just getting into the studio or where the paints are helps. One things leads to another and I find myself with a brush in hand. I procrastinate more in getting the laundry or dusting or organizing done - ha!

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I use photos, sketches and plein air work to develop paintings. It's not as much the subject for me, as the way light or color catches a particular subject. My eye locks onto something and then I try to visualize an idea for a painting from that. I am usually able to find that spark with flowers, landscape or fly fishing figures on a stream, subjects in a natural setting.

Drift
(click here to see original image for sale)

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I like to rotate several subjects, as my blog followers can attest to! When my work isn't engaging to me, I try asking myself, What do you want to see? (as opposed to what's in front of me).

When I work on a painting that has been freshly toned and the surface is still wet, the opaque color stroke that goes over the top of it, continues to be an interesting surprise. It's a stepping off point and not something that you can completely plan or explain.

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

I really need to pre-plan compositions more thoroughly instead of diving in too quickly. Especially, with larger works, which I have been trying to find time for! I'm still on that path to finding my own voice and hope to continue and refine that search.

Window Box Floral
(click here to see original image for sale)

What makes you happiest about your art?

There are those times when a painting just flows from brain to brush and there is no 'second guessing' -  it just feels like Aaahhhhhhh... so great! And when I have a painting that 'clicks' with people so that they feel I've caught something personal for them!

I like the constant striving and problem solving too - there's always another painting around the corner....

Thanks, Mary!

© 2012 Jennifer Newcomb Marine

Jennifer Newcomb Marine is the Marketing and Community Manager of Daily Paintworks. She's an author and blogging and marketing coach.

DPW Interviews: Mineke Reinders

From Mineke Reinders DPW gallery page:

Mineke Reinders was born and raised in the Netherlands, studied art at Texas A&M, has lived in Turkey and Germany, and resides in the U.S. She has painted in watercolor - sometimes combined with gouache - for the last 20 years. Mineke has exhibited in Europe, the US, and Turkey. Her works are in public and private collections in many countries.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I have drawn and painted for as long as I can remember, but was encouraged to choose a 'sensible' career path - in other words, not art. I liked to read too, so I became a librarian. I had a succession of jobs that weren't bad, but did nothing to satisfy my creative urges.

Shopping
(click here to see original image)

In my free time, I knitted, sewed, grew plants on a balcony, and painted. I remember some pretty horrible oil paintings I did at that time. All Angst and no skill.

I gave that up for a while, until one day, I saw an ordinary scene in my town in Holland suddenly differently, as if transformed into something more intense, more vivid, almost magical. I did two collages based on that experience, having chucked my paints a few years before.

Not long after that, I had the good fortune to spend a semester in Florence, Italy. The experience of living abroad for the first time, and the overwhelming visual impact of Florence and its surroundings, made for many more such moments of intensified seeing and feeling. This is not something I can describe in words, it needs a paintbrush, and that is how I came to be a painter.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

No real stops, but I slowed the pace at various times, for example, after we bought our first house in Texas, and our current house in Illinois, which both needed some TLC, and during the years when my daughter was little.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away? Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I've tried a lot of mediums (oils, acrylics, pastels, watercolor, gouache, egg tempera, casein, monotype) but I always come back to watercolor and gouache. I love oils too, and hope to use them again at some point.

In terms of genre, I've always gravitated towards landscape, from the endless flat vistas of south Texas, where I was an art student, to the cities of Europe and Turkey. I don't think my genre will change much, as it continues to fascinate me, but I'm open to possibilities.

You are my songs
(click here to see original image)

Many of your pictures really capture a mood, as if there could really be a story there, especially in certain settings that some might consider quite "plain." Your thoughts on this?

Thank you. Mood, or the spirit of place, is the driving force behind most of my work, and I find it most often in humble settings, in overlooked places, in decay even. I feel that in those places, the past is alive alongside the present. At least, that is what I try to capture and convey.

The old city of Ankara, Turkey, which has inspired a lot of my work in recent years, is rapidly being modernized. When I lived there, in 2006, I sensed that there was an opportunity to capture something beautiful that would not survive much longer. That turned out to be true, as some of the places I painted are no longer there or have been modernized beyond recognition. I have exhibited those works in Ankara a few times, and it's been very gratifying to see how people there responded to them with great affection.

There are more days to see
(click here to see original image)

What does procrastination look like for you? What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

When my daughter (now 13) procrastinates about her homework, it's because homework is boring. There are so many more interesting things to do! I am never bored with painting, so when I procrastinate, it's a matter of fear or frustration. After a few failed paintings, I can find distractions to avoid facing the blank sheet of paper.

I wouldn't recommend procrastination as a habit, but I think occasionally it's not so bad. It gives the brain a chance to process problems and come up with new ideas. Sometimes even in dreams or while waking up, suddenly there is the answer you couldn't find before.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

My ideas come from a lot of sources: memories, photos, sketches, music, imagination, studying the works of masters. I don't paint on location very much, because the places I like to paint are not near where I live. I use photos and sketches to take me back to the places I want to paint. I realize the limitations of this, but I want to paint the things that speak to me, even if they are far away. This does not mean copying photos, but instead using them to trigger memories and imagination.

Accidental beauty
(click here to see original image)

I also sometimes use photos taken by a dear friend in Turkey (with his permission, of course) of places I have not even visited in person, because they are as meaningful and familiar to me as if I had been there myself. I think this is going against the Zeitgeist a little, but I do believe there is a place for the imagination in art, in addition to direct observation of reality.

How do you keep art "fresh"? What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I love to travel, discover new places and revisit old ones. That is a major source of renewal for me.

Besides that, I like to visit art museums and galleries, not just for inspiration, but to expose myself to different ways of making art. I look at a lot of art online, and really enjoy it and learn from it a lot, but there is a special charge you get from seeing great art up close and personal.

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

I am focused on composition and values right now. I've read a lot of books and articles about composition, but feel that they are generally too formulaic. I want to learn how to make my paintings more cohesive, without relying on simplified systems.

I also want to study the use of values, because I feel that it's essential - in representational painting - to conveying a sense of space. To look at a painting and feel that you could walk into it and be there is a kind of magic I would like to master. I feel that that can only be accomplished by knowing, understanding and applying values and perspective correctly.

It has taken me 20 years to even arrive at this realization, but perhaps I'm a slow learner.

Evening Light
(click here to see original image)

What makes you happiest about your art?

Difficult question! The feeling that a painting is going to work is exhilerating, looking at a painting that came out better than I thought is great too. Knowing that people relate to my paintings makes me feel happy and grateful.

But perhaps the best thing of all is knowing that the journey never ends. The more you learn, the more you know that you don't know, and that leaves the road open endlessly.

Thanks, Mineke!

© 2012 Jennifer Newcomb Marine

Jennifer Newcomb Marine is the Marketing and Community Manager of Daily Paintworks. She's an author and blogging and marketing coach.