Viewfinder Innovations

Today I thought I would turn to something more mundane and practical – but very useful for painting outdoors and for perceptual painters. A reexamination of new viewfinder possibilities.
For such a simple but useful tool, people have come up with all kinds of new and interesting approaches and ideas for this. A google search [...]

Charles Hawthorne

Charles Hawthorne “Artist in Plein Air” 1910
I’ve been thinking about Charles Hawthorne recently – how important it is to keep his words in the front of my mind. His book “On Painting” I return to again and again over the years and still find it as fresh and important as when I [...]

Random Thoughts on Painting Blogs

I just spent way too much time checking out some painter’s blogs, getting some ideas about how I might work on this blog. Of course these blogs embraced a wide range of talent, some terrific, some dreadful but what really struck me was the prevailing commercial aspect of so many blogs. No surprise that [...]

Acorn Holes

Oaks on a Hill 1/22/09 Larry Groff
Paul Cezanne said “Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations. ”
Yesterday I was working on a painting of a grouping of oak trees growing or dying on a steep hillside, behind me was a majestic mountain side (El Capitan) that is the lure [...]

Thoughts on starting this new blog

Today begins my new blog about painting perceptions. Perceptions about painting and painting about perceptions and painting perceptually.
Perceptual painting is painting with your vision as well as all the other senses. Not just the obvious easel set up in front of a landscape or still-life but also paintings done from studies, even photos and memory [...]