Derek Penix Workshop 2025

 

I am so happy to announce that master artist Derek Penix will come back to Austin and teach a 3-day workshop on February 21 - 23, 2025. Derek's painting style is so expressive and loose. If you consider your paintings are too tight, Derek will show you how to loosen up. Derek is not only a wonderful painter, he is also a great art teacher. So many people keep coming back to his workshops. His class often fill up very quickly. If you are interested in learning from Derek Penix, please visit: https://www.qhart.com/dereks-workshop-2025 for detailed information and sign up.

Demo 3 at Landgrove Vermont

 I taught a still life painting workshop in Vermont recently. This was one of my demos. I am glad that my understanding the behaviors of color is getting deeper. Scientific analysis has made my painting procedure more systematic and controllable. At the mean time, the spontaneous intuition helps me to witness more the egoless process of the art creation. 

"Warm-n-Cool" Filter

 

Many artists (beginner and advanced) can not see color temperature. I want to introduce a filter you may apply it on your reference photos. It can remove the local colors and show the color temperature distribution only. So you will know where the warm goes and where is the cool. Please follow: www.qhart.com > Apps > Painter's Guide 3.1 > Load a photo > Filters > Warmncool. This tool is free for you. You go and figure out by yourself  how important this thing can improve your art. Happy painting !!!

Abandoned Lemon

 

I have tried the second time beginning a painting with a "Bloody Mary" wash. This time the process throwed me off completely.  I start to realize this painting approach just like playing piano with both hands. I am not a piano player, but occasionally I play for fun. Without taking any lessons, I just play with one hand. I could play a melody easily, but I got bored with it pretty quickly, so I wanted to play with both hands. Oh, boy! it was hard. I could not believe how a human can do two separate things simultaneously. But we definitely are able to do it. Painting with a red wash first is rather similar. We play chords instead of single notes. The effects are significantly superior, but needs practice to get there. I am not there yet. I have made many mistakes. The image shows a portion of the painting. The lemon looks good here, but it does not go with other part of the painting. I decide to remove it. Before I do it, I want to document it so I can reference my thought today in the future.