Tutorial Tuesday: Oil Painting Master Class #2

TUTORIAL TUESDAY!! You're gonna LUV this one!

Welcome to tips-on-TUESDAY. Here is my second 'master class' of the season. Welcome to Edgewood Orchard Galleries and the work of Tom Nachreiner: from start to finish. This is a glorious opportunity and I am most blessed to have the good fortune to take advantage of such insight and amazing talent. I hope that you can learn along with me as I share my observations. 

Preparation of the empty canvas. Under-painting done in about 2.5 minutes (including explanation to audience.) The under-painting literally 'warms' the canvas to the subsequent layers of paint that will be added. 

While we were outdoors (under a canopied tent, being served our choice of wine on a sunny afternoon) Tom is not painting Plein Air as much as he is giving a 'master class'. He had chosen his subject matter of a couple of boats he'd seen in Eagle Harbor -- tied up last winter rather than painting a scene in the gallery. He would be working from his photographed reference material for the afternoon. So he proceeded with dividing his prepared canvas with a graph.

Tom had the boats positioned both effortlessly and in record time. While I don't wear a watch up here in Door County, I would estimate that both boats were 'outlined' in under five minutes time. Tom is a brilliant teacher and able to paint and have an ongoing conversation about his choices and decisions as he works. 

Next comes the blocking in of the forms and the laying down of the shapes that will become the darkening sky. 

Tom is obviously a gifted artist, but he is equally capable at the 'teaching' aspect of his work. He is able to discuss his decisions and process while in the midst of making choices. He engaged the 'audience' on several occasions asking for impressions from those further removed from the process. 

Periodically through out the afternoon, he would back up quite a distance to see how the piece was coming together. He wants it to work well from 'across a room' and then draw you in to the brush strokes and color. The photos taken without his brush in the frame are no doubt when he is backed away and taking in the progress from a distance. 

FACTOID: Tom 'signs' his paintings while the oil paints are still very 'wet' and uses a pencil to scratch his name INTO the paint itself. If you look very closely you can see that his name is now etched into paint -- in the eighth picture in this collage set below. 

Here's the work all finished in one afternoon..... just waiting for a frame. 

By all means please visit his website to see many more pieces and get a glimpse of his schedule. I am fortunate to see him in action later this month for our Door County Plein Air Festival.