Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

I just want to wish each of you a very Happy New Year and
great success in your painting endeavors in 2009 and
beyond. My classes will be starting up again next week and
I look forward to that with great enthusiasm.

Two weeks off from painting has enabled me to spend a
wonderful holiday with my family, especially my daughter
Sarah and her husband Michael who are visiting from
Colorado.

On a more somber note, the economic conditions are not good
for most people, but artists are being hit particularly
hard by this recession. This does not mean we should climb
into a hole until this is over. Think of this as an
opportunity. We must become even more creative, but most of
all we must continue on our road to become even better
artists. This is the time to really get serious and
practice our skills to achieve the next level. Build up the
inventory so we are ready when the good times hit again.

In an effort to make my artwork available to people who
like my work but can no longer afford the price for an
original work of art I have decided to offer FineArt Prints
of some of my selected paintings. This is something that I
had told myself I would never do, but I feel that the times
now warrant this action. I must say that I am very pleased
with the quality of these prints and feel that the
reproductions faithfully represent the original work.

So enjoy the upcoming year and make good things happen.

Create with Passion

Tom

Random Thoughts on a Beautiful Day

July 10, 2008

Today is a perfect 10 as far as the weather goes. It is an
artists dream day...warm temperatures, low humidity, a
perfect cobalt blue sky and slight breeze.
So what am I doing during this wonderful afternoon? Well,,
sorry to inform you I am not painting...at least not yet.
But I am thinking about painting. In fact I am always
thinking about painting.

I'm planning a wonderful painting workshop in Santa Fe, New
Mexico for next spring. The tentative dates will be April
20 to 30, 2009.

This will be a workshop sponsored and arranged through the
Concord Art Association.
If you have ever been to this part of our country you
understand why it is called "The Land Of Enchantment". The
"light" is like no other on earth.
As soon as more details are available I will keep you
informed.


It's days like this that we should really be thank our
lucky stars that we have chosen painting as our career,
avocation, hobby, or just something to fool around
with.(Sorry about ending a sentence like that, but
sometimes rules should be broken.....as long as it's not
illegal)

We are creators. We are like the Seinfeld TV show. We make
something out of nothing. We look at nature and then
translate the beauty that we see into a few marks on paper
or canvas that should let other people know how we feel
about what we just saw.

Sounds good but usually not that simple. In order for this
process to work, we have to do a lot of hard work in
preparation for the epiphany to take place. Sometimes it
takes years of practice, sometimes only a short time. But
one thing I can guarantee, "If you really want it, it is
within your grasp".

The hard work does really pay off.

The next time you pick up a brush, ask yourself, what am I
really trying to say with this painting. Do a little soul
searching before you begin and the ensuing painting may
really tell the viewers who you really are.

Good luck and enjoy the weather.

Till next time...Happy Painting...Create with Passion!!!!!!

Tom

FINDING ALVARO CASTAGNET

At this point in my story, I had found Alvaro’s book “Watercolor Painting With Passion” and devoured every word and picture. Despite several “step by step” demonstrations in the book, I still could’nt figure out how to paint to get anything near what he was showing. I knew that he lived in Australia , so I doubted that he would ever give workshops in the US.

My favorite thing to do when watching TV is to thumb through art books and magazines, studying the pictures. My heart nearly stopped when the words Alvaro Castagnet Workshop leaped off the page. It was an ad for Merle Donovan’s “Maine Coast Painting Workshops” and Alvaro would be in Rockland, Maine that summer. This was in 2001. I called the next day to reserve my space and my magical ride was about to begin.

The workshop began a week after the tragedy of 9/11. Twenty work shoppers showed up, one man having driven from Minnesotta because he didn’t want to fly.

I will not expound on the actual workshop itself, But I will say that it truly changed my whole way of thinking and gave me the path to where I am today. Since that first workshop I have studied with Alvaro on four other occasions and can truly call him a valued friend.

If anyone reading this has considered taking a watercolor workshop I can guarantee that no experience will be as rewarding as an Alvaro workshop. He comes to the US approximately six times a year to give workshops. They are listed on his website AvaroCastagnet.net.

The next installment will be a synopsis of my paintining career to date and then in subsequent segments I’ll get into the ”nuts and bolts” of watercolor painting.

My Story

In one way i’ve been an artist all my life, but in the world of fine art I’ve been an artist since 1999. Let me clarify that. I’ve been trying to be an artist since 1999. That is when i first picked up a watercolor brush and applied paint to paper. Needless to say I was immediately hooked and developed the passion that burns within me right from the start.

I do remember that as a small child i loved crayons and fingerpaints and moved on to “paint by numbers” kits that my parents bought for me. Throughout elementary and junior high school I loved the art courses and couldn’t wait to get to high school. I wanted to take all of the art stuff that they offered...that is , until I met with the guidance councelor.
Since I wanted to go on to college it was the college preparatory curriculum for me. In other words, no art courses of any kind.

So I went to Northeastern University and became a Civil Engineer. Here I learned to draw straight lines, something I’ve been trying to forget since I took up painting. After 12 years in the profession, I hit upon a hobby that would give me a complete change of lifestyle. I became a full time, self-employed, woodcarver/signmaker. In one way I was back into the artworld, but mostly on a commercial basis.

I’ve created a lot of signs since 1980 and experienced a full gamut of changes to the profession since then. I appreciate the advantages that the computer has brought as far as designing and layout, with the use of hundreds of fonts and clip art, but I still liked the old fashion way of drawing my designs with pen annd ink and transfering them to the wood with ckalk. There was a lot more satisfaction back then because it took a special talent to do this. In other words, you really had to be an artist. Today with the design programs available and the special computerized equipment, anybody can literally become a signmaker.

Halfway through 1999, I took my first watercolor lessons. They were with a local teacher, who was adequate for a beginner, and after a very short time the ”watercolor bug” bit me hard. I remember telling a couple of my fellow students that i wanted to get really serious about painting and had a strong desire to get good at it.

I changed teachers after 6 months, choosing to study with a welll respected watercolor artist that lived a few towns over. I felt that my painting ability was quickly taken to a new level and I sure did learn alot about all aspects of watercolor. But after two plus years of this training I discovered that something was missing from my artwork. It lacked excitement, it lacked the fluidity and spontaneity, it lacked the magic, it lacked passion.

I don’t quite know what i was looking for when I went to Barnes and Noble, perusing the art shelves for a magic book that would solve my problem and make me a better artist.
But I do remember that exact moment when it happened. And it changed my life forever. Well, that sounds pretty dramatic, but it’s true.

I pulled out the paperback book from the shelf, which held countless other “how to” books on watercolor. The title was “Watercolor Painting With Passion” by Alvaro Castagnet. As I thumbed through those pages I knew I had found what I was looking for. I saw watercolor paintings that had a special quality, they had soul, they had the magic, and they had me....hook, line and sinker.

My next post will continue with my story about how I met and studied with International Artist, Alvaro Castagnet.