This last weekend I was very lucky to experience a worth-your-while three day workshop at The Art Loft in Canal Winchester, Ohio where C. Michael Dudash was the featured guest artist.
My artist friend, Candace Brancik, has been a devoted follower of Michael and his work; they both share similar careers in graphic illustrations. When she told me about Michael's upcoming landscape workshop, I checked his website to learn more about him. www.cmdudash.com
For me, it was a big "wow". I immediately responded to his vivid colors, his juicy paint strokes, his excellant drawing skills, and especially his range of subjects (landscape, still life, figurative, and portrait). I was sure then that the workshop would be at least be enjoyable just to see his demonstrations.
The first day Michael worked on an unfinished painting, demonstrating different paint application techniques as well as his choices of oil paint colors from his palette. His reference came from an 8x10" photo that was slightly enhanced using Adobe Photoshop. Michael seems to be very adept at using the program to bend colors or to overlay partial croppings from other photos.
For his brushes, he uses various bristle and non-bristle brushes, some being 'abused' brushes that give the right texture in spots. He also uses softer sable or mongoose brushes for subtle blendings. His canvases are mostly linen canvas glued onto a support of some type. Michael's paint colors are the standard red, yellow, blue colors punched with the pthalos, grounded with the earth colors, and Permelba for his white. He uses Liquin for a medium and oderless mineral spirits for washes and clean-up.
Some of his techniques could be described as painterly or stylistic. When massing in, Michael likes to quickly swab on paint in a middle value, brushing in different directions. From there, he'll add colors that are darker or lighter, meticulously laying the paint on top. Or, he will add the same value of colors but with different temperatures.
A marvelous technique I learned from Michael was painting negative spaces, where let's say, the light background, is cut into the dark mass of the tree, as opposed to painting the tree with deliberate dark strokes over the light background. I guess I knew this from adding sky holes to trees, but I never tried it in other places. Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you, Michael.
Another technique Michael explained was to paint all the darks one temperature (cool or warm) in order to unite the painting; conversely, paint all the lights one temperature. (Check for this simple idea on your current paintings whether it might improve them.)
Regarding values, a topic more important than color, he reminds us to limit our values to three or four in order to make a more cohesive statement in our paintings. For example, with clouds in some cases, it's better to keep the value around the same but vary the temperature to give them life. Michael sometimes put a dab of black or white on the painting to judge his values.
He also talked about glazing (a diluted, transparent version of pigment); it's a great technique to make colors 'pop' on a painting. The underpaint layer has to be somewhat dry to be effective.
Michael demonstrated for the public and us Friday night after the Friday's segment. His subject was a farm scene in back of a corn field and he painted it on a large piece of linen canvas taped to a board. Near the end, he pulled the tape back a bit to show how values can be compared to the white of the unpainted canvas.
There were a dozen or so artists that attended this workshop and they were mostly from the area around Columbus or southern Ohio. We all got to paint a couple of landscapes from photos or set-ups of still lifes. If he wasn't demonstrating, Michael spent his time critiquing us individually and as a group. He was more than happy to go the extra mile and stay later if necessary.
The artist Donna Noice helped so generously to make all the workshop arrangements and kept Michael and us very comfortable with her coffee, snacks, lunches, and her beautiful smile. Thank you, Donna.
The Art Loft was also a great location (a historic, quaint, little town), easy to get to with free parking, and large windows for outside light as well as adequate inside lighting. There was a nearby shopping center with restaurants and a clean, affordable Best Western hotel nearby. www.robertwarrenartloft.com
Last, a big thank you goes to Candy for driving us there (including some snow on the way back) and for introducing me to C. Michael Dudash. Wonderful.
