AIS Show and Workshop with Kim English

Tea Time 9 x 12 oil

I enjoyed my trip to Cincinnati for the

American Impressionist Society

Small Works Showcase

held at the Greenwich House Gallery.

I ran into my friend Inna Cherneykina from San Francisco

and it was good to paint together again.

She won the wet paint division, I was so happy for her!

There was snow! No this is not a black and white photo. Yet,

we were able to have the Kim English workshop anyway.

Nancy King Mertz and I getting ready to get started.

Kim gave us a work out with about three zillion three minute poses.

Great practice and I learned some things.

Kim showing us how it's done in a 3 minute gesture painting.

Another one of Kim's at 12 minutes.  He really makes it look easy.

And here's my favorite of the day.

It was a great trip and it was wonderful to see old friends and make new ones.

Thanks to the team at AIS who worked so hard to put together

a great experience.

Thanks for following along!

Farm Fresh and crash site.

Farm Fresh 12 x 16 oil on board

This was the painting I managed to do 

once I got my easel back on it's feet.

Crash site:

Oops!  My bad.

Upcoming Event:

ONLY ONE SPOT LEFT

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OPA Show Acceptance for Buried Treasure

Buried Treasure

12 x 12 oil on board

 I am thrilled to have been accepted into the
Oil Painters Of America National Show
with my painting, Buried Treasure, shown above.
The show this year will be at the Beverly McNeil Gallery
in Birmingham, Alabama
and details can be found on the OPA website.

Events:
I am hosting a workshop for friend and Plein Air Convention Faculty Member
2015 and 2016, Francesco Fontana, in Austin, Texas
November 10th, 11th, and 12th.
More info can be found on my website: www.brucebingham.com
oils and watercolors
Only a few spots left.

Ellen Willis and I are hosting a 

Free Paint Out on a private ranch in November.

More details can be found on my website,

www.brucebingham.com

and on the Oil Painters of America website under Events.

PAINT OUT FULL WITH WAIT LIST 

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View more of my artwork here
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You're Invited!

Please join me, Bruce Bingham, @

Art Connections Gallery

908 Main Street, Bastrop, Texas, 78602

June 5th

5:00p.m.-8:30p.m.

It's First Friday Art Walk featuring my oil paintings:)

refreshments handmade by Renate Kasper

oil paintings by Bruce Bingham

Save the date: June 20th

noon-2:00

for a painting demo and light refreshments

at Art Connections Gallery

all proceed from the demo will be donated to

Friends of the Bastrop County Animal Shelter

I believe we live in a world filled with wonder,

surrounded by hidden beauty naturally embedded everywhere."

Hope to see you there!

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to view more of my artwork visit: www.brucebingham.com

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Spot of Tea

Spot of Tea 9 x 12 oil

This was painted on Arches oil paper. I picked some simple shapes

that I'm familiar with and made it up without a reference.

This made it easier for me to focus on spots of color and color relationships,

which was the point of this painting.

I let go of worrying about a finished painting or following

reality too closely.

I find painting like this meditative and very relaxing.

Thank you for viewing my artwork.

I welcome and appreciate your comments.

To view more of my artwork click here.

Workshop with Sunny Apinchapong Yang

Last week I attended a workshop in Scottsdale with Sunny Apinchapong-Yang, a former student of one of my all time favorite painters, Sergei Bongart. Sunny gave me permission to share his demo with you that he did on the first day. 

If you haven't seen his wonderful book called Intuitive Painting, check it out, it's available on Amazon books.  

The workshop was: Painting with emphasis on color:

Still life and Figure.

Sunny starts with laying in large shapes on a toned canvas.

Next he starts adding colorful darks:

Close up of colorful darks:

Then he adds the mid tones:

He continues to cover the canvas:

Then begins to refine:

And Sunny's fabulous finish:

Sunny completed this in about an hour and a half, making it look easy.

He's a wonderful painter, good teacher and has a great sense of humor.

I really enjoyed the workshop and I think all the other nice

people I met there did too.  

Funny story:  Sunny painted this with borrowed paints that students left at the school,

but he did remember to bring his golf clubs!

I hope you enjoyed seeing Sunny's demo process.

Thanks for following along!

Super Happy

I am super happy to be able to share that

these two paintings were accepted into

Old Post Office Museum and Art Center 4th Annual National Competition.

Shake It Out  9 x 12 oil on museum board

I was keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that one would be accepted.

Having them both selected was much more than I hoped for.

Feeling alot of gratitude these days.

Flambe 12 x 12 oil on museum board

Now I'm scrambling around to frame and get boxes to be

able to ship before I leave town.

NOT complaining- just sayin'!

So happy to have this opportunity.

Thanks so much for viewing my artwork and following along.

I really appreciate it:)

Please sign up for my newsletter here:

To view more of my artwork visit www.brucebingham.com

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Open Mic Nite

Let's Celebrate!

'tis the season:)

Open Mic Nite  9x12 oil on museum board

Happy Holidays to all and wishing you a spectacular New Year!

Music is one of the things that Austin does best.

The painting above is Juan De Hoyos

on Open Mic Nite

at Poodies Hilltop Roadhouse.

You can learn more about Juan here:

www.juandehoyos.com

and hear his music here:

http://www.juandehoyos.com/music

Enjoy!

Over the years The Hilltop has hosted music legends such as Willie Nelson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Asleep at the Wheel, Jerry Jeff Walker, Kevin Fowler and Toby Keith ( among others).

www.poodies.net

Announcing my BIG ADVENTURE in my next blog.

Please stay tuned.

(hint)- part of it involves Santiago!

Until then, continue to sparkle with delight in the season of light!


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www.brucebingham.blogspot.com
and enter your email on the right to submit.
Thanks for following along!

Flower Festival

Flower Festival  9x12 oil on board
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I did this plein air painting in France last spring when I took

a workshop with Ovanes Berberian,

a true master painter and student of

Sergei Bongart.

There were only four of us in the workshop

which was great!  Very unlike the large groups

he has in the states. It was wonderful to get so much

personal direction from a master's perspective.

The best thing about a workshop IMHO is

to be able to focus on painting and not worry about

anything else.

With so much going on about my house I really

relish these memories of the moody French

countryside and just painting, painting, painting!

Thank you for viewing my artwork, your

comments are encouraged and appreciated!

Italian Men

Italian Men 8x8 oil on museum board

for purchasing info click here

OK,  Italian men do have a bit of a reputation.  I just couldn't resist the title.

So before your mind starts spinning out of control,

let's take the high road here.  I promised myself

I would not make any off color remarks that might offend anyone.

   But I will admit that I think Italians are some of the most beautiful people in

the E.U. both the men and women.

There is a reason why Milan is one of the four fashion capitals of the world!

Did I forget to mention that the Tuscany region is one of my favorite places to paint

in the world?  I love the small old villages nestled on the hillsides, the narrow

picturesque streets filled with flowers, and the expansive landscape.

My goal is to be nibbling a homemade pizza and sipping a glass of Chianti by the time you

wake up, make a cup of coffee and read this post. I should  have

ridden two ferries, crossed Sicily and driven to northern Italy.

BUT if my next post still has palm trees instead of vineyards and rolling hills
you'll know I wasn't very convincing in getting Robi on the ferry, inspite of being
heavily armed with bacon treats.
I've told him that only the most preferred customers get to ride in their own
kennel private compartment, it's extra special.

Yet he's difficult to convince, he just wants to know what the heck I did with his sofa!
Wish me luck.

Stay tuned....

Food and Wine in France!

Walking in Lavender  6x6 sold

I'm back from my trip to France so that I could get things

ready for me to move in next month. I didn't complete everything

on my check list but I did get the internet hooked up and my

studio and office cleaned up.

Did I mention food?(and wine?)

After all, moving is hard work and I need to make

sure I keep my energy level up;)

Let's begin with a little Amuse Bouche,  bite sized treats of flaky pastry topped with a sauce

 that just explodes with flavor in your mouth. Quite the surprise.  From left to right the

flavors are pistachio, olive, and curry.

Followed by:

Quail eggs (the little green dots) on petite toast served with thinly sliced rabbit rounds, topped off with

and emulsion of  something amazingly delicious, but I have no idea

what it was.  I was impressed with the artistic presentation and combination of flavors.

(I feel like I'm beginning to sound like a waiter in a fancy-fied restaurant or maybe even a food critic!)

Also important:

The setting:

Burgundy vineyards as far as the eye can see!

Hope you enjoyed having lunch with me:)

Cheers!

Thanks for following my blog and letting me share with you.

I love your comments and appreciate you taking the time to do so:)

Until next time-

All In Video

All In  16 x 20 Oil on Canvas

I made a video progression of this painting today.

Check out the step by step process below:

Thanks for viewing my art!

Fresh Lemon Slice

Fresh Lemon Slice  6x6 oil on board

The patterns of light and dark continue to hold

my interest no matter what my subject is.

What I'm really focusing on is

how to express these

values and colors with loose brushwork

and a variety of edges.

 

This subject literally falls in my lap from 

my lemon trees in the garden!

 

to purchase for $100 click here

Shaken Not Stirred

Shaken Not Stirred  6x6 oil on board

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I'm still having fun with colors, reflection and

the distortions created by liquid in colored glass.

I tried something with this painting that I've never done

before. My friend, Abbey Ryan, suggested I try

painting on a palette the same color as I toned my canvas.

That's right quinacridone red!

I usually work on a mid tone palette so I can easily tell

what value the color I mix is, on the light side or the dark side.

Sometimes I work on a white paper palette which is 

super easy clean up, especially outdoors.

But a hot pink palette?

It was crazy confusing for me at first but I really 

started getting into it and want to experiment with this some more. 

I did this by painting paper the same color as I toned the canvas

and placed it on the mixing area of my canvas. 

Then I put a piece of glass on top and proceed as usual,

well almost as usual.

First Cup

First Cup  6x6 oil on board

I really had fun with this little oil painting.  One

of my goals is to be as loose as possible but

still be representational.

Hopefully you'll enjoy viewing these painterly

qualities as much as I enjoyed

the process.

 

to purchase for $100 click here
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Mixed Cherry Bowl

Mixed Cherry Bowl  7 x 9 mixed media

It's always been one of my painting goals to be

as loose as possible but still to represent something.

If possible I like the paint to do it's own thing

and create some unexpected surprises

that I find interesting.

My adventure into watercolors has been free

and loose but I don't know how to create

as many beautiful colors as I can in oils.  In fact

I'm not even sure you can create as many

colors in watercolor as you can with oils.

If anyone knows please fill me in!

This painting is mixed media and I'm trying to

figure out how I can create the same

type of effect in oil.

Painting is such a wonderful, never ending, exploration!

to purchase for $75 click here

Green Glass Rose

Green Glass Rose  6 x 6  oil on board

to purchase for $100 click here

This is one of those paintings that evolved. Like most of us

when we take a step forward,

it's often about returning to basics.

I started out with this set up in my shadow box.

I was excited about the colors and thought I could make it work.

 I started my initial lay in:

Added more:

I felt like I was merrily painting away until it made

absolutely no sense at all!

See?

 So I scraped it off and painted it again.  It was too dark to

take a photo of it and I was tired and decided to sleep on

it and hoped I liked the make over (not shown)

better in the morning.

I didn't.

So I decided to take the crazy striped fabric out because

I did like some things happening in the bottle

and the rose.  Sometimes that happens, I see something that I 

think would be exciting to paint and it may not always

turn out.

So two scrapings and a day and a half later :

lesson learned, less is more.

More Plane Green Tea

More Plane Green Tea  6x6  oil on board

This is the still life I had in my Still Life Stage when

we had the black out in Malta.

I really like to let a painting sit and then come 

back to it later. 

I just oil over it with medium and go back in.

Waiting gives me a fresh eye and I can

correct my drawing errors more easily.

I just love painting this silly little plane!

to purchase for $100 click here

The Park

The Park  4x6 watercolor

This is the park I walk through with my buddy Robi

everyday.  It's one of the few places with trees

in Malta. It's also a place that's loaded with cats

and Robi finds that very exciting!

When the lights went out in Malta my set up in my

still life stage went dark, my monitor

was off too, so no more photo reference.

It was too late to pack up my stuff and go outside,

so I decided to pull out some photos and

my dusty watercolor set and play around.

I got cozy in the fading light by my studio window.

Then I had to start pulling out the candles.

I felt like a pilgrim.

It was quite pleasant with no distractions but the problem

is that you can't see any thing very well either.

I figured out early on that watercolor is very easy to over work.

Not easy for an oil painter who likes to pile on the paint to

cover whatever is underneath that I don't like. 

I think I peaked in my watercolor stage at about eleven, but

I can see how it would be easy to get hooked again.

This one of the park turned out OK.

In case you don't know who Robi is:

photo of me and Robi

we go to the same hair stylist!

Hip Hop

Hip Hop  6 x 6  oil on board

This was a painting I was supposed to finish yesterday,

but just as I got started the whole country

of Malta had a black out!

My computer has two monitors, one of which

I keep right beside my easel so that

when I work from photos I

see much better colors.

I enjoyed doing these motion paintings

and I wanted to get one more

done to post before the challenge ends tomorrow.

to purchase for $100 click here 
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