| Author | Message | ||
  Rekha Senior Member Username: Rekha Post Number: 291 Registered: 8-2006 |
Please note that the dye in Holbein's Opera is not only fugitive but also carcinogenic. I was just trying to make a list of pigments I might use to try Tom Lynch's techniques. How I found it was carcinogenic is in the name; the dye is Rhodamine B and some time ago we used to tag the sperm to follow their course of movements because the dye is fluorescent. It was banned way back in the early '90s because of this. But this dye is used in cosmetics as well. The server isn't accepting the complete URLs so you will have to change the '_' to :// and . Example http_www_fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia5306.html | ||
Rekha Senior Member Username: Rekha Post Number: 290 Registered: 8-2006 |
Tom uses 3 types of bottles: drop, pump spray, and trigger spray. I have the last two but I don't know what a drop bottle is unless it's like a medicine dropper. Anyone? | ||
Rekha Senior Member Username: Rekha Post Number: 288 Registered: 8-2006 |
I didn't write what I did to cause upset, Bonnie. They were just my thoughts. The fact that I now own this copy (arrived today) is an indication that he has something to offer. | ||
Whitewatercolor Senior Member Username: Whitewatercolor Post Number: 270 Registered: 10-2006 |
Maybe it's just me--but the demonstration was not the high light of my Tom Lynch experience. It was all the information that he was constantly giving throughout the class. If you listen to everything he says and reinforces throughout the class, you cannot help but leave the class a much better painter. He is telling you what the goal is, if you don't like the way he gets there, apply it in your own way. His goal is not to teach you to paint like him but to apply the principles he is teaching. He repeats that over and over in class. His demonstration is a vehicle to get you there and you should be doing it in your own style. Not one painting or even one part of a painting that I did in his class looked like his work. In fact, there isn't much I've stumbled across in a book that I didn't first hear in his class. You can find fault with his painting style because we all have different taste, but I will take issue with criticism of his teaching style. A lot the those so called "gimmicks" might be what it takes to get some people to see how "looser" can be an improvement. The underpainting thing is the same thing. By dealing with color already applied, it helps you think in a more abstract "looser" way. It is much harder to put that green grass along that edge. Your thought process when analyzing what to do next is radically different. As for composition--I'd have to go back to the book. He may not stress it in every demonstration but the composition is worked out and a fundamental part of everything he does or says. Composition is so fundamental to painting that if it isn't worked out, it is not a painting, but an exercise in moving paint. It may be a part of a painting, but if shapes aren't held together compositionally, they don't add up to a painting. | ||
Grizrev Senior Member Username: Grizrev Post Number: 214 Registered: 8-2006 |
Rekha, For the use of those who later want to access organized advice and information through "Annotated CJAS Watercolor Discussion," could you put a duplicate of your note about Tom Lynch on the "Good Advice" thread? I think his practice of laying in a colorful undertone is a key element of his approach and good advice. It was one of the good things I brought away from his seminar. Thanks! | ||
Rekha Senior Member Username: Rekha Post Number: 286 Registered: 8-2006 |
Lynch's book, "100 Watercolor Workshop Lesson Charts" is among the very best I've ever read Eric Upto a point. I want to learn loose but not that loose and the one critical point he establishes that is going to help me along is to initially lay undertone of colours that will eventually be resolved into shapes. I like this very much. I find though (sorry Bonnie) that he uses more gimmick than composition. You can tell a Tom Lynch painting a mile away - a spectrum of colours with some shapes to define them. | ||
Eric Unregistered guest |
He was on PBS awhile ago, when he was a lot younger. | ||
Fem Unregistered guest |
Wasn't Lynch on PBS? | ||
Eric Unregistered guest |
Yes, Griz, I agree with you about the Lynch-Couch comparison. I've always thought Lynch can overwork a painting. Maybe that's his Nita Engle influence showing through. In addition to Whitney, he was also a student of Engle's. (He also studied with John Pike) Couch on the other hand, simply puts the paint down and that's it. He strives for freshness. I really like that approach. | ||
Grizrev Senior Member Username: Grizrev Post Number: 206 Registered: 8-2006 |
When I said Tom Lynch seemed a little "tight" to me, I probably should have said "fussy." He fiddles with techniques, glazes, multiple washes, etc. Tony Couch seems more direct, immediate, fresh, and simple in his approach, with great results. Both, of course, are masters of the art of watercolor as well as teaching. Both studied with Ed Whitney, who was a rascal of a teacher! We've had a busy week taking care of details following my father-in-laws death, and getting ready to take him back to Tennessee on Monday. It's been a hard emotional trip going through his things, but we're getting there. Sure have enjoyed this board as a change of focus for a weary mind. Blessings on all of you! | ||
Whitewatercolor Senior Member Username: Whitewatercolor Post Number: 230 Registered: 10-2006 |
I have never taken a workshop that comes close to what I learned from Lynch. I recommend him to many, many people. I think I mentioned before, I do not chose my instructors because of their work. Most people's work changes over time, and I don't think you can judge the skill of a painter whose painted for decades by their current phase. I look at longevity, experience, emotional content, availability, etc., etc., etc. It is amazing that one person can teach you so much in so little time. I did not learn anything from Tom Lynch that I later found to be bad advice. I took a class from him on how to paint award winning paintings and immediately started winning awards in local shows. | ||
Eric Unregistered guest |
Lynch's book, "100 Watercolor Workshop Lesson Charts" is among the very best I've ever read. It also might be the most unconventional instructional book I've seen also. It's simply a collection of his charts he shows at his workshops about various topics, like center of interest, edges, values, artistic concepts, techniques, fundamentals etc. It's not like reading text in a normal book. The charts make it much easier to understand concepts. Kisha, I'm sure he had a few on display at the workshop you attended. | ||
Kisha Unregistered guest |
It's kind of funny--it's been now 4 days since the Lynch seminar, and I realize he said some things that stuck with me about edges, about using a flat on its side, about allowing one center of interest to dominate and manipulating values to support that. These are valuable ideas and though his work was not to my taste, it is still very good art. When I said his work was terrible that was my subjective reaction to it but not meant as a critical evaluation. When I go to a workshop I evaluate the artists work to determine whether I want to learn to paint that or not. | ||
Grizrev Senior Member Username: Grizrev Post Number: 201 Registered: 8-2006 |
Eric, Tony is getting a little grouchy in his old age, but isn't that the privilege all us old guys have? What I enjoy so much is his marvelous blend of representational and impressionistic technique. You enjoy beautifully enhanced reality -- wonderful color, since he doesn't ever go back into anything, except to let an additional color mix and blend wet into wet on the paper (he normally paints on pre-wetted paper). He likes to get it right the first time and very seldom uses a glaze. If he needs a harder edge, he simply pats that area a little drier and goes in. If an area of the paper has dried a little too much, he just quickly brushes in a little clear water and can again find his soft edges. Lynch, to me, gets a little "tight." Tony is loose -- he is, as he says, a shape maker, symbol collector, and entertainer! His book "Watercolor, You Can Do It" is well worth reading and re-reading to keep some very helpful principles and techniques in mind. | ||
Eric Unregistered guest |
Griz, what did you enjoy about the Couch workshop? I also took a 5 day workshop from him and learned quite a bit. He packs a lot of information into the five days. Just watching his demonstrations taught me a lot. Some of the ladies thought he was somewhat "brusque", but I didn't care about the socialization aspect of it, I just wanted to learn. | ||
Eugene Senior Member Username: Eugene Post Number: 237 Registered: 8-2006 |
I've never taken a Tom Lynch workshop because I don't like his work or style of painting. I've taken may, many workshops but have been very careful in my selections. If I don't like the artist's work, I don't even consider him. I've seldom been disappionted. | ||
Kisha Unregistered guest |
As I said--these were my impressions, not absolute judgments -- I fully accept that others will see things differently and welcome that. So much of workshop attendance has to do with learning a new approach at the expense of another way of doing you learned at a previous workshop. At some point I have to assert the integrity of my approach or abandon it. Lynch forced this choice, I suppose. | ||
Eric Unregistered guest |
Kisha, I agree with you that he is a big promoter of the products he's paid to endorse. And yes, it's easy to get that "infomercial" feeling. I also agree with you that he's a powerful presenter. He also has a big personality and he's very good at driving a point home. I happen to like his technique of spraying paint to make foliage. It's tinted water droplets splashing onto the paper from the sky, which to me, says "watercolor" about as well as any other technique. It's spontaneous, and it allows for the medium to do it's own thing. It follows what Ed Whitney said about "substances obeying their own laws do beautiful things." I also disagree that his SOLE focus is on selling paint. He helped me out and went out of his way providing me with advice that I felt was beyond what I expected. Overall, I thought he was generous with advice. But I won't disagree with you about the "business" aspect of the Tom Lynch experience. | ||
Grizrev Advanced Member Username: Grizrev Post Number: 196 Registered: 8-2006 |
Kisha, I think I was the one who mentioned Tom Lynch's golf course watercolors, because I thought it sounded like one you (or someone else?) had recently completed. Golf courses were one of his big subjects at one time. Whitewatercolor, I also took Tom's seminar, and I did learn a good bit (I was an absolute beginner), though I understand Kisha's feelings about the commercial aspects. I'm sorry his two day seminar didn't provide better materials; we brought our own from a material list he provided to the 5-day seminar I attended, and they were excellent. He can seem a little "gimmicky" at times, with his obsession with rays of light to highlight another obsession, the focal point or center of interest. I guess all of us have "our thing" in terms of personal style and trademark. I don't think he wanted us to be exact imitators, but to master some helpful brushwork, color mixing, and other techniques. I did admire Tom's enthusiasm and the preparation he had done for the seminar. Actually, I enjoyed the Tony Couch's week long seminar I later attended even more. | ||
Whitewatercolor Senior Member Username: Whitewatercolor Post Number: 220 Registered: 10-2006 |
As I read Eliot O'Hara's book "Watercolor Fares Forth" which should be retitled to be "Transparent Watercolor Fares Forth," I found a section: 'Differentiating' Lesson Succeed Technique, which I shall quote verbatim. "Psychologists tell us that there is a close tie-up between the motor nerves and the memory track. It is good psychology, therefore, at the time of learning each new thing, to do something with the hands which will be related to it. Just as writing a telephone number will help to memorize it, the doing of a problem picture with each phase of painting will fix it permanently in the mind, where it will be available when need arises. "Making the Brush Behave" was based on this principle. It reduced watercolor painting to its lowest terms; and, instead of making each picture a vehicle for learning all things, it required each separate paper worked on to deal with only one natural law or fundamental. Twenty papers were treated as manual memory aids..." It goes on to say "This set of lessons was proposed with the stipulation that it was "predicated on the assumption that art itself cannot be taught. If a student has good taste in color and an instinct for design he may hope to become a painter. If his taste is bad...then he can only be taught rules and formulae, and his work will be imitative and conventional. In either case the student can be taught the technical part of painting just as a writer can build a vocabulary, or a musician learn the fingering of his instrument." When I read this section I thought of Tom Lynch and his method of teaching. He is there to teach us, not show us how to paint. I took his entire program, twice, and will be forever grateful for the opportunity. I stayed through the workshop because I'd paid so much for it. I left feeling confused and a little like you seem to feel. It took me the next year of painting with his repeated ideas, concepts and instruction creeping into my every step, to appreciate what it was I got for my money. | ||
Kisha Unregistered guest |
I left after 3 hours. Here's the story: A few days ago someone said I should check out Lynch's work (someone on this group). I went to his website and lo and behold he was conducting a two day seminar 4 hours away, I went yesterday morning. He is a powerful presenter in that he has a specific lesson to teach and a specific way to teach it and covers the ground efficiently. Best, he keeps the people who try to derail him with endless comments and questions at bay. This is a real plus. I don't want to write a tome about what I didn't like and don't want to have to justify every comment, but I will give my impression (obviously others taking the workshop--mostly novices, it seemed-- were happy with it since I am the only one who asked for a refund): In person his art, looked at up close, is repulsive--utterly bad. He uses watercolor thickly like acrylics and it is very gimmicky in a velvet-Elvis sort of way. He has a little gimmick for each thing he paints--usually involving maskoid, spray bottles with paint in them, and stencils. He also spent 1/3 the time selling the blatantly pushing the products he was representing, to the point that it was more an informercial than a seminar. I was told not to bring anything, all the supplies would be provided and given to me. I envisioned a complete tom lynch palette several tubes of Holbein paint and some big stratford and york kolinskys. What I got was a cheap plastic 6 color watercolor set with 1/8 pan sized cake paints and a timy travel brush and 4 quarter sheets of Gemini paper (Which turns out to be relabled Waterford paper, FYI). I was supposed to paint my exercises with that! He also gave us about 10 min total painting time per seminar. Each seminar was $95 and lasted three hours. After the seminar on clouds and sunsets (which only involved a useless gimmick of spraying the wash and letting it run --acute technique he doesn't even use much) I entered the second seminar entitled Trees, Rocks, and Water and told him I liked the way he was able to render huge masses of forest and still was able to delineate individual trees. I'd seen this in his online golf course paintings. That was basically why I came--to learn that trick. He said he wasn't going to cover that--that was "forests", a different seminar. This seminar was entitled "trees" and would show how to paint (think spray) a trunk and leaves. Luckily I got a refund for that and the remaining seminars. He is a business man making a living at art and not the sort of workshop artist I am used to who communicates his love for painting and wants to help his students grow, This guy's sole focus was selling me Holbein Paint. I really hate his work (Did I already say that)? |
