Steve Fleming

Artist Studio

Steve Fleming

Tag: in the studio

Actually in the studio, two watercolors and a poem

Yesterday, I cleaned my studio, at least enough to be able to have a flat surface or two and decided to paint 2 watercolors. I wanted to try couple of new types of paper, Moldau, Czech mold made paper, in weights 140 and 180.  I had no real expectation of success since the papers were unknown to me but the paper was highly regarded on WetCanvas.  Long story,  I had a great time listening to Rodney Crowell and the paintings were successful and I only practiced my golf swing 4 or 4 times.  There is a silly little poem at the end.

Poetry and Painting “What I know of Heaven”

This watercolor painting of warm light behind shadowed trees is basically a two value painting.  Its’ contrast of strong value shapes and cool darks versus warm intense light gives the subject a powerful message.  I tried to keep the details and highlights subdued in the dark foreground.  Try to make your paintings about simple strong

Landscapes are about impressions not reality

The lesson was to try to create the feeling of depth using atmospheric perspective, which basically means things that are far away are cooler and less intense and have less texture. As you move closer to the front of the picture plane the colors are more intense, there is more texture and more detail. This is a over-simplification but it is fairly accurate.

In The Studio: Day 1 of Rockport, Maine Workshop Pemaquid

Today we started the workshop at Pemaquid Point and it was a fabulous day with light winds and cool temperature.  As one of my long time students said it was the best day ever at Pemaquid.  I definitely agreed. My lesson was to take the complicated and simplify everything down to 4 to 5 value

“On The Edge Of Darkness” Oil Demonstration

This painting is slightly spooky, I painted the trees as just a dark transparent value and cut around the expressive tree shapes and lines with a golden opaque color with a blue glaze.  The prose poem is an homage to Poe and Irving and brings us into the Halloween season. Edge of darkness falls Malevolent

“Silver Spider Webs”

We drove out onto the Tai Pan very early just as the sun came up. In an open Land Cruiser, the morning chill was heightened by the wind blowing back through the open window. The world was surreal, dreamlike, and was cloaked in mystery and romance. We were looking for the Kalahari’s Black Mane Lion. Driving down the dirt path we came to a field where everything was covered in beautiful delicate spider webs

“Last Light” Watercolor Demonstration

This painting was my demonstration for my watercolor class.  I was attracted to the wonderful sky and the dark lacy pine tree against the the late evening sky.  I hope you like it, I found this painting to be a reflection of the need for a calm port in the storm. “Last Light” The fading