Sean Conrad's Blog

Elk Under the Tetons 12x16 oil

2012-01-28T18:53:00.001-08:00

"Elk Under the Tetons" 12x16 Oil

Being in the Tetons in Autumn is an incredibly beautiful experience and adding in the ability to check out some awesome wildlife makes it even better. That unique experience is what I tried to capture in this painting - not in an idealistic way, but seeing the animals in their day to day routine - foraging for food. Hopefully I captured it adequately.

2012-01-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

"Streamside Near Aspen" 6x9 Oil on Canvas

Original Oil Painting

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This is a little 6x9 oil painting from the Aspen, CO area.

This is the first of many little paintings I'm going to begin auctioning off on E-bay. The starting bids are $100.00 (you can't beat that). Please share this blog, link and post with any friends you think would be interested.

"Fresh Dusting" 8x10 Oil on Linen

2012-01-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

"Fresh Dusting" 8x10 Oil on Linen

This is a little piece from Teton National Park in Jackson WY. I spent a few splendid days their at the end of a painting trip I took earlier this year. As much as I love the quaintness of little paintings, their is really no way to fully capture the majesty you feel as you are quite frankly dwarfed in the presence of these wonders of God's creation.

One of the best examples I know of in recent memory to emphasize this point is a painting I saw at the Joslyn Art Museum located in Omaha, NE. One of my favorite paintings in the entire museum is a huge painting and the artist was either Thomas Cole or Thomas Moran - I believe it was Cole not sure though so I'm putting the disclaimer. I took a picture of my wife in front of it while I was there and it truly captures the scale of the painting. You'll have to forgive me because I didn't write down the name of the painting but you'll get the point. It is absolutely fabulous.

As you can see... larger paintings really capture the grandeur of mountains and the landscape that smaller paintings sometimes can't. That being said, most of us don't have room for a 8 - 10 ft. painting on our walls either.... if you get a chance head down to the Joslyn and see it for yourself.

2012 Blogging

2012-01-25T19:09:00.000-08:00

So this last week I finished a painting which marks the end of one journey and the beginning of a much larger one. For the last two years I've spent much of my time in essence putting myself through school, studying, drawing and painting the human figure. Through studying the Reilly Method, and from instructional material from teachers such as Jeffrey Watts, Daniel Gerhartz, Vilpuu and Mike Malm I've begun to be able to put together some decent figurative paintings. My true hearts desire is to combine my love of the landscape with my love of the outdoors and create beautiful figurative landscape pieces. The first of these that I believe truly captures the spirit of what I'm after is the painting above entitled "Morning Air Below the Tetons" it's a 24x30 Oil on Linen Painting. This is in essence the beginning of a much larger journey which will continue through the rest of my life, as I continue to hone and work toward mastering the skills required to paint great paintings.

Over the course of this year I intend to begin posting some much smaller paintings on this blog that will be too small to send to a gallery for sale, so I'll be putting many of them up for auction. I will not be doing a painting a day but will try to post daily, even if it's just my progress on a larger painting.

Finding Your Own St. Vrain Experience

2009-11-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

I was looking through old photos the other day, and stumbled across a few photos of my time spent living in Longmont, CO. My wife and I had an apartment on the edge of town and it was an easy 45 minute drive for me to reach Rocky Mountain National Park - where pristine subject matter abounded. But my favorite place to paint while I was in Colorado was not that beautiful national park - instead it was a simple little park with a walking path and stream that was only 5 minutes away from everything - my apartment, the Longmont mall, Target and Walmart. It was a little piece of perfectness for an artist like myself. It has the beautiful St. Vrain stream running through it, and is easily accessible.
From that simple little park I've done and sold many paintings and to this day it's scenes still move me. It was a seemingly limitless well of A+ material that I could go out and get at any time, and because I was so moved by it - it inspired me to create and paint. I had an emotional response to it, and it carried through to what I put down on canvas.
I find it intriguing to think that a physical location helped build my career. What would I have painted if it or I wasn't there? Would I have found something that was its equal? I doubt it, because my entire time there I never found it's equal. But it does bring up these two questions : "Are you moved by what you paint" and "Are you in the right location"?
If you are not moved by what you paint, then that's a good indication that it's time to go on the hunt for something that does move you. I'm not talking just landscapes either... included in this is portraits, figures, and still lifes (I personally believe a Master Artist should be able to paint all of those things with excellence - but that's for another session). Whatever it is that you do paint, be moved by it, let it excite you - if you don't - IT WILL SHOW THROUGH IN YOUR PAINTING. Yes, you may be able to pull off a few that are convincing, but life expressed through brush and paint always shows through to the viewer - and the same with the lack of it.
When I first started out painting - before I decided I wanted to do it professionally - I lived in Coronado, CA - right across the harbor from downtown San Diego. It was a beautiful spot, the ocean was great - but it was not conducive to landscape painting. Every time I wanted to head out of town to paint in the country it was at least an hour drive each way due to traffic. The beaches were - with a couple of exceptions - flat sandy stretches (not really the Rocky Mountains if you know what I mean). I wasn't moved by the city, or it's beaches - because of this, I struggled to find things to paint. It wasn't an exciting thing to find material, it was hard and often times I would come back to my apartment with no painting or one that was mediocre because I felt like I "settled" on something to paint. The end result was a frustrated artist - without the subject matter I needed to progress in my career.
The solution: I moved.
I moved to a place that had abundant subject matter. I moved to a place that held for me hundreds of inspired locations and places. I didn't know it at the time, I was just simply following a leading on the inside of me, but I found an incredible spot that supplied me with endless subject matter. Now, maybe for you the right move would be going from the mountains to the ocean, or to a place where you could be mentored by an artist. If you're interested in being around other artists seek out a place with a good community of artists that you could learn and paint from. Now, please understand, I didn't move to advance my career as an artist, I moved to grow and develop as an artist - but because I grew and developed as an artist, my career grew along with it.
I wanted to paint what MOVED ME and that was mountains... not cities and flat beaches. How many paintings did I paint simply because my subject was beautiful? How many paintings have you painted because your subject or the physical location you're currently in moved you to paint?
Are you in the right location?

Why my favorite paintings in my studio are not my best paintings in my studio...

2009-10-15T18:35:00.000-07:00

Recently as I was doing some cleaning in my studio, I began to look at the paintings that I have on my display shelves and lying around my studio in various places. I began to realize that most of the paintings that were most dear to me, would never be considered "good enough" to be sent to a gallery for sale.
Why are these below average paintings so special to me? Because each one was a vital step in learning something new. Whether it was a particular stroke, a moment of enlightened revelation, or where I finally "got" something I had been working towards - each painting holds a lesson... a lesson that is best kept in my studio in front of my eyes as a perpetual teacher. A full, complete painting includes every piece of that painting working together fluidly to produce cohesive beauty... my "lesson" paintings are not that at all. They're usually just one part of the whole that came out right.
What baffles me, is when I hear of students who take workshops and have their teachers work on or alter the piece they're doing, and then... try to sell the painting to make a buck. Forget the ethics of passing someone else's work off as their own - Why In the World Would Someone Sell A Lesson That Would Last Forever?
Art is collected and loved because people make a connection with it. For art collectors that normally includes some personal memory, feeling or mood that they treasure in some way, that a painting somehow captures for them. For me, as an artist, the connections I make with my paintings are the valuable lessons I've learned. The moments of breakthrough after weeks and months in the studio working on a particular type of subject matter (landscapes, portraits, florals, etc.).
So, the next time you have a breakthrough in your painting, dance, writing... whatever work you do. No matter how insignificant it may seem to others... whether it be a written line, or a painted stroke - don't throw it out, don't wipe it off, don't count it a failure... count it a permanent lesson to treasure forever and go back and study it often.
All the best in painting....
Sean Conrad