Category Archives: Uncategorized

Exploring the Palette Knife with Robin Wellner – Raleigh, NC

Painting Nature’s Glory in Palette Knife

The Centerpiece – May 8 – May 9, 2024, 10 am – 4 pm, $325

7400 Six Forks Road, Suite 19, Raleigh, NC

https://www.thecenterpiece.com/services/workshops

Join us for a two-day workshop exploring the use of the palette knife in your artwork. explore the looseness and freedom the knife catheterizations knife can add a looseness and freedom to your paintings. The palette knife is an incredibly flexible tool and learning to use it effectively will help you gain the confidence to experiment with it in so many creative ways. From increasing texture and distinct edges and lines to infusing clean color into the mix. You can use it a small amount to add tactile interest or do your entire painting with the knife…or something in between.

Day one will include an introduction to the knife and the limited palette we’ll use. Together we’ll do color charts and paint a small still life or landscape from a photo, using both a brush and the palette knife. Day two we will start a landscape from a photo and expand upon your palette painting techniques.

I’ll be working in oils, but feel free to bring acrylics if that’s what you are familiar with. Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. Hope to paint with you soon!!!

Exploring the Palette Knife with Robin Wellner – Catawba, SC

Exploring the Palette Knife Workshop

April 22-24, 2024 – 10am – 4pm $300, limited to 10 students

Holly’s Fine Art Studio https://www.hollyglasscock.com/events

3699 Harmony Road, Catawba, SC 29704

Call 803-389-3586 or email holly@hollyglasscock.com to sign up

Join us for a three-day workshop exploring the use of the palette knife in your paintings. The knife can add a looseness and freedom to your paintings. You can explore a whole painting with only a knife, or use the knife only for accents.

Some of the advantages of the palette knife, besides mixing paint of course:

Easy to clean
Great for texture and clean color
The edge creates great lines, trees, etc.
You can paint over wet layers without the paint mixing like a brush

Day One will include an introduction to the knife and the limited palette we will use. We’ll create a color chart of your limited palette. Together we’ll all start a landscape from a photo, using some brushwork and knife work. Day two we’ll finish up our landscape and start painting a still life. The still life adds the challenge and opportunity of painting from life. Day three we’ll finish out still life, review and critique.

This class is for advanced beginners to intermediate painters. I’ll be working in oils, but feel free to use acrylics if that’s what you’re familiar with. Bring your own supplies and a bag lunch. A supply list will be provided when you register. Feel free to contact me with any questions! Hope to paint with you soon!!

Upcoming Workshops 2021

Life is finally starting to get back to normal. By now I would have usually taught several workshops, but this has not been a normal year for any of us!! Anyway… I’m teaching a palette knife workshop in West Jefferson, NC in September at the Florence Thomas Art School. It’s a wonderful town and school! Hope you can join us!!!

Exploring the Palette Knife

Florence Art School

September 7 and 8, 9:30-4:30,$215

http://florenceartschool.org

Join us for a two-day workshop exploring the use of the palette knife in your painting. The knife can add a looseness and freedom to your paintings. You can explore a whole painting with only your knife — or use the knife only for accents. Some of the advantages of the palette knife include:

Easy to clean
Great for texture and clean color
The edge creates great lines, trees, etc.
You can paint over wet layers without the paint mixing like a brush
Mixing colors of course!

Day one will include an introduction to the knife and the limited palette we’ll use. Together we’ll all paint a landscape from a photo, using the brush and the palette knife. Day two we’ll paint a still life — adding the challenge and opportunity of painting from life!

Hope you can join us! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

Executive Portraits

Jim Allison, partner at Johnston, Allison and Hord, Attorneys at Law

I had the wonderful opportunity to paint Jim Allison’s portrait before he retired. I could tell from the folks I met at his firm that he is going to be missed!!

It’s not my preference to work from a photo that I have not taken, but I think it all worked out just fine. Jim has a great jovial spirit that I hope comes through in his portrait.

Enjoy your retirement Jim!!!

Zorn Color Chart

I’ve done a video for Youtube for my workshops and classes, detailing how to do a color chart using the Zorn Palette. One of the components of it is using a value scale. I couldn’t figure out how to include a pdf for the value scale in the video so I’m posting it here, hoping that you’ll be able to access it to help with your color chart.

Here’s the link for the video:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=robin+wellner

Have fun playing with these colors!!!

Zorn Portrait Workshop – Early Registration Savings

Dave and the Dogs

I think it’s pretty obvious that this is not an Alla Prima portrait — but it was done with the Zorn palette – white, yellow ochre, red and black.

Talked to my partner in crime – Sarah Gay, manager of ClearWater Artists Studios and we decided to offered to waive the model fee for anyone who signs up for the workshop by September 15th.

3-Day Intensive Workshop with Robin Wellner

Friday, Saturday and Sunday – October 6, 7 and 8, 2017 – 9:30am – 5pm

ClearWater Artist Studios, Concord, NC

$375, plus $50 model fee* per person

*waived if you sign up by September 15th

See more information on my blog or my teaching page at https://www.robinwellner.com

Hope you can join us!!! In the meantime, Happy Painting!!!

Painting the Architect

The Architect, 24×28, oil/linen

What a treat and honor it was to paint this portrait! This gentleman is an incredibly talented architect here in Charlotte. I was lucky enough to paint both his daughters, and much to his wife’s surprise, he decided he wanted his portrait done. There is no vanity involved here. I think he’s just fascinated with portraiture. He was gracious enough to also take the time to sit for me so that I could do color studies from life. I’ve become so spoiled that I really resist painting from a photograph. I am fascinated by the colors and subtleties of life!!!

Here’s the color study that I did from life. Thanks to Chris Saper — one of the many things I learned from her was to keep swatches of the colors I use for various flesh tones on my study. So that’s what those colors on the side of the study are.

Color Study for The Architect, 12×16, Oil/Linen

I learned another lesson during this process. I decided to paint on an oversized canvas, so that I could crop later. So many times when I’ve completed a painting, I wish that I could move something over a little. So I decided to make sure I was happy with the final cropping. Once I removed it from the stretchers though, it was another story!!! Restretching a painted piece of linen is not easy! I finally ended up taking it to a local framer and they did a beautiful job of restretching it.

Can you tell I love painting people??? Grateful!!!

Thirty Paintings From Life in 30 Days

Happy New Year! I’m trying to start it off with a bang! Dottie Leatherwood got me inspired to do the 30 in 30 challenge and the Strada Easel challenge . 30 in 30 is daily painting for 30 days – starting January 1. The Strada Easel challenge is to do those 30 paintings in 30 days — all from life. So I’m “double-dutying” them.

It’s been a really rough Fall. My husband has been in and out of the hospital since mid October, and of course his health is my top priority. But it does mean I haven’t painted as much as I’d like. So I’m hoping this challenge will help me jump start my new year. We still don’t know what going on with him, but while they try and figure it out this will give me some sanity I hope.

So this morning I set up in our music room and did this interior. Painting in my pjs! I lit this from above to show you the texture. It’s not as light at the top as it looks here.

Here it begins – Day One of Thirty Paintings from Life in Thirty Days. Happy New Year to you all!!

Morning in the Music Room

Portraits using the Zorn Palette

What do all these portraits have in common?? They were all done with the Zorn Palette. Four colors – White, Black, Yellow Ochre and Red. In a couple I introduced a bit of Ultramarine Blue to accommodate some of the clothing.

I’ve spent almost the last year using the Zorn palette every week when I paint from life. I have found it very freeing and amazingly versatile. I’ve decided to do a workshop to share what I’ve learned and anything else I can share about doing portraits. Hope you can join me!!!

We will cover measuring for accurate likenesses, values, color and learning to paint shapes rather than lines. We will be working from life with a model each week. The modeling fee is included in the workshop fee, but I do ask that if you take photos (if the model gives permission) that you tip him or her.

The workshop starts September 12th, 1:30-4pm and continuing each Monday for 6 weeks. The cost is $300, which includes all modeling fees. Maximum size for the class is 6 people. I have 3 committed at this point. Deposit is 50% to hold your spot.

If you’re interested, please email me and I’ll send you any additional information about joining us. It’ll be fun! Of course painting is always fun in my opinion. Happy painting!!

Painting Energy

“Percussion” Painting Energy

Thank you Jim Brock for your patience with me— taking pictures and posing while I tried to do you justice! I’ve had so much fun with this piece. I was not worried about doing a “likeness” – although I think it does look like him. It is part of my “Musician Series” that I am slowly putting together. Mapped out with a brush and finished completely with knife — using only four colors!

The Zorn palette has been my go-to palette lately for portraits. I’m constantly amazed at the range I can get with only four colors – especially since two of them are black and white!!! It’s quite freeing to limit my choices. For those of you who are interested I’m using yellow ochre, Cadmium red medium, Mars black and Titanium white. And for those of you who are really interested, I’ll be teaching a class on painting the portrait from life using the Zorn palette. It starts on September 12 as a six week class. It will be a small class — maximum 6 people. Right now I have 3 spots left. Please let me know if you’d like more information.

I worked from photographs in “Percussion”. I had to pull the hands from two different photos to get a composition that I was happy with. Because of the knifing, there’s quite a bit of texture on this piece – which doesn’t register very well in the reproduction. There are broken edges throughout the painting, but I wanted the emphasis on the broken edges around his hands to bring your eyes there. Hoping that it will also give you a sense of the amazing energy that comes when Jim Brock plays percussion. He’s quite amazing! And sometimes it’s not just drums — it’s an assortment of percussion pieces—some are designed for that purpose and some are incorporated through Jim’s incredible creativity. I’m hoping to reach a level of mastery that Mr. Brock brings to his music in my painting one of these days.

Painting the energy of the music, rhythm and the people is my goal with “Percussion” and my musician series. Hoping they will push some visual energy into the rooms they occupy while the music keeps playing….