Jim Lamb Workshop
DEVELOPING LARGER PAINTINGS: From Photographs & Your Plein Air Studies
DATE: June 8 - 10, 2012
COST: $375
SKILL LEVEL: Intermediate
This workshop is designed for students who have had some experience painting outdoors in smaller formats and who want to create larger works based upon the smaller studies and photographs they have selected from their outdoor work.
Jim Lamb will demonstrate using plein air studies and photographs and teach his process of re-designing and refining his studies and/or photographs to produce larger studio works.
He will talk about the way to use your photography as a visual guide, and not as a source to slavishly copy from. Emphasis will be placed on subject matter selection, simplicity and strength of design, as well as discussion of paint quality and texture on the canvas. Special attention will be given to the finishing of a painting, paying close attention to color temperature relationships, simple massing of shapes and sizes of shapes, the importance of value relationships and how they contribute to the overall strength of design, the control of various edges to direct the eye of the viewer through the painting, and finally, knowing when to quit.
Jim Lamb's Bio
Having parents who appreciated art and the beauty of nature instilled the desire to create artwork in Jim from an early age. The family often made trips to the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, where Jim was exposed to the representational interpretations of many of the great German landscape painters of the past century. Their use of color and the handling of light intrigued the young artist and had a direct influence upon his interest in one day depicting the landscape in oil on canvas. In Southern California, he slowly began to build his reputation as a freelance illustrator, while taking courses at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. But Jim’s long-held interest in the landscape remained with him over the years, and he made the decision to pursue the painting of the landscape. Lamb’s entire illustration career was built around working from photographs, so the idea of working from life, with all the challenges presented by nature made him realize that he was going to have to learn how to paint, and paint more rapidly. It was an awesome challenge. He took several workshops from leading contemporary landscape painters, which proved to be invaluable in his desire to pursue the direct depiction of nature.
In 1991 Lamb was chosen Artist of the Year for the nationally recognized Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, South Carolina. His work was also selected for the National Birds in Art Show which traveled to Japan and can be seen in North Light's book, The Best of Wildlife Art. The US Postal Service has included Jim's work in a show at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts displaying the best of 40 years of U.S. stamp designs, and the exhibition traveled to several other museum venues in the US. He is a member of the prestigious Western Rendezvous of Art (NWR) group of artists, which holds its’ annual show in August in Helena, Montana. In 2008 Jim was awarded the merit award by his peers at the Rendezvous Show for his painting, APPROACHING THUNDER. His work was on the cover and featured inside the May 2010 issue of Southwest Art magazine, as well as in the February 2001 issue. The February 2009 issue of Art of the West magazine also featured his work. Lamb has exhibited, since 2001, at the historic Laguna Art Museum for it's annual Invitational Plein Air Painting Competition held each October, and has been honored with several one man shows at his California galleries.
In addition to his fine landscape paintings, Lamb's work has literally been seen around the world in the form of limited edition prints, collectible plates, greeting cards, puzzles, posters, apparel, U.S. postage stamps, sculptures, and many other forms.
Jim's landscapes are currently represented by the Dawson Cole Fine Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA, Howard/Mandville Gallery, Kirkland, WA, the Morris & Whiteside Galleries, Hilton Head Island, SC, and the Zantman Galleries, Carmel, CA. His work is collected throughout the United States. He resides in the state of Washington with his wife, Cathy, who is a fine still life painter. Their children, Kristi, Tim, and Lisa are on their own and are artists in their own right.
