I was looking through our archives and ran across this video by Bill Alexander.  He painted on television for so long that he got tired of showing the same thing, over and over.  His viewers weren’t tired of watching Bill paint mountains, trees, and water but he was tired of painting them.  Did you know that Bill almost always painted from memory?   When we filmed his shows the camera would roll and he would create something that he has in his head.  He knew the art laws and how he had to use them to create realistic-looking paintings.   This video is a little different.  I remember talking to Bill in the morning before we filmed.  He was expressing his frustration with wanting to paint new subjects and so we showed him some calendars.  He decided to paint the Grand Canyon but still painted it from his memory of seeing the photo earlier.  Bill was the only artist that we filmed that could paint on the spot like that.  All the others prepared ahead of time and practiced.

Points To Consider:

• The Magic White is on the canvas.  He wipes out his brush and goes over the canvas again to make sure it is applied evenly and is deep into the fabric of the canvas.
• He adds a touch of Violet with Phthalo Blue for the sky color.
• Bill starts at the top of the canvas where the sky will appear to be darkest.
• He varies the pressure as he applies the paint to create variety for depth.
• The Magic White is mixing with the paint in his brush as he moves down the canvas which gives a lighter blue color.
• He applies less pressure and switches to long horizontal strokes as he approaches the horizon.  That is the sky area that is furthest from the viewer and will appear lighter and flatter.
• Once in a while Bill goes back up and picks up more dark paint from the top of the canvas.  He moves the paint around.
• He talks about whispering, but what he really means is the brush is barely touching the canvas as he uses a lighter touch.
• Bill cleans his brush off at the bottom of the canvas.  He doesn’t want to waste color and he knows that all the colors in the sky will appear in the foreground as well.
• He cleans his brush and then adds a touch of Alizarin Crimson to give the hint of red in the sky.  He adds a tiny bit of Permanent Red as well.  He warns us about red!  It goes a long way so be careful!
• Even though the canvas is nearly covered with paint,  there is barely any paint on the canvas.  What?  He wants the background color to be very thin so he can apply thick paint on top of it without waiting for the first layer to dry.

Oh if Bill would have had more time he could have explained all of this to you.  He only had 27 minutes to complete a painting.  That was really frustrating to him because he truly wanted everyone to become the best artist in the world.  Thank you Bill for your desire to help so many!

Happy Painting!

Laurie and Dawn

PLUS: So whenever you’re ready…here are a few ways we can help you become the artist you’ve always wanted to be.

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