How Does an Artist Develop?
Book Review:
Problem Solving for Oil Painters by Gregg Kreutz
If I had to pick one book for an artist who was just starting to learn how to paint, this would be it! Gregg Kreutz is a master painter, author and an instructor at the Art Students League in New York City.
“A great painting is a moment captured.
It may have taken years to create but its effect on the viewer is immediate. The quality of spontaneous vision can mislead the aspiring painter into thinking that art emerges full blown from the soul of the artist . . . in fact real art is more often that not the result of hard-won struggles with all sorts of problems, some lofty, some mundane. . . The artist develops by answering questions like,“What makes form look dimensional? How does light flow?”
(pg. 7, Problem Solving for Painters by Gregg Kreutz, 1986).
Often when an artist is first learning to paint, they might not know what questions to ponder. This book covers many topics and has insightful questions that can serve not only as a learning tool but as a way to critique your own work. It covers topics from shapes, values, edges, shadow, color and more. Plus, it’s filled wth Kreutz’s beautiful paintings!
