Art Center Information

Historic Artists Should do Their Homework

When an artist decides to paint or draw a historic composition, they should do their homework.

I have been working on a series of compositions representing the Cherokee Indians during the period of Jackson’s Removal, or, better known as The Trail of Tears. I find it hard to describe the many times I searched the internet, encyclopedias, and other books to find different clothing, weapons, blankets, and even feathers, and other head gear of the time in history that was depicted. I’ve done a great deal of study, and still I’m sure I haven’t got it totally correct. That’s the problem with historic compositions, you not only have artists critical of composition, color, chroma, lighting, style, etc., but you have your historians. You can’t win, but it doesn’t matter…just do your homework, and try to do it right.

Trail of Tears: Watercolor/wet-in-wet: Richard D. Burton

The painting above is only 1/2 the painting I intend to do. The other half is a high sky with an angry spirit floating and folding from the clouds. To see this composition depicted with graphite you can click on one of the sights listed at bottom right side. I’m still going to do a little more study on the clothing that shows more original decorations sewn into the clothing.

research items — Research items used in painting “Down Wind Wait”

Between the graphite drawing and painting “Trail of Tears”, I painted a picture that I named “Down Wind Wait”. Mostly, just to practice. To the left you can see there was not only several picture studies, but I actually did a complete drawing of the picture.

Graphite Drawing for "Down Wind Wait"/along side study pictures — Graphite Drawing for “Down Wind Wait”/along side study pictures

Below you can see I used a picture depicting a jacket of the 1830s and 40s used by the Cherokee Nation.

Again, there is a plethora of information available on the internet from leaves in a breeze to the squirm of a worm. I can find how to do a special type of “wet-in-wet” wash with my watercolors. I can even be the person to talk to the world; such as, in this case, an art blog.

Never before have we had the opportunity as artists to simply go to the internet, select our favorite search engine, and ask it to show us a picture of anything, and it will. Incidentally, I just asked Bing to show me a picture of anything, and it will blow your mind what all it offered me.

I recommend you go to the top of the page and visit all our family art galleries. More of Lynn Burton’s works can be found by copying the following link, and typing in Lynn Burton on the search: http://fineartamerica.com/ or click on the picture below.

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Down WindWait: R.D. Burton — “Down Wind Wait”: Watercolor (Arches :300) – R.D.Burton

Posted in blog post, Drawing, Historic Artists, Trail of Tears | Tagged art information, artist, Historic Artistists, Lynn Burton, Paintings, R. D. Burton, Richard D. Burton, The artist, watercolor | Comments Off

Lynn Burton Often Uses Acrylic Under Paintings for His Oils

Artist, Lynn Burton, in many cases, will do his work with acrylic under painting. “It’s just something I rely on to work out the many details of my work that often becomes finished oil paintings…you know, whatever it takes to get it right,” he said this morning when Art Center Information had an opportunity to speak to him.

“As far as I’m concerned, this picture is already a finished painting…makes a great acrylic painting the way it is. It gives an almost ghostly, spiritual sense about it with the grays and pale mauves and would fit decoratively in many homes,” his brother and founder of Art Center Information, Richard Burton, said.

Richard D. Burton: segment of "Old Woodie" — Richard D. Burton: segment of “Old Woodie”

I’ve always enjoyed working in acrylics, finishing several works,” Richard continued. He is mostly known for his wet-in-wet watercolor works. The painting to the right is a segment of a 24″X 36″ Acrylic painting he painted a few years back. (The complete painting is in the Burton Family Gallery {above}.

Lynn actually does much of his drawing and details of his compositions in many of his oils with the acrylic under painting, this is why he can get as little or as much detail in his paintings. It helps him work out his values, he gets to experiment with color and chroma if necessary, however, with his many years of experience, much of this he does in the muse of his mind. “Sometimes, you just get into a zone and when you come out of it, it’s all there…a finished work of art…don’t ask me!?” He says.

Although Lynn paints compositions of many genres, his work recently has been with a Southwest art motif. He is doing this because Southwest Art is appreciated in many states. He was born in New Mexico, and lives in Texas…enough said?

His work can be found above in his gallery, but this is not all his works. He sells his work on the internet as well in galleries. On the internet, it is found at the following link> http://fineartamerica.com/

Please join our newsletter at the top right of the page. Visit all the galleries at the top. Feel free to make comments at the bottom…no spam please.

Acrylic Under Painting for future oil/ unfinished: Lynn Burton

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Original Americans, Indians, and the Trail of Tears – Painting in Progress

The painting I most recently finished began as a practice painting for a portion of a work in progress, Anguished Spirit (Trail of Tears).

Anguished Spirit (Trail of Tears) Graphite on Paper

I drew the composition in full size some weeks back, and decided to paint the lower portion of the painting with its own composition. (Below)

"The Removal - Trail of Tears" — “The Removal – Trail of Tears” (19″wX15″h)
Transparent Watercolor

I did a three color wash over the entire painting space (one on top of the other when dried) Red, yellow, and blue pigment was applied over each. The red and yellow top down, and the blue with painting turned upside down and washed from bottom to top. By lifting colors, I created the sky, mountains , and foreground, creating a cold and dank day for marching through the snow covered trail.

I’m considering changing the dimension of the full size composition from 13.5″X24″ (which is the size of the graphite drawing above) to 27″X48″. In other words doubling the composition. I decided to do this when creating the painting. I’d like to have a little more wiggle room when trying to paint the many characters in the work.

I like the effect created by lifting the paint for the scenery. It wasn’t easy to do, and was somewhat anguishing, troubling, stressing, and more, but perhaps, that’s why we paint. To do the anguishing spirit and create the effect of an almost ghostly other being, I’m quite positive paint removal is the way to go. I plan to practice this portion of the painting before trying to complete the final painting.

I think it was about thirty-six years ago, when I painted “Winter Kindling” that was the first time I tried lifting paint to create items in the composition that barely showed; such as, the grass blades and chopped wood and portion of the ax. It was a valuable experiment that helped me throughout many of my other paintings. However, it is wise to be cautious, planning your lifting carefully, and not overworking it.

In the painting, “The Removal – Trail of Tears”, the lifting of the paint went into, through, mixed, and all the way at times, stopping when a certain color of the three washes – Red, Yellow, Blue, and the white of the paper -showed up and added to the painting where I needed it to make the effect. If you look closely at the ground, mountain and sky, you can see where I used this method to do the painting of details for me rather than adding paint to the composition.

There are many ways to remove paint in a watercolor. In another blog I’ll discuss these methods.

If you enjoy art work depicting The Original Americans, you will appreciating my brother’s paintings at (click on) http://fineartamerica.com/

Be sure to type in the name Lynn Burton in the search sight.

Posted in art project, Lynn Burton, original Americans, Paintings, paper, Richard D. Burton, Trail of Tears, Transparent Watercolor, washes, water color, watercolor, Winter Kindling | Tagged art, art information, artist, graphite pencil, Indians, Lynn Burton, Original Americans, painting, Paintings, Richard D. Burton | Comments Off

Art Takes Much More Than Paint, Brushes, and Substrates

Art takes much more than paint, brushes, and substrates. I usually paint the composition constantly in my mind, letting it mull over, before pencil or paint sketching. I then attempt pencil sketching the first composition, and as usual, it doesn’t work. Then I play with it…not too much…I don’t want to overdo it. I trust my mind composition enough to know something is there, it probably just needs a few edges smoothed out. I tell myself this, and then I go about trying to work out color sketches. While playing with color ideas, I usually do a graphite full size drawing to make sure the composition and value are correct. This was the case of “Down Wind Wait,” a composition of an Indian with his Wolf companion waiting for deer upwind from them.

Down Wind Wait; Richard D. Burton — “Down Wind Wait” : Richard D. Burton (Graphite on Paper)

I’d decided before I painted the picture of “Agonizing Spirit/Trail of Tears”, I should do a little more studying of the clothing and weaponry of the late 1830s Cherokee Indians. However, with my passion for history, I became engrossed with the internet articles about the Cherokees. I downloaded many articles of clothing, symbols, jewelry (and etcetera) used at the time. Slowly, I was building a world from the past. Yes, sometimes an artist wishes to be an emotional part of his painting. Vicariously become part of that which he is painting. Some of us think of this as being in the ZONE.

Also, before attempting to paint “Agonizing Spirit/ Trail of Tears”, I decided to look inside the drawing and find other possibilities of compositions. If I could, it could increase the total worth by making a great many drawings and paintings. It would also give me a great amount of experience painting different compositions of Indians in different settings that could only help me for my final painting. All in all, it could only be a great experience that would challenge me for several months. Ah! What a life, huh?

But this painting took a lot more than paint, brushes, and substrates. It took a lot of study, downloads from the internet, thinking, making and correcting several mistakes, including ruining a couple of attempted paintings and throwing them away and starting over after doing all the creative things I could do to correct them. So the painting at the left is painting #3. It is 14″X17″, and I find it acceptable and pleasing.

As many artists know, watercolor paintings are very unforgiving. For this reason, I like to use Arches 300 because it can take a lot of scrubbing, nibbing, correcting, painting over. However, if it goes dirty then all the creative “artist tricks” in the world will make it scream: “Throw me away and start over!” Believe me, the first two paintings that I threw away screamed this loud and clear. However, in this final work, I kept the touch of the brush to any particular area painting to no more than three times. It turned out very clean, which was one of my main goals.

Below, I am showing a picture of just a few of the many drawings, paint sketches, downloads, books, and other things that cluttered my studio as I had a whim to embrace to make this simple painting.

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Be sure to visit the galleries above to visit my family art works, my brother Texas Artist Lynn Burton has his own gallery, but it expands if you visit his site by clicking here and typing his name in the search engine http://fineartamerica.com/

Posted in art, art information, Artist, drawing, Lynn Burton, painting, R. D. Burton, Uncategorized, watercolor, watercolor sketch, watercolors | Tagged art, art information, artist, graphite pencil, Lynn Burton, painting, R. D. Burton, watercolor | Comments Off

Using Paper Dolls to Assist Your Composition

Artist do what an artist has to do to reach their goal as an accepted composition. For example, in my composition of “Trail of Tears/Agonizing Spirit,” I drew several depictions of Indians from top of head to bottom of feet. They were drawn in perspective using the head size of the closest figure on the left, and becoming smaller using the vanishing point above since they were walking down an inclining road.

Graphite Drawing: Wailing Spirit - Trail of Tears — Wailing Spirit – Trail of Tears: Graphite Drawing (13’X24″) : Richard D. Burton

After I draw each, having decided their head size in perspective, I cut them into paper dolls (head to foot), and arranged them behind each other, and kept arranging and re-arranging until I was satisfied with the composition.

I’m sure that not every artist would go to this type of work to create their piece of art, but would rather just sketch graphite on paper. Whatever works for the individual artist. There are no right or wrongs in my art world…and I did make many loose sketches before getting serious about the work. But before I call it a picture, it must be acceptable to me. After all my name goes on it into perpetuity (That’s a scary thought.).

Be sure to visit our family galleries (above). Also enter to receive a newsletter, and attempt to win our free drawing for a beautiful art book.

Also if you are interested in the artwork of Texas artist, Lynn Burton, you may visit his sight at http://fineartamerica.com/ and typing his name in the search section. An easier way to go to the sight is to simply click on the painting below. Lynn is prolific artist and is not designed by his choice of genre. He paints pictures with compositions of Western, South Western, landscapes, flowers, and he also does murals, such as the one below. http://fineartamerica.com

Buddy Holly Mural — Texas artist, Lynn Burton, in front of Mural

Posted in American Indian, art, Artist, drawing, Drawing, paper dolls, Trail of Tears | Tagged art, art information, artist, drawing, graphite pencil, paper dolls, Richard D. Burton | Comments Off

Trail of Tears

Having been raised in New Mexico, Southwest Art, Indians, cowboys, ranches, cattle and etc., are common themes when it pertains to art.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I recently awakened (precisely at 3:00 a.m.) one morning with a scene in my head depicting the “Trail of Tears”. It was a scene that was clear in my mind, almost as if stamped.

I began searching the web for any artists depictions of the event that took place in the late 1830’s and early 40’s. There were several, but nothing in the composition I envisioned. I’d not watched any movie depicting the event, nor had I read about it in more than thirty-eight years when I visited the Cherokee Village in North Carolina in 1978. So, I began to research it. Wow…is there a lot there. However, as I mentioned, no composition found that is the one I imagined.

Graphite study for future watercolor: Graphite drawing — Agonizing Spirit, Trail of Tears: Graphite Study for Watercolor: Richard D. Burton

As many of my sight visitors know, I like to do a full size drawing as a study for my watercolor paintings. Watercolors are not forgiving, so if trying to paint in somewhat of a realistic style requires some serious planning and studying, and even then it is precarious at best…at least, for me. The drawing is 20″X30″.

When I finished this drawing, I e-mailed it to my brother, Texas artist Lynn Burton for his critique on the composition. Lynn’s critique (as expected) was honest (he doesn’t pull any punches). He felt the scenery with the trees, rocks, old chief and wife sitting on the side, the valley and back mountains took the viewer’s interest away from the two main subjects of the composition, the Indians on the trail and spirit in the sky.

Now, me, personally, I like expansive scenes. Lynn, however, was speaking strictly as an art critic, which is exactly what I asked him to do. However, before I was going to put in several days re-doing the drawing, I wanted to get a feel for what he was talking about.

Cut out of "Agonizing Spirit - Trail of Tears" — Cut out of “Agonizing Spirit – Trail of Tears”

I sent a copy of my drawing to the printer, and then I cut the valley and far mountains out of the small picture and taped the top to the bottom. It brought the spirit closer to the Indians on the trail and did clarify the focus to the two subjects in the composition. So, this meant I could start painting the composition…or not.

When I say this, it means now I had to make another decision. Do I want to completely re-draw the new composition? It would be a lot of work, but I finally shrugged my shoulders with determination to do just that. My thinking was simple. It really wasn’t a hard decision to make. I’d drawn the original drawing on the back of an inexpensive old panel board that had been in the garage, sometimes in the attic, and always in a stack of items this pack rat just hadn’t bothered to throw away. It was probably more than twenty or thirty years old exposed to whatever elements existed. On the drawing, I’d made a multitude of errors, and the rips and eraser tears in the substrate were unpardonable for anything but a study, which is all it was originally meant to be. However, when making the drawing, I became attached to it, and often wished I’d made a good quality drawing (possibly worth selling someday). Soon I was off to the art supply store happy to be disappointed to have to do the drawing all over again. I don’t think I had to use the eraser even once on the new drawing, done very carefully on acid free drawing paper, from upper left to lower right. This drawing was smaller, 13″X24″. Nothing on the new drawing was smaller than the original. The arrangement of the composition itself made the difference in size. Since I mentioned that I tend to appreciate many expansive painting compositions, I may very well paint both compositions. I also intend to make many segmented painting studies before attempting the final paintings that within themselves may be composed in a way that they may have value. Who knows?

Be sure to enter the free drawing for the art book (Upper Right), and receive some very helpful newsletters.

Also…check the galleries above. Plus, if you are interested in visiting Lynn Burton’s art gallery just click on the following painting which will direct you to http://fineartamerica.com/ and there type in Lynn Burton in the search section.

Unfinished: Lynn Burton (Oil on Canvass)

Posted in art, art information, Artist, drawing, Graphite Drawing, Indians, Lynn Burton, painting, Richard D. Burton, Trail of Tears, watercolor | Tagged art, art information, artist, drawing, Lynn Burton, Richard D. Burton, Trail of Tears | Comments Off

Western Art

Pencil Sketch — Agonizing Spirit Over Trail of Tears: Richard D.Burton (pencil sketch for painting)

I have always been a fan of Western and Southwestern art. Having been raised in New Mexico, cowboys and Indians were a tradition. If I recall correctly, they didn’t take the hitching rails out of downtown Carlsbad until I was five or six years old. As a wee small child, I would stand on the steps of the church I attended on Sunday mornings and watch the cowboys ride down the foothills on horseback on their way to church. They rode along side an old flatbed truck transporting their wives and children who sat on seat benches screwed to the truck’s bed.

Arlen Burton: "Signal Peak" (Oil on Canvas) — Arlen Burton: “Signal Peak” (Oil on Canvas)

My father, Arlen Burton, painted one of my favorite Southwestern landscape scenes showing the Indian chief, Sitting Bull’s, favorite mountain to send smoke signals to his warriors. There is a water fall in the mountains called Sitting Bull Falls.

As a teenager, I discovered two Western artists that I became enamored with by their works. One was Charles Marion Russell (also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and “Kid Russell”). The other was Frederic Sackrider Remington.

254px-Frederic_Remington_-_The_Blanket_Signal_-_Google_Art_Project — The Blanket Signal: Frederic Remington

Both of these men were born in the 1860s and lived into the first quarter of the 20th century. Their art specifically concentrated on the last quarter of the 19-century American West. What a marvelous time to be an artist, sculptor, and writer in the old West!

C. M. Russell was a very prolific artist, creating more than 2000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in Western United States and Alberta, Canada. His painting Piegans sold for 5.6 million dollars at an auction in 2005, and his mural titled Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians hangs in the state capitol building in Helena Montana.

I woke up the other morning around three o’clock from a nagging dream. I lay awake for over two hours concentrating on the dream. It was about a painting of Indians during a period of great travail. A painting I will attempt to paint. I fell back asleep and slept for a couple of more hours, but when I awakened I grabbed a couple of pencils and began to doodle, ultimately sketching the drawing at the top of this page. This is just a small part of the painting I saw in my dream.

Probably, I had this compelling dream because my brother, Lynn Burton, sent me several pieces of his Western Art. Lynn is one of my favorite artist (okay, I confess to being prejudice). Lynn’s art is represented on a the Fine Art America website, and you can shop or purchase prints and original art. All you need to do if you are interested is click on the painting to the right. It will take you to the Fine Art America web sight. When you are in the sights, type Lynn Burton into the search at the top of the page, and it will take you to his paintings. Shop and enjoy.

Be sure to join our newsletter. The winner of the drawing for the beautiful art book will be given away on March 1st, 2016. The winner’s initials (for privacy purposes) will be announced in March’s Newsletter.

Please visit our galleries at the top of the page.

Indian Falls: Oil on Canvas; Lynn Burton

Posted in Arlen Burton, C.M. Russell, Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington, Indians, Landscapes, Old West, Richard D. Burton, Southwes art, Western art | Tagged C.M. Russell, Charles M. Russell, Cowboys, Frederic Remington, Indians, Lynn Burton, painting, Richard D. Burton, Southwest art, Western Art | Comments Off

Using a Monochromatic Technique to Assist in Painting

Texas artist, Lynn Burton, often uses a monochromatic painting as an under painting when painting a picture. He prefers the earth pigments using only white, black, and one color. “It helps work out the contrast, the darks and lights,” he says. “I can always add the color later,” he continues, as if he thinks everyone is an artist, and understands exactly what he means. They don’t, but somehow gets the gist.

"Momma and her babies": Lynn Burton: Oil — “Momma and her babies”: Lynn Burton: Oil

The technique has been used by many artists from the beginning of time. Every artist has their own technique, but any method of study that helps define the contrast and value before applying the various pigments to a painting is helpful.

Lynn’s brother, Ohio artist, Richard Burton , uses a different technique. He goes to the painstaking effort of drawing with pencil (actual size – and in great detail) the picture he intends to paint. He claims that while he draws he sees in his mind’s eye every color and stroke of the brush as he does this. “It helps work out the mistakes I would make,” he says. Richard mostly paints with water color on paper and doesn’t have the benefit of using a monochromatic under painting.

Painting on Arches 300-lb 22"X30" watercolor paper — Painting on Arches 300-lb 22″X30″ watercolor paper

“Every artist knows there’s not a lot of room for error when dealing with water colors,” he continues. One of his more recent paintings was a 24″X36″ painting, and sure enough, he drew it full size.

He feels that in its own way the black and white of the pencil and the paper, and the many light and dark shades in between will works out the value and contrast of the painting. “Mostly,” he says nonchalantly, “any way you can do a study of the work before applying the final touches to it is a benefit.”

"King of the Hill" : Oil on Canvass - Lynn Burton — “King of the Hill” : Oil on Canvass – Lynn Burton

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Getting The Best Out of Color Scemes

The master artists understood color, hue, temperature, chroma, and value, and knew how to place the pigments onto their canvas (board, or whatever substrate) with meticulous care. Many of them also made and mixed their own colors, and painted with a very few of these. For example, many of Rembrandt’s palettes only consisted of shades of umber, ochre, white, black, and red. How simple is that?
Of course, it’s unfair to try to relate to the great artist of old as if they painted the only way an artist should paint. The playing field is not equal. They didn’t have the many choices of tubed colors we have today. When you realize it wasn’t until the early 1800s that a variety of different colors became available, then you understand artists before this time had to work with what they had. Because of this, it was the limitation of the palette that created such harmonious paintings.

Lynn Burton just sent a new series of paintings to us, and we wanted to feature some of them. I especially like what I consider to be a more vibrant and active style of paintings than what we have seen before.

Who doesn’t love a “Stag in the woods” painting?

A buffalo standing atop a hill, showing all his might and strength, dominates this painting. However, it’s not just the composition that reigns supreme here. What really makes the painting is the subtle use of the secondary color scheme.

The color scheme using green, orange, and violet are especially good in landscape paintings, creating harmony, giving you that inviting feeling of being able to walk right into the picture.

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Painting Hair – The Unique Challenge

Everything has its own challenge when painting, but there is no challenge quite as unique as when painting hair. When painting hair, an artist has to consider avoiding the stringy look. They should keep the masses simple. They need to master softening the edges; and, above all, they must know how to control highlights.

Keep in mind, when edges are too hard (especially where hair meets the forehead), it will give the impression of wearing a helmet. Two areas to pay particular attention to are the hairline near the temple, and where the hair meets the neck.

When considering highlighting, it helps to remember the full mass of hair gets darker as it turns away from the highlight region. If you visualize masses of hair as ribbons, the highlight goes across, not along, the curving shape.

Segment of watercolor For demonstration purposes only — Richard D. Burton: Segment of watercolor
For demonstration purposes only

A good suggestion for water color artists is to use a dry-brush technique that can utilize the white paper (or lighter color of paint) beneath it to assist in the impression of highlighting. This can suggest a texture of the model’s hair in light. To use this technique, hold the brush handle low to the paper and gently scrumble or drag damp paint over the surface of the painting. This allows portions of white or lighter colors to show beneath the affect. Warning: Do not use to much water in your wash when using the dry-brush technique.

Lynn Burton: "Love That Dog" oil on canvas — Lynn Burton: “Love That Dog” oil on canvas

When it comes to painting hair, remember it has so many textures and colors that there are no recipes. An artist must practice and use their own experiences and studies to satisfy themselves. Hair might be frizzy, curly, wavy, long or short. The only advise this artist can suggest it to use the largest brush possible for the job, and keep the forms simple.

However, here is one suggestion: One way to give hair a more natural look in your painting is to lightly scrape small, squiggly, strokes when the background around the head is almost dry. If this is done with care (not overdone), it can give the impression of a few random wisps of hair along the edge of the head. When painting with watercolors, I usually use a pin for this. I know one watercolor artists that uses her long fingernail on her little finger for this. What a master she is. She does it so quick and natural…stroke, stroke.

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Posted in art, Artist, painting, Uncategorized | Tagged art, art information, artist, hair, Lynn Burton, painting, Richard D. Burton | Comments Off