MEETING REPORT:

Thursday, April 21

Demo by Paul Oman

Wisconsin artist Paul Oman demonstrated his process of large-scale painting on canvas. From a young age, Paul loved art and began taking lessons at age 10.

Though watercolor was his least favorite medium initially, he grew to love it while in college.

His subject matter has evolved from landscape to city and finally – to people, often focusing on biblical stories.

He purchases his canvas from a theatre supply company and uses acrylic latex interior satin paint. In preparing the subject for our demo, “The Woman at the Well,” He tried to imagine the emotional aspect of the scene and produced a small sketch which he then developed into a larger value sketch and a light drawing on the canvas.

Since his canvas is large (often 5 feet by 7) he begins by painting the scene upside down since he can’t reach the top. Paul quickly brushed in blues, purples, browns, reds and greens in rapid strokes, seemingly random.

But when he flipped the canvas right side up, the scene emerged like magic! He continued to add details with reds and yellows until our meeting break time.

Then, after the break, he painted in silence with a background of instrumental music while he finished the painting for a mesmerized audience. Paul believes in the brain science that sees a connection between music and visual art.