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A friendly place to learn at your own pace.
with Richard Robinson
Join Richard for 4 Complete Landscape Painting Lessons from New Zealand and Canada as he guides you through each painting project step by step. Compare your work with other students and learn from the insightful student critiques that Richard has made.
This is a uniquely powerful learning experience based on comparison and solving common painters problems with simple and effective solutions. Enjoy!
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Richard is a talented full time artist, who loves painting and teaching.
Hi I’m Richard. I’ve been painting my whole life and back in 2001 I traded my graphic design career for the humble life of a full time artist. I love painting, and as it turns out, I love teaching too.
Nowadays I balance my life between parenting, painting, surfing, travelling and teaching. My work is regularly featured in international art magazines, in galleries in New Zealand and America, on TV and in my Mum’s house.
I give outdoor painting workshops in interesting spots around this beautiful planet of ours and love encouraging people to paint. Two of my favourite artists are John Singer Sargent and Joaquín Sorolla.
My painting website: www.nzpainter.com
I’d love to be your new teacher.
Richard is a master artist with an exceptional skill in identifying and communicating key factors to making successful paintings. I have found his video workshops an excellent resource for improving my own work.
Whiskey Slough
Whiskey Slough Canada
Demo Painting “Whiskey Slough III†13×14″ Acrylic on Canvas by Richard Robinson.
Whiskey Slough, Canada
“Workshop35″ 9×12†Oil on Canvas by Hyun (Jane) Kim
“Sanctuary†15×19″ Acrylic on Canvas by Russell Kells - Altered in Photoshop
“Sanctuary†15×19″ Acrylic on Canvas by Russell Kells
“Vance Birthplace, Weaverville, NC†12×16″Oil on Canvas by Eddie Morris
“Workshop35†Oil on Canvas by Casey Toussaint
“Workshop35†Oil on Canvas by Casey Toussaint - Altered in Photoshop
“Workshop35″ 30×40†Oil on Canvas by Leslie Irvine
Weekly Class Recommendations- whiskey Slough 9 1/2”x12” Acrylic on canvas by Karen Woodhouse (South Australia)
Hi Karen, you’ve got a gorgeous glow running through this—love that sunlit flare on the left dissolving the edge of the boat. I'm impressed with the variety of colour you managed to squeeze into the painting by adding the warm greens and reds - a great addition. There's good contrast between the soft and hard edges creating a lot of interesting variety overall. For instance your soft aerial haze in the trees helps the boat sit forward as the star. Lovely atmosphere here—keep chasing that glow!
“Whiskey Slough” after Richard Robinson . 24x14oil on panel. Mark Price .
Hi Mark, you’ve created a beautiful, cohesive amber mood here—the warm, honeyed palette ties the shed, boat, and bank together wonderfully, and that soft atmospheric background sets the scene nicely. The boat’s form reads well, and I love extra detail you've added into the rusted roof, weathered hull and long grasses - the benefit of good observation and your larger canvas. Beautifully done! To push it further, consider deepening the darkest darks under the boat and along the shed’s underside to anchor the forms and punch the value range. You could also cool and gray the shadow planes just a touch (a whisper of blue-gray into those browns) to separate light from shadow and make the light feel brighter. Finally, vary the brushwork in the water and grassy bank—soften a few edges and introduce slightly larger, simpler shapes so the eye rests more on the boat and the shed’s doorway. Lovely work—this has heaps of atmosphere; a few tweaks and it will really sing!
Whiskey Slough
Lovely overall sense of warm, late-day light here, Nancy—the golden atmosphere knits the scene together beautifully. You've kept all the colours within that warm spectrum. The darks in the background could do with lightening a little. Currently they're so dark it doesn't allow for the warm light washing across the scene, so it brings the background forward, spoiling the sense of depth and also making it somewhat foreboding. The boat is well drawn with strong sharp edges, great for the centre of interest, while You've gone a bit too far with the glowing light off the stern. I'm loving the lively brushwork and good colour sense. Good job.
Whiskey Slough by Louise Villegas - 11 x 14 Oil
Hi Louise, I love the warm, sunlit atmosphere you’ve created here by using strong lights and crisp dark shadows. The burst of golden grasses really sings, and those crisp portholes pull the eye. I feel these should be a warm dark instead of a cool dark however, because all the arm light there would not allow a cool within it. Similarly the cool green foliage could be warmed to bring it into harmony with the warm light. The shed roof’s warm orange glow is a lovely echo to the grasses and adds to the vibrant palette. Try deepening the shadows in the woods behind the boat and shed and darkening the side of the shed and posts a little. Think about how their angle to the sun differs from the boat deck, and so they would be darker, allowing the lighter boat to take more of the attention, rather than fighting for attention with the shed. Beautiful energy and brushwork.
Whiskey Slough -10x14in Oil on Canvas, Tracy Randell
Lovely mood here, Tracy—the warm, hazy light wrapping around the shed and the golden grasses gives the whole scene a nostalgic glow, very atmospheric! Your drawing of the boat and shed is also spot on. I can't see anything to improve upon. Nicely done!
Up the Creek #2 by Louise Villegas 11 x 14 - Second attempt with improved trees
Hi Louise, gorgeous light and colour, and that sunlit tree has lively, expressive foliage - great calligraphy in those leaf shapes. It's good to see you do two different paintings of this, with the first one having more subdued colour. I also swing between greyed and vibrant colour in my work, finding that after a greyed painting I miss the excitement of vibrant colour, but after a vibrant painting session it can look a bit garrish to me and I swerve back to greyed colour again. What I tend to be happiest with overall is paintings that attempt to have both - greys versus vibrancy. It's much easier to define the focal point in this way, rather than having every colour competing with its neighbour. In this painting, that would mean greying down the blue background a little so that it sits back and let's the tree and grasses do their thing. Also watch again the section about the design of bottom edge of the grasses on the river - how it's better to build it with steps rather than smooth lines. Those little things add to the realism and interest.
"Up The Creek"
Hey Raymond, love the bold brushwork in here, your intentional redesign, and the suggestion of a path on the left. Your shapes are nice and organic - not overly simplified and the light reads well especially on the left. On the right the grasses are missing the halftone between the lights and darks. You've stepped the trees away from us on the right with atmospheric perspective - adding blue and white as they recede, but the sky and distant dark bank are not sharing in that light effect. They also should be lighter and cooler so they recede properly. You could add white and a tiny bit of yellow to the ultramarine mix you've used in the lower sky, perhaps with a tiny bit of pthalo blue/cyan/cerulean to cool it off. After that you may want to tweak the reflections as well. Speaking of which, the reflections initially went well with soft edges and horizontal strokes, but then the dark vertical scumbling on the right has spoiled it. If you paint the vertical dark reflections first and then work over and around that with horizontal strokes it'll work out better.
Ellen’s creek
Hey Ellen, lovely sparkle in those warm yellow greens against the cool grey backdrop - your foliage notes feel fresh, and the broken edges along the bank read beautifully in the reflection. Lovely brushwork throughout. I'd suggest darkening the backdrop tree that sits directly behind the foreground tree so that we see the forest step away from us in more distinct value groups, and darkening that area will also allow the lights in the tree in front of it to pop more. See how you have 4 light sandy patches on the bank that are all similar size and spacing? It'd be good to join up the two on the left to avoid pattern making like this. I’d also suggest combining the two strokes of the central vertical sky reflection into a single glowing shape that's less distinct and light that what you have thee, which is currently drawing a lot of attention. Gorgeous colour harmony - just a couple of tweaks will help.
Up the Creek oil 11x14”
Hi Nancy, you've made a lovely sense of light here with a lot of contrast and vibrance vs grey, warm vs cool - very nice! Your brushwork is confident, accurate and expressive, with a good variety of large and small marks. The whole scene is working well. The only thing I'd tweak is to define the edges of the river bank in light and shadow a little more to really anchor the land to the water. Great work!
Up the creek , 9x12” oil , mark Price
Hey Mark, overall this is working well with good shape design and a strong sense of light and dark building form. Got a few of suggestions for you and it's mainly about halftones: 1. Add some halftones back into the middle of the tree to give it more form and a sense of backlighting/top lighting. Similarly with the riverbank two grass clumps on the left, and darken their reflections to match. 2. Be wary of getting too match colour close to black in the darks in the grasses. Bounced light lightens shadows. Your outdoor painting helps you see that better than in photos. Working halftones down into those is going to help. 3. Subtly varying the colour of your grasses halftones and corresponding highlights will help add more variety and interest. Great to see you back on the brushes!
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