Marvin Mattelson lays down his palette and uses his words

Blog Posts Archive:

2012

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December 30, 2012

On the Quest for Excellence

These are the four ingredients former anyone looking to achieve success in life.

Marvin's Musings, Art & Artists
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December 19, 2012

Portrait Painting Cyber Space Word Jockey Rides Again

So here I sit, putting the finishing touches on my inaugural run as a commuting portrait painting blogging iPad Mini user.

Art & Artists, Marvin's Musings
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September 18, 2012

Presidential Art Quotes I'm Electing to Share

It got me to thinking. What have some of our other nation's leaders said on the subject of the arts?

Marvin's Musings
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September 12, 2012

Fall Continuing Education Classes in New York City

A large number of my students keep coming back because they experience incredible progress in their artistic development.

Teaching, Student Art
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September 11, 2012

Looking for Art in All the Wrong Places.

The art that’s most interesting to me is when the artist has something real to say. It doesn’t need a significant concept.

Art & Artists, Making Art, Marvin's Musings
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August 29, 2012

Marvin Mattelson, Portrait Artist & Educator

I’ve been very busy lately finishing up my summer workshops, and trying to get everything ready for the fall semester,so I’ve had to put my fledgling career as a blogger on temporary hold.

Student Art, Teaching
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August 20, 2012

New York City Portrait Artist Workshop-Demo Day #4: Grand Finale

On the final day the plan was to modify color nuance, intensity, edges in order to further develop the solidity the forms:

Making Art, Marvin's Art, Teaching
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August 14, 2012

New York City Portrait Artist Workshop-Demo Day #3

Today was my next to last demo for the August Portrait Artist Workshop at the School of Visual Arts.

oil-portrait-workshops:Oil Portrait Workshops,painting-techniques:Painting Techniques
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August 9, 2012

New York City Portrait Artist Workshop-Demo Day #2

Today, August 9, I laid in the color over my wash-in underpainting during the second demo for my New York City Portrait Artist Workshop.I love brushing in the color.

Teaching, Making Art, Marvin's Art
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August 8, 2012

New York City Portrait Artist Workshop-Demo Day #1

My New York City Portrait Artist Workshop at the School of Visual Arts began on Monday August 6. Below is the progression of my underpainting on the first day of my demo.

Teaching, Making Art, Marvin's Art
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July 30, 2012

Is Portrait Painting More Difficult Than Brain Surgery?

I always tell my students, “Portrait painting isn’t brain surgery, it’s much more difficult.” Not that learning to be a portrait artist isn’t a terribly daunting task.

Teaching, Making Art, Musings, Student Art
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July 20, 2012

Atlanta Portrait Artist Workshop – Day 11 Demo

Today I completed my demo painting. Not as refined as my portrait commissions, but a very good representation of my process, none-the less.

Teaching, Marvin's Art, Making Art
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July 18, 2012

Atlanta Portrait Artist Workshop - Day 9 Demo

Today I continued to develop my demonstration painting. I started out by oiling out the painting. First I scumbled over the skin and then began to restate my flesh colors.

Teaching, Making Art, Marvin's Art
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July 17, 2012

Atlanta Portrait Artist Workshop – Day 4 & 7 Demos

My demo painting is moving along very nicely. Here is the progression as I built up color over the umber wash-in under-painting during my initial color lay-in, this past Thursday.

Teaching, Making Art, Marvin's Art
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July 11, 2012

There and Back: It's Uphill Both Ways!

Today I experienced an epiphany. Simplicity is a function of clarity. The perfect way to camouflage not knowing, is to obfuscate your explanation.

Teaching, Student Work, Making Art
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July 9, 2012

Atlanta Portrait Artist Workshop - Day 1 Demo

Today I started a two-week portrait artist workshop at Binders Art and Framing in Atlanta. This is the underpainting phase of my workshop demo–the first time I’ve ever posted one in progress.

Teaching, Making Art, Marvin's Art
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July 1, 2012

The "You Can't Get There From Here" School of Color Mixing

To me a portrait painting is a giant conundrum waiting to be unraveled. My approach to coming up with the best answer is hierarchical, going from large to small.

Making Art, Musings, Marvin's Art
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May 31, 2012

The Law of Gravity is Not a Rule, True Story!

When analyzing the work of great master painters, like Anthony Van Dyke (above), we can see that breaking the so-called rules had the opposite effect.

Marvin's Musings, Making Art, Art & Artists
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June 3, 2012

This Rule Pushed Me Over the Edge

Repetition is the evil step child of rules. The technical term for this is boring. The point of being an artist is creativity. The death knell tolls when artists mimic themselves, consciously or not.

Teaching, making Art, Marvin's Musings
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June 26, 2012

A Portrait Artist's Biggest Challenge

outside of a sadist or a bully who would derive pleasure from making someone cry? The obvious answer: a portrait artist.

Marvin's Musings, Marvin's Art
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June 18, 2012

Warm and Cool: The Exciting Game Without Any Logic!

"The most confusing part of painting is mixing color." How many times have you heard that?

Making Art, Marvin's Musings
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June 20, 2012

Those Who Repeat History are Doomed.

What's the point of creating paintings that look as though they were painted a hundred or more years ago?

Making Art, Musings
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June 15, 2012

Happily Negative? I'm Positive!

Praise may make you feel better, but learning to see mistakes will make you paint better. Only by finding out what doesn’t work, what needs fixing, or what’s out of kilter, can you can hope to improve.

Making Art, Musings, Teaching
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June 12, 2012

A Palette-able Delight!

During my New York oil portrait artist workshop I will spend one day, with my students, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'll be analyzing a number of great master portraits and talk about how they relate to my teaching.T

Teaching, Art & Artists
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May 24, 2012

The Sum of the Parts Has Very Little to Do With Money

When the meter is running how is it possible to create great paintings? I'm afraid I can't buy that the best strategy for a long, satisfying and lucrative career is churning out substandard work.

Making Art, Marvin's Musings, Art & Artists
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May 28, 2012

How Much for a Quickie?

Sometimes people's expectations can really throw me for a loop, so I consider this post to be my first public service announcement.

Marvin's Musings
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May 30, 2012

The Essence of Painting, the Shape of Things to Come

The key to true mastery of anything is understanding its essence. So the question is what is the essence of painting?

Marvin's Musings, Making Art
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May 31, 2012

So You Think You Can Draw?

 In every class I teach, everything is fully demonstrated and thoroughly explained. The above drawing is a detail of my workshop demonstration drawing.

Teaching, Marvin's Art
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May 31, 2012

Breadcrumbs Among the Piles of Paint

I have, over the course of my 40 year career as both a professional artist and educator, come to certain conclusions, many of which I will be sharing during the course of writing this blog.

Marvins Musings, Making Art
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June 4, 2012

Two Good to be True Oil Portrait Workshops

I was leading an oil portrait workshop when a very well-known realist artist and teacher looked at the students' work and remarked, "I have been to many workshops, including my own, and I've never seen this kind of progress, ever!”

Teaching
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June 6, 2012

Reflecting Upon My Reflections

Today's post marks the two-week anniversary of Brush Aside–time flies when you're having fun. I thought such a significant event was just cause for some serious self-reflection and a wee bit of celebration.

Marvin's Musings
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June 6, 2012

Rembrandt's Redeeming Qualities?

Here is the Rembrandt Self Portrait (detail below) I referred to in my discussion about Herman Doomer.

Art & Artists, Marvin's Musings
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June 8, 2012

Put a Fork In It, the Road That Is!

Yogi Berra said, when you come to a fork in the road…take it. Forks are just a folksy way of saying it's time to choose. Life is a series of choices.

Marvin's Musings, Making Art
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June 11, 2012

Put on Your Thinking Beret (Strategically Speaking!)

When I look at a masterpiece I very rarely concern myself with the technical aspects. I’m much more interested in the thinking process behind the painting.

Making Art, Musings, Art & Artists
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May 23, 2012

Getting Paid to Learn to Paint

Since the methods the authors of painting books professed seemed so clueless, I did the exact opposite of what they said.

Marvin's Art, Musings
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About Marvin

Marvin Mattelson is an award winning portrait artist and educator with over 40 years experience as a professional artist as well as a member of the faculty at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Marvin teaches virtual painting classes to students around the globe. You can read Marvin's biography, commission him to paint your portrait, find out more about his teaching or start a dialog by contacting him directly.

Recent Blog Posts

Marvin Mattelson's Online Virtual Portrait Painting Class - Fall 2020.
NYC Realistic Portrait Painting Workshop • August 5-16 2019
NYC Realistic Portrait Drawing Workshop • June 3-7 2019
Fall Continuing Ed Oil Painting Portrait Classes at SVA
To Be An Artist You First Need to Think Like One

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