Artful Painter

By Carl Olson, Jr.

Arts Visual Arts

What's Artful Painter about?

Art lessons and conversations by artists for artists, collectors, and people who enjoy art.

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Artful Painter episodes:

07.12.2022
Kami Mendlik - Surrender to the Process (72)
Kami Mendlik’s exquisite landscape paintings shimmer and vibrate with animated light and color. Her life-long journey of curiosity and keen observation of the natural world began when she was a young child. The Minnesota farmland she grew up on was...
06.17.2022
Greg Newbold - Evidence of Process (71)
Greg Newbold is a fine art painter and illustrator based near Salt Lake City, Utah. Greg says that for him, “art is a soulful expression.” His hope is that a piece of him comes out at the end of his...
05.21.2022
Priya Gore - A Dash of Wilderness (70)
Priya Gore’s extraordinary paintings of birds and wildlife are breathtaking. Her paintings are full of color, vibrancy, and energy. She says painting large allows her whole body to become fully engaged in the flow and gesture of painting. The process...
04.20.2022
Craig Stephens - Drawn to Form (69)
Craig Stephens is an artist who delights in painting everyday things. I started following Craig after a chancing upon his Instagram account. I was instantly drawn to his small oil paintings of french fries, toy dinosaurs, peanut butter sandwiches, sneakers,...
04.13.2022
Kim Lordier - An Inner Strength (68)
Kim Lordier is an extraordinary pastel painter whose works are cherished by collectors from around the world. Her path to becoming a full-time painter took flight in unexpected ways. Beginning with earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree she became...
03.17.2022
Brian Buckrell - Freedom to Play (67)
Brian Buckrell is a full-time Canadian painter. After a long, successful career as a Professor of Veterinary Medicine, he made the decision to switch to a career doing one of the hardest things known to humankind: painting fine art. The...
01.28.2022
Mitchell Albala - Mystery and Atmosphere (66)
Mitchell Albala is a fine art painter, noted author, and beloved workshop instructor. His first book, Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice, is a well-worn reference in my personal library since 2009 when it...
01.22.2022
Ariana Richards - Poetic Realism (65)
Ariana Richards delights in expressing her creativity in both painting and acting. Encouraged by her family at an early age, she developed an intense interest in the arts. She developed her painting skills even though as a young child she...
11.19.2021
Robert Henri - A Secret Identity (64)
Robert Henri's book The Art Spirit inevitably makes it in any artist's top ten artbook recommendations. As passionate students of Art, we know Robert Henri. His paintings make up an extraordinary body of work. He is considered the "father" of...
09.12.2021
Scott L. Christensen - Managing Chaos (63)
Scott L. Christensen must paint - it is core to his very being. His keen eye and probing curiosity of nature reveal a deep love of not just being outdoors – but, rather, immersed in it with all senses engaged....
08.18.2021
Britt Snyder - A Sense of Something More (62)
Britt Snyder focuses on capturing memories and feelings on canvas. Though influenced by late 19th century impressionism, Britt's paintings are clearly a modern take of impressionistic figurative, still life, and landscape painting. His portrayal of the human figure resembles a...
07.15.2021
Frank Serrano - The Air Between Things (61)
Frank Serrano's paintings have a sense of atmospheric depth that seem to extend far beyond the two dimensional surface of a canvas. As you look at one of his Western landscape paintings, it's as if you can feel the summer...
06.26.2021
Kevin Kehoe - Western Therapy (60)
Kevin Kehoe began his remarkable career as a fine art painter just a little over eight years ago. Though he had attended Art Institute of Boston, it would be another 30 years before he would pick up his paint brushes again....
06.08.2021
Denise LaRue Mahlke - A Sense of Peace (59)
Denise LaRue Mahlke paints with soft pastels - which are to her the purest form of artist color. Unfettered with complicated materials, she is free to respond spontaneously to the unfolding spectacle of the big skies and ancient geology of...
05.22.2021
Eric Bowman - Following a Circuitous Path (58)
Eric Bowman could never have imagined the path his life would take for him to become a fine art painter. He wanted to go to art school but the prospect of spending two years in a junior college taking courses...
04.23.2021
Vianna Szabo - Finding the Why (57)
Vianna Szabo comfortably switches between painting with pastel, watercolor, acrylic, or oil. She paints beautifully sensitive portraits. Her landscape paintings capture a fleeting moment in time. Expressive color is a hallmark of her paintings no matter the subject she chooses...
04.08.2021
Chris Kolupski – Disappearing Into Time (56)
Chris Kolupski began painting outdoors as a teenager in the forests of Upstate New York and Canada. He credits his high school art teacher David DeClerk for making a significant impact on his early artistic evolution. DeClerk took his class on...
03.25.2021
Shanna Kunz - Forging a Visual Connection (55)
Shanna Kunz is a contemporary landscape painter whose work is a conscious play of mood, light and color. As a naturalist raised and rooted in the diverse landscapes of western America, a painting takes on deeper meaning for her. Each...
02.26.2021
Mitch Baird - Patience and Perseverance (54)
Mitch Baird is a passionate representational painter. He believes that painting is a celebration of life and the beauty that surrounds us. He is devoted to the traditions of the late 19th century artists who looked to the figure and...
02.06.2021
G. Russell Case - A Higher Perspective (53)
G. Russell Case is a Western painter inspired by the beauty of creation. Based in Utah, he brings to life the epic landscapes that surround him with a confident voice honed with humility and reverence. His carefully contemplated design incorporates...
12.31.2020
Kyle Buckland - Making a Difference (52)
Kyle Buckland's bold paintings are deeply rooted in the philosophy and approach of the impressionists. As a teenager, his interest in art began to edge out the interests of most youth - skateboarding, team sports, or playing in a band....
12.26.2020
Steven S. Walker - Transparency and Light (51)
Steven Walker captures the essence of the impressions of a long meditative walk along the back alley street of a small town or a quiet, rural road. His paintings often capture the warm light of the golden hour just after...
12.22.2020
Oberg, Smith, Whitcomb, and Young - Four Directions - Common Paths (50)
Gàbor Svagrik presents Ralph Oberg, Matt Smith, Skip Whitcomb, and Dan Young in Four Directions - Common Paths. The Artful Painter has reached a new milestone: this is episode number 50. The first episode was published a little over two...
12.08.2020
Paul Foropoulos - Painting Along Life's Path (49)
Paul Foropoulos is a Greek artist born on the tiny, beautiful island of Samos, Greece. Today, he and his wife divide their time between their home in Clearwater, Florida, and Samos, Greece. Not only does he paint, but he is...
11.24.2020
Stephen C. Datz - The Rhythm and Geometry of Nature (48)
Stephen C. Datz paints the American Western landscape in his own clear voice. Strong, angular design, rich harmonious colors, and a striking interpretation of the landscape are hallmarks of Stephen’s style. It took hard work and determination on his part...
11.11.2020
Lorenzo Chavez - The Emotional Landscape (47)
Lorenzo Chavez paints the American Western landscape with passion. As he applies each stroke of color – whether he is using pastels or oil paint – he intimately captures the textures of the landscape. His emotional response to the colors,...
10.20.2020
Jeffrey T. Larson - Finding Deeper Beauty (46)
Jeffrey T. Larson’s evocative paintings are stunning visual essays of beauty. His contemporary paintings are deeply rooted in academic realism. Because of the extremes in seasons in his home state of Minnesota, Jeffrey spends his time painting outdoors in its...
09.25.2020
Dan McCaw - Painting Purple Trees (45)
Dan McCaw believes that art is a “collaboration between the heart and mind.” The result of that often contentious, frustrating collaboration are paintings that expose the artist’s soul. Dan’s paintings are rich with thick texture, vibrant colors, and strong contrasts....
09.16.2020
Alex Hillkurtz - The Language of Cinema in Watercolor (44)
Alex Hillkurtz is a renowned storyboard artist for feature films, television, and commercials. His film credits include Argo, Almost Famous, It’s Complicated, and many others. In contrast to the fast-paced world of storyboarding, Alex enjoys the slower pace of sketching...
08.29.2020
Bill Anton - A Passion for Painting the West (43)
Bill Anton was the first professional painter I ever met. It was a chance encounter. In the late 1990’s my family and I were vacationing in Jackson, Wyoming. One evening I decided to walk into one of the several art...
08.27.2020
Len Chmiel - Making it His Own (42)
Len Chmiel has no interest in merely copying what he sees. He says that he allows his "intuition to speak.” His intention is to expand the boundaries of realism rather than merely painting a facsimile. While many artists lament having...
08.16.2020
TJ Cunningham - The Wonder of Being in the Landscape (41)
TJ Cunningham grew up in Vermont in an area that was also a favorite place for Aldro Hibbard and Emile Gruppé to paint. If you have ever visited that part of Vermont as my wife and I did a few...
08.06.2020
John Pototschnik - Paintings That Speak to the Heart (40)
John Pototschnik is a fine art painter who resides in Wylie, Texas. As a young boy, his parents instilled in him a strong work ethic. Doing chores, selling his mother’s cookies door-to-door, and having a newspaper route – all these...
07.24.2020
DK Palecek - Painting Curiosity (39)
DK Palecek is a painter who embraces her left-brain-centric worldview. Starting with degrees in both Math and Finance, she worked as a mathematician, served as an investment banker, became a venture capitalist, and is a serial entrepreneur. In that career...
07.02.2020
Bryan Mark Taylor and Keith Huang - Sentient Academy (38)
Bryan Mark Taylor is no stranger to many outdoor painters. He’s the inventor of the outdoor painting system STRADA Easel. He’s a remarkably versatile painter adept at painting landscapes, urban and architectural scenes, the still life, and highly imaginative scenes...
06.25.2020
Amanda Lovett - Telling a Story With a Brush (37)
Amanda Lovett says she "grew up in a family of storytellers; people who could take a moment in time and make it come to life using words.” She says, "It didn't take me long to realize that this trait is...
06.18.2020
Crista Pisano - Capturing Nature's Grandeur (36)
Crista Pisano was born and raised in northern New Jersey and began painting in oils in 1989 under the instruction of John Phillip Osborne at the Ridgewood Art Institute in Ridgewood, NJ. Her career as a painter almost didn’t happen...
06.04.2020
Kathleen Hudson - A Sense of Possibilities (35)
Kathleen Hudson's paintings capture fleeting moments of light and atmosphere. She says, "My paintings represent specific places and moments in time: the brief point during a sunrise when the sun fills the air with an ethereal golden glow; a break...
05.26.2020
Jill Steenhuis - Dance With Nature (34)
Jill Steenhuis is an American Impressionist painter – originally from Atlanta, Georgia, who now lives in Aix-en-Provence, France. It’s been her home for over three decades. Her unexpected journey there is a fascinating story. When she was just eight years...
05.20.2020
John P. Lasater IV - Aiming for Something Higher (33)
John P. Lasater IV is a representational painter whose works are a synthesis of nature, perception, and deep roots in art history. And by deep roots, I mean, he’s not fixated on the 19th century triumvirate of Sargent, Sorolla, and...
05.11.2020
Cynthia Rosen - Letting Loose With Color (32)
Cynthia Rosen would rather paint outdoors working on location. Her paintings radiate an exuberant celebration of sparkling light, brilliant colors, and a world in motion. Cynthia’s marks are made boldly, with confidence, using a palette knife to apply luscious thick...
04.30.2020
Suzie Baker - Raising the Bar (31)
Suzie Baker’s paintings are full of light, color, and texture. Her paintings fill the viewer with questions, with the whole story not revealed. She seeks to evoke a response from the viewer by not filling in all the blanks. Her...
04.26.2020
Kyle Ma - Keeping an Open Mind (030)
Kyle Ma is an extraordinary artist and a student of geology. His keen observation skills are honed by his geoscience training at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. Whether he paints the figure, the landscape, or florals, his confident...
04.20.2020
Jonathan McPhillips - Capturing the Presence of Man (29)
Jonathan McPhillips’ paintings shimmer with atmosphere and sparkle with light. Each painting he creates he views as a welcome problem to solve, a delightful puzzle to piece together, and a celebration of his surroundings. Working equally in the studio and...
04.18.2020
Nancy Tankersley - Geometry of Shapes (28)
Nancy Tankersly approaches painting with experimentation and curiosity. The results are impressionistic paintings that are not so much about the subject as it is about shapes. Her fascination with shapes perhaps began when she excelled in geometry in school. She...
04.12.2020
Patrick Saunders - No Preconceptions (27)
Patrick Saunders’ paintings have won many awards and received much recognition. His studio works earned him membership in notable painting organizations, including becoming a signature member of Oil Painters of America. When Patrick began plein air painting in 2013, he...
04.10.2020
Matt Ryder - A Clear Vision (26)
Matt Ryder is an award-winning British artist living and working in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. Matt finds inspiration in the wild beauty of the natural world – whether it’s land, sea, or sky. It’s astonishing that there are...
04.06.2020
Michael Chamberlain - Forging His Own Way (25)
Michael Chamberlain says that if Vincent Van Gogh were alive today, he would be a vlogger on YouTube. Van Gogh was a prolific letter writer to an audience of one - his brother Theo. However, as a vlogger on YouTube...
04.01.2020
George Van Hook - Truth and Honesty in Art (24)
George Van Hook is a painter adept in both oil and watercolor. What he paints is a visual response to the subject before him – whether it’s the landscape, a figure, or still life. The rich textures, harmonious colors, and...
02.18.2020
Jim McVicker - A Way of Seeing (23)
Jim McVicker imbues atmosphere and light into his paintings that stir the heart. Whether it’s an expansive view of the Pacific coast near his home in Humboldt County, California, or an intimate interior still life set within his studio –...

What's Artful Painter about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Artful Painter episodes:

Kami Mendlik - Surrender to the Process (72)

Greg Newbold - Evidence of Process (71)

Priya Gore - A Dash of Wilderness (70)

Craig Stephens - Drawn to Form (69)

Kim Lordier - An Inner Strength (68)

Brian Buckrell - Freedom to Play (67)

Mitchell Albala - Mystery and Atmosphere (66)

Ariana Richards - Poetic Realism (65)

Robert Henri - A Secret Identity (64)

Scott L. Christensen - Managing Chaos (63)

Britt Snyder - A Sense of Something More (62)

Frank Serrano - The Air Between Things (61)

Kevin Kehoe - Western Therapy (60)

Denise LaRue Mahlke - A Sense of Peace (59)

Eric Bowman - Following a Circuitous Path (58)

Vianna Szabo - Finding the Why (57)

Chris Kolupski – Disappearing Into Time (56)

Shanna Kunz - Forging a Visual Connection (55)

Mitch Baird - Patience and Perseverance (54)

G. Russell Case - A Higher Perspective (53)

Kyle Buckland - Making a Difference (52)

Steven S. Walker - Transparency and Light (51)

Oberg, Smith, Whitcomb, and Young - Four Directions - Common Paths (50)

Paul Foropoulos - Painting Along Life's Path (49)

Stephen C. Datz - The Rhythm and Geometry of Nature (48)

Lorenzo Chavez - The Emotional Landscape (47)

Jeffrey T. Larson - Finding Deeper Beauty (46)

Dan McCaw - Painting Purple Trees (45)

Alex Hillkurtz - The Language of Cinema in Watercolor (44)

Bill Anton - A Passion for Painting the West (43)

Len Chmiel - Making it His Own (42)

TJ Cunningham - The Wonder of Being in the Landscape (41)

John Pototschnik - Paintings That Speak to the Heart (40)

DK Palecek - Painting Curiosity (39)

Bryan Mark Taylor and Keith Huang - Sentient Academy (38)

Amanda Lovett - Telling a Story With a Brush (37)

Crista Pisano - Capturing Nature's Grandeur (36)

Kathleen Hudson - A Sense of Possibilities (35)

Jill Steenhuis - Dance With Nature (34)

John P. Lasater IV - Aiming for Something Higher (33)

Cynthia Rosen - Letting Loose With Color (32)

Suzie Baker - Raising the Bar (31)

Kyle Ma - Keeping an Open Mind (030)

Jonathan McPhillips - Capturing the Presence of Man (29)

Nancy Tankersley - Geometry of Shapes (28)

Patrick Saunders - No Preconceptions (27)

Matt Ryder - A Clear Vision (26)

Michael Chamberlain - Forging His Own Way (25)

George Van Hook - Truth and Honesty in Art (24)

Jim McVicker - A Way of Seeing (23)