The Mahlstick: Left Brain Oil Painting

12/13/2025

Painting in progress....Cheshire

12/13/2025

My latest painting in progress

04/29/2025

Silly me. I haven't added anything here for a couple of months. Just got busy with other stuff. But I still exist! I'd like to see some of your projects in progress.

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07/19/2024

Sigmund Freud once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." Most of my paintings are just that. Usually no profound "message." The motto for MGM pictures has always been Ars Gratia Artis....art for the sake of art.
However, once in a while there's a story behind my paintings. I will eventually get around to telling them, once these paintings are in their final forms.

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07/19/2024

07/14/2024

Formaldehyde
by
Eric P. Nichols

I keep you in my little jar
Inside my Frigidaire
And take you out one time each week
To get us both some air
I didn't know you'd last so long.

06/16/2024

Unfinished paintings. There's nothing wrong with letting an unfinished painting sit and marinate...for a few weeks...or a few months....or a few years. Every painter that I know has had a painting that has just taken so long that they can't stand to look at it any longer. This is a good time to take a break and start something new. Don't worry, the painting won't spoil. And after a long period of drying, it will probably be easier to apply a few more layers anyway. And you'll return with new inspiration...which may take the painting in a whole new direction....or maybe to its original destination.

I would very much like to see your unfinished works... Feel free to post them here, where you can get some feedback from other members. (I promise to remain a silent observer)

Until next time.

06/08/2024

One of the most important things you can do when making a realistic looking painting is to always be aware of the direction of the light source. When teaching still life painting, I always light the object with a single spotlight, with the rest of the room being dark. This forces you to always look at the lighting direction, highlights and shadows, and to be brutally consistent. It's a hard discipline but the results will amaze you.

05/25/2024

Class is in session!

05/23/2024

Wax on, Wax off: The key to excellence in art without a lot of native talent

There are no shortcuts to good art....unless you're very gifted, which most of us aren't. And even if you are, you need some discipline. Virtuoso violinist Jascha Heifetz said: "If I don't practice for a day, I know it; if I don't practice for two days, my wife knows it; and if I don't practice for three days, EVERYONE knows it."

Discipline is the great equalizer...and this is great news.

Start by painting straight lines freehand. Lots of straight lines. Vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal lines. Paint them with stiff paint; paint them with very thin paint. Paint them with opaque earth colors. Paint them with transparent monochromatic hues. Learn how your brushes work with each kind of paint.

When you've painted so many straight lines you can't stand to look at a canvas any more, start drawing circles and ellipses....at all different angles. Do this until you can't stand to look at a canvas any more.

And then come back for more.

05/17/2024

Open house has been changed to May 25. Call to RSVP and obtain directions