This is a page by Mark Daily, an instructor at the Art Students League of Denver, that I happend across today. It discusses his outdoor painting class and has lots of helpful information.
Here are two samples: "... doing an oil painting is like writing a novel without an editor. It's really open-ended. By comparison, doing a woodblock print forces you to make an enormous reduction of facts. You must limit yourself to JUST ENOUGH. There is tremendous value in trying to do this. If you can't get a handle on the essentials of what you are attempting to portray, your results will be very poor, without character. Our best painters are not considered great because they render details better than everyone else. They've built details upon a solid design and fine drawing...Simplicity is an important addition to your fundamental artistic understandings."
"...your artistic development should advance as your skills advance. Artistic development is the more important part because it’s the process of taking responsibility for the what and why of your subject matter. It is a difficult process because there’s no way to know for sure if things are going in the right direction, there’s no one to reassure you. Those 'what' choices are near the heart of you- what has meaning for you. Notice thoughts which inspire you. Pay attention to what you enjoy and stop to record it. Find a way to keep these mental notes on yourself from evaporating, from being lost in the shuffle. A moment, a place, an emotion, a theory, an opinion, whatever; it provides a connection to what in the future might be a painting- the bits of inspiration come from many sources. They will keep coming and they are unique to you."
