Episode 23: Lynn Whipple
Today I’m talking with mixed media artist, Lynn Whipple.
In our conversation you’ll discover ways to get looser in your painting, the importance of being playful and why it’s so critical to make work you don’t like.
Listen to the Patreon Bonus Conversation here.
Whipple gives you an additional exercise to try at home plus we get into composition and a whole lot more. How do you get it? Join the Podcast Art Club on Patreon. Learn more at the podcast’s Patreon page.
Learn more about Whipple here:
In the show we cover:
1:11 How Lynn Whipple got started in art
1:53 How Whipple transitioned into being an artist
3:29 How that shift felt
4:25 What Lynn Whipple loves about mixed media
4:52 What is the definition of mixed media
5:21 What Whipple paints on currently
6:10 What informs the materials she uses
7:13 Paints she began learning with
8:13 The importance of not worrying about wasting materials
8:57 The paints she’s using today
9:56 Limiting vs not limiting materials when learning to paint
12:27 Walking through Lynn Whipple’s process
16:09 Heading from loose underpainting towards finished painting
17:27 The importance of a repeatable process
18:31 Where the thinking and planning happens in Whipple’s process
19.38 Translating sketchbook to painting
20:41 Thumbnails- What’s in them?
21:34 The freedom of thumbnails
22:51 Value
23:43 Specific focal area?
24:26 The challenges of painting big
26:16 Keeping preciousness out of the process
26:55 What do do if you fall in love with a layer
27:26 Listening to yourself
27:55 Keeping preciousness out of the workshops
28:41 Finishing a painting by cutting in
31:18 Different types of line contrast
31:44 Working from live or imagination?
32:38 Anchoring in reality as part of loose painting
33:04 Lynn Whipple’s abstraction work
34:20 Setting up rules for Whipple’s abstraction work
35:08 Surprises about trying something new
35:59 Figuring out what you like
37:11 Being an artist isn’t being fully formed
38:31 Experimentation
39:56 Biggest blocks in her students around creativity and play
41:02 Being a serious artist
42:10 Serious vs committed
42:58 Exercises to help with play
44:17 How to get really good at painting
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