Are you looking for a fun and creative way to spend your free time? Do you love nature and art? Do you want to learn a new skill and unleash your inner creativity and express yourself through art? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should consider taking an art class. Here are twelve reasons for taking an art class and why it’s a great idea: You will learn how to observe and appreciate the beauty of nature. Landscape painting teaches you how to pay attention to the colors, shapes, textures, and light of the natural world. You will develop a deeper connection with your sur ..read more

For the first post of 2023 I thought I’d share a couple of unique and fun projects of Trompe l’oeil painted doors. If your unfamiliar with the term, trompe l’oiel is a French term used to describe a highly detailed painting meant to fool the eye. Variations on this concept have been used for interior and exterior murals with varying degrees of detail. Sometimes you don’t always have to go to the extreme in detail to dress up and provide a piece of art onto an otherwise plain flat utilitarian object. Such was the case when contacted by a client to paint the illusion of a Dutch door onto a plain ..read more

Windberg Style Bluebonnet Painting In this prior blog post https://hagermanart.com/blog/dalhart-windberg-a-recollection/ I wrote  about famed Texas Artist Dalhart Windberg and how he had an early influence on my art. Early on I tried to emulate his style, before embarking on my own way of painting. After 30 plus years, I decided to try out the technique he employed once again in this Windberg Style Bluebonnet Painting. It’s not as flawless in it’s smoothness as Windberg’s but then again, he had many years to hone his skills in applying this smooth brush style of painting. Currently this ..read more

Dalhart Windberg: A Recollection The following is a recollection of the early influence that artist Dalhart Windberg  had on my art. I was around 8 years old when I first became aware of famed Texas artist Dalhart Windberg during the mid 1970’s. My aunt who was quite talented and painted as a hobby and my uncle, collected Windberg prints. During a family visit, my aunt was showing my mother their print collection and I wanted to see it too. Even at this young age my interest in art was already quite high. My eyes became glued to the works as my aunt carefully unveiled each print. Windberg ..read more

In this post I’d like to share with you, how to draw an oak tree video. When taking painting lessons, many years ago, the instructor shared an approach which has been of great value not only to myself, but to other art students in drawing trees. I’m now sharing this beneficial art tip. Seeing Shape and Form in Drawing an Oak Tree A tree is recognized by its shape or silhouette. What gives a shape it’s dimension is through the use of light and dark values, which describe the form of the shape. This video will show you how to use an HB, 3B and 6B graphite pencil to compose a convincing tree for ..read more

The work is done! I now get to share the completing of a mural for the Haystacks restaurant in Sulphur Springs, Texas! My first video post on the project is here. It basically shows the sketch. Here are the next 3 short videos showing the progress and completed project! Getting the Ground Covered mural-vid2-1-m4v Sky Work   mural-vid3-mp4 Detail Work and Finish mural-vid4-1-m4v This was a fun project and quite different than working at the easel. Plus working with acrylics and acrylic mural paint rather than oils was also different and using Styrofoam plates as  palettes! He ..read more

Painting Inspiration: Old barns! I love old barns, don’t you? They have such character! Now that I live in Northeast Texas, there seems to be quite a few. Even nicer is some aren’t very far away. This little trio cluster of barns wasn’t far from our home and became the basis for my painting titled “Barn  Trio” which is 9×12 and available for purchase direct. In Plein Air When time permits I enjoy painting on location. If you wish to paint landscapes it’s such a valuable learning session because you see so much more than what a photo will show. But when combined with photos for reference ..read more

Painting a Mural Of late, I’ve received several different projects that were out of the ordinary, one is painting a mural for the Haystacks restaurant in Sulphur Springs, TX. The subject matter isn’t different as it consists of a Texas landscape, but it’s in a panoramic format of a little over 18 foot in length by about 4 and half foot high. New Materials to Try Out! To paint  the mural, I’ve abandoned oil paints for mural paint and fluid acrylics. The combination seems to be working out well. I started with a small sketch that I gridded off and then mostly free handed the sketch with a l ..read more

In this short oil landscape painting demonstration, I hope to highlight a general procedure that I use in all my work whether it’s highly detailed or more painterly. The first step is to sketch my scene onto canvas using thinned down ultramarine blue and a small brush. The ultramarine blue color is easy to wipe off and over paint without it showing through. My first marks of color is generally going to be my darkest mass area. In this case the large tree.     Generally I will paint the areas directly adjacent to the big tree to compare my values, but I departed from this by going to ..read more