Mark and David Baral interviewed me recently on their Creative Community Podcast. It was a fun and lively discussion about about my early training and development as an artist. We also talked about my move from Colorado to California and my experience painting my surroundings in the Ojai Valley. Mark is currently attending Pensacola Christian College, which is where I got my commercial art degree. Some references to that come up in the podcast, as well as influential artists and ideas that have helped me along my artistic path. We also discuss my landscape painting course at Sentient Academy ..read more

Painting can get complicated fast. So many concepts to think about at one time. Composition, perspective, proportion, shape, line quality, contrast, palette colors, color temperature, color saturation, complementary colors, tinting strength, underpainting, brush size, paint viscosity, light source, canvas type, surface texture, edge quality, brush handling, glazing, etc. Despite that long list, there is a simple key for making better paintings. Just one thing to focus on. The Key for Making Better Paintings: Practice copying what you see. Regularly. Maybe you thought it was going to be someth ..read more

This week marks the ten year anniversary of Dan Schultz Fine Art Gallery & Studio! When we opened in 2011, it was a leap of faith for my family and me, and we were pleased right away with good responses from customers in our first week of business. It was a lovely welcome to a completely new area for us. And now it’s been ten years and we’re celebrating with a giveaway! GIVEAWAY! Thanks so much to all of you for helping us reach this milestone. As part of our celebration, I’m giving away 10 stickers and one of my small oil paintings! TO ENTER: I’m using Instagram for the giveaway ..read more

Dan Schultz • Ojai Valley Sunset • 28×56 inches • Oil on Linen Panel • Available from the Ojai Mystique Exhibition • October 20, 2023 – February 4, 2024 • $14,000 I joined the board of directors of the Ojai Valley Museum in 2022. The opportunity soon arose for us to put together an exhibition of paintings of our beautiful Ojai Valley. We wanted to build on the success of the Museum’s 22 Miles landscape painting exhibition from 2019, which attracted the largest attendance to one of the Museum’s openings to date.  Ojai Mystique With this in mind, we envisioned ..read more

Want to see first-hand what my plein air painting classes are all about? Join me for a FREE plein air painting demonstration! When: Saturday, October 8, 2022, from 8 – 11 am Where: Ojai, California’s beautiful land conservancy site, the Ojai Meadows Preserve. (See map: follow the highlighted yellow trail from the parking on Hwy. 33. It’s a level path of about 1/4 mile. Cross the bridge at the pond area and look for me near the large Eucalyptus trees.) Click here for driving directions. I will demonstrate my plein air painting technique in oil and go over the supplies I use. Bring a ..read more

Opening spread of Artists Magazine May/June, 2022 article featuring Dan Schultz I’m honored to have a feature article about my work in the May/June, 2022 issue of Artists Magazine. Arts writer Ruth Rodgers worded a beautiful, cohesive eight-page story titled “A Finely Tuned Voice,” focusing on my background and my figurative work. I want to express my sincere thanks to editor-in-chief, Anne Hevener; senior editor, Holly Davis; writer Ruth Rodgers and the rest of the team that put it all together. It’s a true honor to have my story and artwork in the pages of Artists Magazine. Purchase a copy o ..read more

If you’re an artist who struggles to get your shapes and proportions placed accurately while painting outdoors, try using the sight-size method. You might say, “Who cares about getting the shapes right? I just love painting bright colors!” Remember that shape accuracy (you might call it “drawing” or “design” or “composition”) is the number-one most important principle in representation painting. You might paint beautiful colors and perfect values with fantastic brushwork and surface texture. But a poor design will likely distract from all that amazingness and greatly reduce your painting’s ch ..read more

“Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” – Edgar Degas You weren’t kidding, Edgar. The more we learn and practice, the harder certain aspects of painting seem to become. It may take years before we feel like we’re improving in some areas. But don’t think of those unsuccessful attempts as wasted canvases. With each try, we’re steadily developing our ability to solve problems. It’s critical that we progress in this area because our solutions to problems are what inform us to make better choices as we improve. It’s a process that takes time, but here are a few i ..read more