Michael Burns Art

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 1 Date: 07/23/2017 Subject: Eastern BlueBird on Bittersweet Branch Medium: Acrylic on Illustration Board Colors Used In This Session:  Titanium White, Cobalt Blue, Brilliant Blue, Cad Red Light, Naphthol Red Light, Golden Ochre, Burnt Sienna Surface: Crescent Hot Press 200 Illustration Board, Cream Surface Bluebird at the end of Session 1 If you need some inspiration for painting birds, you have to look no further than artist William Zimmerman. "One of America’s greatest bird artists spent the bulk of his career in Brown County surrounded by nature and the birds that he loved. On a scale with Audubon, William Zimmerman illustrated a host of important books, including The Birds of Indiana and Waterfowl of North America, along with the woodpecker volume of The Life Histories of North American Birds. He also spent a great deal of his career working with environmental groups to protect the habitats of the bir...

C. W. Mundy Takes Best of Show at 2016 Hoosier Salon Exhibition The first annual Hoosier Salon exhibition began in 1925 by the Daughter's of Indiana, a group of women who were born in Indiana but lived in the Chicago area. The annual Hoosier Salon exhibition grew into one of the most prestigious juried art shows in Indiana. Opening with a preview event on July 27th, 2016 the Hoosier Salon's 92nd Exhibition hosted by the Indiana History Center did not disappoint in terms of the quality of art on display. Located along the canal in downtown Indianapolis, the history center is a great location for the event.  If you want to make a day of your visit to Indianapolis, there are multiple sites to see within walking distance, including the Indiana State Museum, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art and the NCAA Hall of Champions. C. W. Mundy won Best of Show for his oil painting titled "Pond Yachts in the Studio," he received $5,000 in prize money. The Juro...

T. C. 100th Studio Birthday Cake The T. C. Steele State Historic site celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Steele's building the dream studio in 1916. The studio which is the large barn studio on the grounds of the historic site provided the artist with gallery space and large north-facing windows creating ideal indoor lighting for the artist. As part of the celebration, storyteller Lou Ann Homan presented a story based on Steele's life. Lou Ann told a 60-minute story from the perspective of the three women in the artist's life, his first wife Libby, daughter Daisy and his second wife, Selma. The large crowd in the studio was captivated by Lou Ann's ability to make you feel as if you heard the story directly from the women. The focus of the story was the love the women had for Steele and their undying support in helping him further his career and become the most well know of the Indiana artists of his time. It was was an hour well spent for those who are intere...

Indiana Impressions 2016 The State of Indiana is celebrating 200 years as a State with many events and celebrations during 2016. From April 29th to July 9th the Indiana History Center exhibited 43 paintings from Hoosier Group artist Theodore Clement Steele 1847 to 1926. The show was one of the best shows in recent years dedicated to his art and influence on landscape painting in the late 19th and early 20th century. Steele is the most well know Hoosier Group Artist and the most famous of the early painters. The organizers did a fantastic job coordinating, displaying and gathering the works of art. Many of the 43 paintings on display had never been seen by the public, and all were on loan from private collections. In addition to the exhibition, a special edition of "The House of the Singing Winds" was released in April by IHS press. The book includes a new essay on the life of Steele's second wife Selma, written by the well-known author of Indiana art, Rachel Berenson ...

Alan Larkin Wins Best of Show at Hoosier Salon The 91st annual Hoosier Salon Exhibition at the Indiana History Center in Indianapolis opened on July 30th, 2015 with a wide variety of subject matter and media. As always, the Hoosier Salon show is well organized and anyone interested in quality art should try to attend the show each year. This year's judges were Qiang Huang and Randall Sexton, who had the difficult task of determining which artist would be juried into this year's show.   Alan Larkin won Best of Show for his  46" x 44" oil painting titled "Alarms and Diversions" receiving $3500 in prize money.  Jerry Smith won Best Landscape for his 38" x 38" oil painting titled "Autumn Canopy" taking home $1000 in prize money. Outstanding Scene went to the Bloomfield Indiana artist Wyatt LeGrand for his 30" x 42" oil painting titled "Accumulate" receiving $500. The $1,000 prize for Best Figural Composition went to Law...

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 2 Date: 07/15/2017 Subject: Wren on A Dogwood Branch Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board Colors Used In This Session:  Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Sepia, Zinc White, Indian Yellow, Grenadine Links to painting sessions:  Session 1 Wren on Dogwood in Gouache Session 2 In the previous post on this subject I mentioned, I had never painted in Gouache, and the only watercolor painting I have ever done was a few watercolor sketches. I did do some quick small sketches with Gouache before starting this session. I wanted to see how the paint flowed on the illustration board and how easy the paint reactivated with water. I did some research online to see how other artists painted with gouache and the techniques they use.  There is an excellent article about the use of Gouache titled   "Painting With Gouache"    from the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators website.  With all...

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 1 Date: 07/03/2017 Subject: Wren on Dogwood Branch Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board Several things have inspired me to paint in Gouache.  One is James Gurney  who is the creator of the Dinotopia Series of Books. I found his blog when I was searching the internet about watercolor sketching. You can spend hours reading through his blog and watching him work magic with Gouache in his sketchbook. James posts videos of his sketching in Gouache, Watercolor, and Casein. The second inspiration to paint in Gouache came when I visited the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Florida Art  in Daytona Beach, FL. Within that museum, there were paintings by artist and illustrator Walter Weber .  Walter Weber was born in 1906 and attended the University of Chicago and the Art Institute if Chicago. He was a mammalogist and is well known for his role as the  Chief Nature Artist for National Geograp...