Hal Holoun On Oil Painting: Living an Artist’s Life

Hal Holoun on Oil Painting

Living an Artist’s Life

Edited by

Linda K. Welsch

Copyright © 2016 Linda K. Welsch.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4840-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4839-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016904314

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 8/19/2016

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Chapter 1 The First Letter in 1998

Chapter 2 Lecture & Starting Out

Chapter 3 Fundamentals

Chapter 4 Long Distance

Chapter 5 Change

Chapter 6 Back to Business

Chapter 7 Catching Up

Chapter 8 The Workshop in 2010

Chapter 9 What-ifs

Chapter 10 Stories

Chapter 11 Moving On

Conclusion

Select Bibliography

For Rog,

who held out his hand

for me to come along

Preface

by Linda Welsch

In the summer of 1980, Roger Welsch and I drove out to see his property on the Middle Loup River in rural Nebraska. At our destination, I opened the car door and saw a man standing before an easel, painting. It was Rog’s longtime friend, regional artist Harold D. Holoun, and I was eager to meet him. As we talked and I watched him work, I was fascinated by the orderly arrangement of oil colors on his palette and the lovely landscape beginning to form on his canvas. As I watched, my own desire to paint grew stronger.

Over time, I was able to visit Hal’s studio and attend many of his lectures, workshops and gallery openings. I loved Hal’s insights, his emphasis on the fundamentals of fine art, his mastery of color and his many transcendent paintings. Along the way, I took notes and often referred to them as I began my trial & error attempts at painting.

Eventually I realized the importance of the research I had. A reclusive artist, Hal keeps no blog, no website, does not post his paintings and does little self-promotion. Not much is known about him, and yet his gallery paintings are remarkable. Among the most remarkable and my favorite; his Valley Co. painting of a loess hill blowout on display at Lincoln’s Cornhusker Hotel.

This book is a compilation of the letters, correspondence and research that I began collecting in 1998. It will give an overview of Hal’s technical methods in oil painting, his creative style and his approach to art. More importantly, the information is given here in his own words, shared with us in personal stories and experiences.

This book began as a collection of notes in learning how to paint, but along the way it became a memoir of Nebraska artist Hal Holoun. By the end, I began to realize that I too, was living an artist’s life.

List of Illustrations

Holoun working

Cabbage drawing by Linda Welsch

Holoun demo

Evey at the Lake painting by Linda Welsch

Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows

Convivial Cup; Sidewalk Café painting by Linda Welsch

Ord landscape

Loess hill blowout painting at tag sale

Valley County road map

Holoun farm view

Front cover painting: Hal Holoun, In This Moment, oil, 30 x 40, private collection.

Back cover painting: Linda K. Welsch, Portrait of Hal Holoun, oil, 24 x 30, private collection.

Introduction

by Hal Holoun

Some years ago, I was tempted to write a book about oil painting, primarily because I wanted to write a book. About painting. Fortunately, I got distracted by other things, such as trying to deal with the ongoing changes and problems in my own paintings. It was then I realized that I’d do better to read and study again the books of those artists who’d worked and written before me.

My intent originally came about from my own experiences in approaching painting following my having worked through a university program and leaving with my graduate degree in hand. To be sure, I deeply appreciated my university experience at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. At that time, the University had a wonderful faculty that allowed, and encouraged, diverse philosophies and attitudes. I am so fortunate to have met wonderful teachers who encouraged me to develop my own personal mindset, and not be swayed by the prevailing trends in style and philosophy, or the art market.

Since I left Laramie, I’ve come to appreciate even more the quality and diversity of thought that existed with the faculty there. In my teaching, I’ve been confronted by so many students who went through various university and college art training programs, and who then came into my classes lacking in art fundamentals that should have been presented to them in Art/Whatever 101. I get calls and e-mails on a regular basis from young artists and past students asking me questions, and I’m happy to oblige. But I still see so damned much misinformation out there.

Just now I was interrupted by a call from a past student who moved from Nebraska to Washington State. She said she can’t believe the mindset of artists there. There seems to be some sense of evil in oil paints, as everyone there is shunning them in favor of acrylics and watercolor or worse, water-soluble oil paints (which are a joke). She asked why no one is painting with oils, and they say, It’s the fumes from the solvents. Toxic pigments. Too complicated. Again, those are false assumptions. It’s possible to paint without solvents, and acrylic pigments are just as toxic as oil pigments. Complicated? Spare me!

To study and learn is a lifelong process. And new information regarding painting techniques, technical matters, etc., keeps changing so quickly. I’d read through other writers who investigated the technical side of painting over the past century or so. They made good attempts, given the information they had at the time, but again, now, their work is hopelessly dated because of new methods in the analysis of art materials and working methods. Even Ralph Mayer, whose book was a definitive guide from the 1960’s on, now has been shown to present practices that might be detrimental to a painter’s methods. Really, there is at least fifty percent new information on technical issues coming forth every few years. But of course, the basic principles remain the same, at least for those who are wandering down the paths of pursuing some fundamentals in western art that have been with us, and grown over the past, well, maybe eight centuries.

Someone said I should do a website, but then I’d have all manner of people challenging me on my information. And in fact, I can’t back up some things that I’ve learned. Some of the conservation principles I’ve learned in restoring oil paintings comes from my halcyon days in the Bay Area, where I worked in a conservator’s framing shop. Other things I’ve learned on my own, and there’s no basis to back up the stuff that I do know.

As my caller tonight said, You are unusual, in that you’re one of the very few persons who’s really studied the chemistry of painting, as well as studying the aesthetic side. That’s probably the most rewarding compliment I’ve ever received in my life, (seriously, apart from what my mother used to say to me). So maybe I do have something to offer. I’ve looked at various websites of artists and authorities who put forth pretty good information, but I’m reminded again of what one of my gurus at Wyoming said to us, If and when you teach, don’t teach with a clenched fist. By that, he meant, if you teach—give it all. If you’re holding something back, you’re being selfish, and afraid that your students might surpass you. And as my caller tonight said, Over your lifetime, you’ve accumulated all this knowledge.

Hmm, lifetime. Well maybe that’s the wake-up call. At my age, I see few artists reaching for a deeper level in their understanding of their materials or other fundamentals. I wanted to share what I’ve learned, but didn’t know what direction it would take. About this same time, Linda Welsch approached me with the idea of compiling her own book, summarizing and quoting statements I’d made over the years in my correspondence with her, and from her notes she’d taken during my classes. I was especially pleased that Linda was the one to suggest this book; in my mind she is a professional artist who has given serious study in the pursuit of her art.

Chapter 1

The First Letter in 1998

In the late 1980’s, Rog, I, and young daughter Antonia moved to Dannebrog, Nebraska, and I was able to visit Hal’s studio in nearby Grand Island.

The studio was adjacent to the house, a garage converted to accommodate towering canvas storage supports and large canvases. It was white, bright and open. Hal and Mary had a lovely basset hound who would shamble in and out with Hal between the house and studio.

Unfortunately, the Holouns were in the process of moving from this home/studio to Bellevue, which is near Omaha. I was disappointed by this turn of events, because my opportunity to study with Hal left with the moving vans.

After they were settled in Bellevue, Hal occasionally returned to visit. One memorable time, the three of us ate lunch at Sophie’s Greek Restaurant in Cairo, Nebraska. Afterwards, I brought out a couple of my paintings and propped them up against the building for Hal to critique. It was after this visit that he sent the first letter, a real one, mailed through the U.S. Postal Service in 1998:

Dear Linda,

I thought I’d send along some figure/portrait palettes for you to consider. The first is one I like for figures, because it’s a limited palette, and that leaves less time fumbling with colors – there are enough problems (and joys!!) painting the full figure that one doesn’t need complicated colors to deal with.

White (Of course.)

Naples yellow or yellow ochre light

(Rembrandt brand is best for yellow ochre light, and Winsor & Newton best for Naples yellow.)

Yellow ochre, Mars yellow, or raw sienna

Venetian red, or light red. Again, W/N’s best here. Venetian red and light red are very similar in tone. Venetian red’s a more powerful tint, and is a bit more useful because of its strength. It can be used as a glaze to enrich flesh tones.

Indian red. W/N again. A cool red, for painting shadowed areas, and for developing a more crimson tone in flesh. (Tint with white for a cool flesh/violet tone.)

Ivory black

Burnt or raw umber

Optional color—ultramarine blue. (You might want to mix a small bit of yellow ochre into the blue to cut its intensity.)

So, you have two yellows, two reds, two neutrals, and a blue if you wish to enhance shadow tones. But you’ll see how amazingly blue that ivory black will look (tinted with white) against the warm ochres and reds. This palette is excellent too, in that it’s adaptable to any flesh tone, from the palest skin tones to the darkest.

My students will often try to sneak by with using burnt sienna instead of Venetian red. Don’t do it. While burnt sienna can be wonderful for some hair tones, as a flesh color it turns too brownish, and often yields a tainted flesh color in mixtures. Try mixing out a color wheel to see the amazing range this combination will give you.

Remember the cover of Harold Speed’s book? That could easily have been done with this palette or less!

In portrait painting, this is the palette I use. If the previous palette was a solid workhorse selection, this one is more like a half-wild mustang. It has more range in colors, but be careful you don’t get kicked:

Hansa yellow light

(Not chromium yellow light.)

Yellow ochre or Mars yellow

Venetian red

Alizarin crimson

Ivory black

Burnt umber

Cobalt blue

Viridian

White

The key to this palette is intermixing. Mixing the hot Hansa with ochre gives a glowing, earthy yellow that can be altered to the hot or subdued side.

Mixing crimson with Venetian gives the equivalent of an Indian red.

Cobalt blue is a softer blue than ultramarine, and not so violet.

Hansa, crimson and white result in a lively soft pink.

Viridian (mixed with white) gives a nice cool shadowed color that’s sometimes nice in shadowed faces, especially when a strong, indirect light is illuminating the shadowed side of the face.

Viridian, crimson and white, when mixed, results in a lovely gray that can be slanted toward the coolish side, with more viridian, or to the warmish side with more crimson.

Another advantage to this palette is the wider range of colors suitable for glazing: Hansa yellow (a transparent yellow), alizarin crimson, viridian, and cobalt blue. (Ultramarine when glazed in the previous palette yields an electric blue that usually overwhelms the other mixtures. Cobalt blue as a glaze is much softer, not so aggressive).

Again, you should make a color wheel or color chart with these colors, and keep it for reference. Remember, simplicity is always the key to color. Like in music, think of a color composition as a chord, with one note dominant, everything else supporting that note. The main difference is, in color, that one note might pervade other notes in the chord. If that’s confusing, don’t worry about it.

Just remember it.

HD

______

As Hal suggested, I spent the next several years studying color independently. I painted 16 x 20 color charts using one color as the predominant key and mixing it with other colors to see what tones would result. I loved mixing and creating colors and painted smaller charts with two-color combinations and three-color limited palettes.

Some of my color charts were nice enough to frame. And yet, the problem of applying those color combinations in a real painting on canvas was a little more difficult.

Chapter 2

Lecture & Starting Out

Hal had mentioned to Rog that he would be giving a lecture at the Association of Nebraska Art Clubs (ANAC) conference in the spring of 2003. I was not a member of any art club, but jumped at the chance to attend this lecture as it was relatively close to us in central Nebraska.

Hal and I joked that I could be his assistant, and help him carry in his supplies and equipment for the presentation. If I arrived with him and it looked like I was with him, couldn’t I just sit in on the lecture, without being an art club member? That’s what I did. I’m not sure if they are still looking for me or not. These are my notes:

Hal Holoun lecture

June 20th, 2003

Aurora, Nebraska

The new process now: giclee prints of original paintings are being made.

For painting supports, use true untempered ¼" masonite, primed with acrylic gesso, front & back.

Use linen to paint larger paintings.

Prime with rabbit skin glue.

Serious buyers look for the quality in the construction of the canvas.

Start clean/good! Stay that way as you progress.

Find the color range that works for you.

(Your color signature will develop.)

Rembrandt and Velasquez used limited palettes; earth tones with one or two special colors:

A warm black (burnt umber-ultramarine).

A cool black (ultramarine-burnt umber).

Yellow ochre light

Venetian

Glaze with color, let dry.

Glazes— layer after layer. Upwards of thirty to forty glazes were used by Titian.

Use a thin veil of white (mixed with a little medium), to break selected areas or even the entire painting. You will have a softened version of the image showing through the white.

Let it dry before continuing to glaze.

Glaze with medium or varnish-like layer and let dry.

Continue as wanted or needed.

Beginning palette:

Cad red light

Alizarin or (Naphtha red dark)

Cobalt blue

Cad yellow light

(And white of course.)

Rembrandt brand paint is good, Utrecht brand too.

Highly recommends: the book Creative Color for the Oil Painter by Wendon Blake.

Add a little white to bring out mixtures. It also lightens it, cools it down.

Black & white mixes the most boring gray. You can mix a better gray in other ways—van Gogh used Prussian blue and burnt sienna.

Mix black & yellow to get a green.

Use tones; add only minute amounts of pure color.

Something beyond the intellect responds to a good painting.

Write down your mixtures and how you mixed them.

Do not use cad colors and earth colors together (side by side).

Mix Venetian & cad red light to make a royal red.

Yellow ochre & cobalt blue: almost a cerulean results.

Landscapes: match tonal values somewhat, but also be expressive.

Mix together yellow, red & blue for black.

Mix out neutrals from complementary colors to keep the painting in harmony.

Utrecht white: Hal buys 4 quarts at a time and puts it in canning jars.

Winsor & Newton paints - very good.

Rembrandt brand paints - good too.

Old Holland oil paints - the best paints in the world.

Yarka is good (sells a good stretched linen canvas).

Utrecht sells acrylic primed linen

Pure gum spirits of turpentine, citrus based spirits are good too, also Turpenoid.

Hal has ten or twelve variations of mediums he uses, depending on the painting he is doing and the look he wants to achieve.

Remember, glazes should be transparent.

Quinacridone colors & naphthols are being made to replace cad colors.

Good glazing colors – try a yellow, red, blue.

American Artist Magazine – has an article about Hal in the mid 1990’s.

Again, use burnt umber & ultramarine to make a black, you can make it cooler or warmer by the side you emphasize.

Mediums:

Rembrandt used stand oil.

Holoun uses mostly stand oil.

Linseed oil (cold-pressed) or stand oil (which is heated linseed oil); diluted one to one with turpentine and dammar varnish.

Sun-thickened linseed oil (dries fast).

Walnut and safflower are other good oils.

Avoid using rectified oil, it’s not good.

Never use more than 1/3 linseed oil:

1/3 linseed oil

1/3 dammar

1/3 turp

(Not his favorite medium, but it works.)

Another medium he uses:

One part stand oil

One part dammar varnish

Five parts turp (Anywhere from two parts to ten parts.)

One or two drops cobalt drier per oz.

He puts his medium in a plastic squeeze bottle, then adds it to the paint mixture as he’s working.

Use retouch varnish or if the painting is dry, rub some medium over it.

Retouch varnish can be used when the painting is complete, and apply final varnish after 6 months.

Renaissance method: layer of varnish in- between glazes for luminous effect.

Not every artist who works full-time is a professional.

Being professional is a state of mind.

Scottsdale Artists School - a good school.

People may have talent; but they don’t work hard enough.

Plan out your limited palette in advance.

Paint as much as you can every day.

Repeated concentration, over and over, is important. It enables you to be practiced, to be fluent, and to be ready the day it all comes together.

Palette:

Use a glass palette with foam core underneath, and use a paint scraper to clean off.

Placement of colors

Yellow at the top.

Red and blue on the left side.

Mixed secondaries on the right side.

White in the center.

Don’t get locked into routines or formulas, you must be open to possibilities.

Always glaze dark over light with transparent colors.

Transparent colors:

Burnt umber

Raw umber

Raw sienna

Burnt sienna

Ultramarine blue

Viridian

Naphtha & quinacridone colors

Alizarin

Terra rosa

Ivory black (Glaze with black to get a warm tone.)

Glazing for flesh tones:

Begin by glazing or toning the canvas pale yellow ochre. Let dry.

Cover with raw sienna (for example) and wipe out the highlights. Let dry.

Begin glazing process.

Old Masters used pale grey-green tones to begin figure paintings.

Scumble light over dark.

Opaque

Chromium oxide green

Cerulean blue

Cad yellow and cad red

Yellow ochre (Iffy for glazing.)

Cobalt blue

Venetian

Light red

He uses:

painting knife

filbert brushes

round sables (Utrecht) for finishing

#212 round Kolinsky red sable

Conclusion:

He presented examples of his studio paintings. Subject matter: rain, snow and foggy conditions, as he likes to integrate sky & land, blending color tones.

Integration used again in his dawn and dusk paintings.

Get the essence, rearrange elements for good composition.

Forget details; loosen up.

Work from the large shapes downward.

Stop before working down to fussy details.

A painting is made or broken in its early stages.

The major shapes must work together.

Basic design and composition is important.

The demand now is for the fundamentals to be taught again.

______

At the end of this lecture I sat back as the room emptied. I didn’t want it to end. How do I continue this learning process? (We lived in a rural area and personal computers and smart phones were not yet used.) It was at this lecture I met a Holoun student, Jenine Wilhelms, who also stayed after the lecture. She was a farm wife and artist from the Blue Hill, Nebraska area, and asked Hal about going to Scottsdale, Arizona for further art instruction.

On the drive home, I wondered if it would be possible for me to travel somewhere to continue to study art, maybe somewhere closer than Scottsdale, maybe even to Bellevue to study with Hal.

Summer passed, and later that fall Rog and I found ourselves driving to Bellevue. Hal had agreed