Recently Completed 2015 Paintings

Some relatively new work that has been completed. These can all be found on my website as well.

For more info about any of these, feel free to contact me!

More Recent Work

A Match is Dropped, 28 by 38, Oil on canvas

Hand Study 5 by 7 Oil on Panel

Hand Study 2 6 by 8 Oil and Gold Leaf on Panel

The Conservation of Energy, 10 by 12, Oil on Panel

Hold Closed the Jaw 11 by 17 Oil on Canvas

The Jupiter Moon 14 by 14 Oil on Canvas

Lazy Bones 11 by 17 Oil on Canvas

Julie Beck: Recently Completed Work

Recent Completed Works:

This portrait was done with Iliya Mirochnik during his workshop at the Academy of Realist Art Boston. 

This cast painting is my final cast painting at the academy. On to still life paintings!

 Also a recently completed still life:

Fox in the Hen house, 16 by 20, Oil on Panel

More to post soon!

Currently on my easel

These 2 paintings are currently on different easels in mid-progress. Top one is in the middle of first painting on my easel at home, and the bottom one is in the dead coloring stage over at the Academy of Realist Art Boston.

Why I love the Academy of Realist Art Boston

There is an interesting group on Facebook now called the Atelier Movement. Someone recently put up a side by side comparison of what level he was at after 3 years of college, versus 3 months at an atelier. The difference was night and day. I had my own "Before and After" set up to post recently but never went through, wondering if it was worth it to show my really early horrible horrible work.

I think it's worthwhile, because it shows the benefit of what atelier training (like the Academy of Realist Art, Boston) can offer. It may not be for everyone but I struggled for a very long time on my own and I hit a wall in terms of development. I knew I wanted to be a realistic painter, but none of the college classes (even CE classes at RISD) were giving me actual training.

I will continue to preach the gospel of atelier training for those who really want to improve their technical skills. Do with them what you will (many go on to do imaginative, abstract, impressionistic work) but you'll never be disappointed that you learned the in depth technical skills that today's ateliers are teaching.

Behold! The awkwardness of my early years of painting:

It's about time!

Making a website is a giant pain in the ass. There are a lot of options for artists portfolios and I know people who have used them all. Here are the ways I was considering:

1. You can hire someone else to make it for you. (Expensive! You have to rely on another person for updates!)
2. Portfolio sites such as Square Space, 4ormat, Other People's Pixels. (Very reasonable cost, you control everything and can make/add changes yourself but can be limiting depending on what you pay, formats, etc)
3. Create one on a free site like Wordpress.com (Free, you make all changes, but can be limiting in terms of format.)
4. Use a CMS like Wordpress.org on your own hosting (Hosting and domain costs, limited only by your imagination, unlimited content, total control, but also total responsibility)

I opted for number 4 because I already had hosting that I liked and all my DNS junk already worked out (which I don't really understand so I didn't really want to mess with it! it's all a series of tubes!) and I really wanted a responsive (mobile, ipad, etc formats) website. We're in the digital age, after all!

The nice thing about Wordpress is you can buy AMAZING templates and then modify them to any degree if you have any knowledge of basic web code/CSS. I like Theme Forest. Cheap and reliable. Also, it's EASY. Seriously. It's easy to use if you have a basic knowledge of websites.

It took me about 48 hours to go from a basic html hand coded website, and turn into a responsive, mobile ready, slick and clean looking website with the ability to sort items by keyword (such as drawing, animals, portrait, still life etc.) I can also add videos I have hosted on Vimeo or YouTube, stream pictures from my Flickr and embed all my social media. I am very, very happy.

Check it out and let me know if you have questions or feedback on the site (or if you find any mis-spellings on my website!)

NEW WEBSITE!

Painting in Progress: Small study 4

These are the stages I've been using for the recent quick painting studies. First, the drawing stage. Once the drawing is complete enough, I transfer to a canvas and then place in the Dry Brush stage.... this is when I look at values and general shapes of light and dark.

Dry Brush Stage

I've had 2 days of working on color for this. I feel like it's taking longer than I should, but I'm pretty sure being distracted by the internets didn't help.

2 Days of painting color