Rose Irelan
MASTER ARTIST
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Mentoring Aspiring Artists
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MEDIUM: Oil | Gouache| Figure & Foundation Drawing | Charcoal
SPECIALTY: ✔ Technique ✔ Marketing
I am inspired to portray the wonder and magic of a moment in time that makes my heart beat faster. I am interested in capturing Light and Mood through color, light, shape, and brushwork. My work is an interpretation of an experience, moment, subject, or place. Whether it be landscapes, seascapes, or portraits, I enjoy playing with impressionistic color to capture the sublime and fleeting moments that bring the viewer into that ephemeral moment. Much of my work is inspired by the spiritual and healing powers of God and his creations.
As a true Nature and lover of outdoor adventure, I spend a significant amount of time painting outdoors and working from life; immersed in the elements of raw energy, light, and Nature’s tapestry of complex colors. I feel the best way to study painting is from direct observation that is truthful; not only in the way it looks but the way it feels. Plein air painting and painting from life feeds my endless curiosity and fascination with light and color, and how to use that effectively in my work.
I also work indirectly, on larger studio paintings where I can spend more time developing my ideas and experimenting with various design motifs and color arrangements in a larger format. It is in these works that I can stretch my skills as a designer and colorist. Much of my studio work is sourced from my love of nature, and my life experiences. Most are sourced from my outdoor plein air work. I think of painting as music you can see or a visual poem, as paint to express feelings beyond words…to capture the awe and beauty of my subjects.
Mentorship Group Focus
Whether you have been painting for a while or you are just starting out, diving deep into the Fundamentals of Design and Color is essential in finding your artistic voice. It is so important to visit and review these fundamentals throughout all phases of your entire artistic journey! Much of our problem-solving in our painting practice comes back to the foundations and grasping a better understanding of them.
Rose starts with the Design fundamentals: Composition, Value, and Drawing, taking her mentees through exercises and concepts on how to create a strong composition with the powerful tools of Notions and Thumbnail sketches along with Form Drawing Fundamentals.
Some powerful outcomes of using these Compositional power tools are:
- You will create a composition that works easily in the front end, instead of having to continually correct a composition that does not work.
- You will learn the powerful thumbnail sketching tool that illustrators, designers, and painters have used for centuries.
- You create a value structure to help you plan and mix your colors more easily so that you get in the habit of not reaching for color randomly, but rather you learn how to create colors that work within a value plan, making a powerful painting!
- Creates more innovation and individuality in your paintings. Because you are inventing your composition based on aesthetics by not merely copying something. This way you find a sense of your own inspiration and unique design.
- Creates more joy in the creative process. Because you are using your artistry more mindfully and are more engaged in envisioning what you can paint vs. just hoping it works.
Since painting MUST start with good drawing skills, we will review some practical and useful techniques and principles for form drawing along with how to depict light. Light can not be painted without understanding how various lighting affects form. We will have exercises to make sure each student fully grasps this drawing fundamental before moving on to other subjects. Since this is rarely taught, but ever so important, I want to make sure that students have a good, working understanding of the properties of Form, Light, and Shadow.
Rose’s EXPERTISE
Listed below are this Mentor’s specialty skills. Join this group if you want to grow in these areas.
Specialty: ✔ Technique ✔ Marketing
Technical:
Color and Composition
Studio Setup for Art Production
Teaching How to Self Critique
Technique Demos
Technical:
Composition
Motivation
Oil Painting Techniques
Provide Art Critiques
Marketing:
Website Design
Marketing & Branding
Business:
Selling Online
Art As A Business
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Aspiring
Mentorship MembershipNext session: June 13, 2024
On the 2nd Thursday of every month
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM MDT Thu
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MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST
Rose Irelan is an award-winning artist who loves to portray the wonder of life in her work, currently residing in the beauty of San Diego’s coast, desert and mountains. Her Contemporary Impressionist Style captures nature’s rich and rugged displays of light with her in-depth understanding of color expressed through her energetic brushwork. “I want my paintings to convey the emotion that you experience from the terrain, the sea, and the wind.”
She attended the Columbus College of Art and Design, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Illustration and minoring in Fine Art. After a 20-year career as a graphic designer/ illustrator, Rose found her initial love of painting again and followed her passion to paint full-time in 2002. Rose paints outdoors en plein air and creates larger studio paintings from her experiences and color notations from nature. She also paints portraits and figurative paintings, not limiting what inspires or moves her as an artist.
Having a passion for teaching and giving back to the community, in 2002 she opened her own art school to provide art instruction in painting and drawing to children, teens and adults. Along with teaching at her school, Art Journey, located at her home studio in San Diego, California, https://artjourney.roseirelanart.com/ . Rose also conducts retreat workshops for plein air painting in the States and abroad. She offers One-on-One Art Mentorships and Coaching, is a Mastrius Master Art Mentor, and she also teaches with Winslow Art Center offering online art courses.
Rose’s paintings of the mountains, and seascapes, forest, and flora “en plein air are immersed with the elements of Nature. This direct type of painting contributes to her bold energetic and expressive brushstrokes and her sensitive use of color. Her Studio Paintings are usually painted from her outdoor paintings in order to take more time to further express the raw energy, light, and color that she achieves in her outdoor experiences, on a larger scale with more refinement and time. She also is a portrait and figurative painter, often combining figures with landscapes to tell a visual story. No matter the subject…Rose paints to portray honesty, spirit, and beauty. These qualities of her work serve to convey the feeling of a “moment in time” that transcends pure representation and becomes artistic interpretation.
I think of painting like music you can see. Each nuance and harmony is important and works together.
Years of painting quick hands-on studies from life with still lives and figures and working many years outdoors have given Rose much information and understanding of how color is affected by light and have been instrumental to her sensitive and vibrant use of color and mastery of light that has become a signature of her work. She constantly is striving to learn more about light and color and how to capture luminosity in her work.
Rose paints and travels throughout California, the Southwest, the remote Sonoran Baja Mexico desert, and abroad to discover new terrains and cultures that inspire her. Her work is derived from all types of light and of all parts of the day, including her nocturne paintings were she awakens long before the sun rises to capture the moon set and early sunrise at her Baja residence.
“Every outdoor location and experience feeds my passion to paint and connect more deeply with nature. I feel the best way to paint nature is from direct observation that is truthful; not only in the way it looks but the way it feels. I am a student of nature and light”.