Jump into 2014 learning, or improving, a painting skill: Steve's digital workshop DVD, Step by Step Watercolor Success, is now available through Amazon.com.

Whether you are an absolute beginner or an intermediate painter, Steve leads you, step by step, through the watercolor process, discussing tools, methods, mixing colors, creating a reference from which to paint, and more. Drawing upon his successful workshops, Steve leads the viewer to paint Purple Iris on and Lonesome Barn through his unique Sequences Method, in which students build the painting, frame by frame, glazing one color over another.

Recently I received an e-mail from a person wanting to purchase a product from Steve Henderson Fine Art --

"I don't want to give you my credit card number," the client wrote, "because I've never ordered from you before and I don't know you personally."

Fair enough. There are a lot of businesses out there, and one must be wise to ensure that you're working with a real one. To that end, let me answer some questions you may have (I would):

1) First and foremost, we use PayPal as our payment method, and this means that we do NOT see your credit card number, or any sensitive and personal financial information. That's the beauty of PayPal -- as a third party operator, it stores this information and processes the transaction, maintaining your privacy. As a merchant, all we see is your name and mailing address (so that we can mail you the product), and your e-mail address, so that we can contact you.

2) While you are more than welcome to send us a check, and we do accept this method, it's really quicker, faster, and safer to use PayPal.

3) Who are we, anyway? Steve is an independent artist who sells directly through his website, which means that our prices are lower than if you purchased the work through a gallery, because we do not have to tack on the gallery commission charge. For more on this, please read Our Prices on this site. Steve shows and sells his work internationally, as original paintings, licensed open edition prints at retail and online stores, books, and artist DVDs. A former commercial illustrator, Steve has exhibited in numerous prestigious shows, and he has served as a judge and juror in various art exhibitions. You can learn more about Steve in the About the Artist section of the website.

4) Why can you trust us? Integrity, honesty, openness -- we run our business by these words. We have been paying members of Fine Art Studio Online (which provides our website) since 2008, and I, Carolyn, am a columnist for FASO's Fine Art Views. I am also a former writer for  BeliefNet with a blog called Commonsense Christianity.  My blog, This Woman Writes, has been a part of Forum Communication System's areavoices.com since 2011. Steve has been a juror for the Washington State Fair, the Wallowa Valley Festival of the Arts, Valley Art of Clarkston, the Salmon River National Show, and others.

Steve is licensed through Art Licensing, Vermont, one of the leading commercial licensing companies in the world, and published by Galaxy of Graphics.. He works with Wenaha Gallery of Dayton, WA, which sells originals and prints nationwide. He maintains excellent relationships with regional art associations such as The Larson Gallery of Yakima, WA; The Clymer Art Museum of Ellensburg, WA; the Western Art Association of Ellensburg, WA; The Valley Art Guild of Clarkston, WA; The Salmon River Art Guild of Riggins, ID; the Allied Arts Association of Richland, WA; The Wallowa Valley Arts Organization of Joseph, OR; and the Arts Alliance of Sandpoint, ID. We will willingly put you in touch with contact persons at any of these organizations to secure you a testimonial as to the integrity of Steve Henderson Fine Art.

5) We answer each and every website client contact and e-mail we receive, Monday-Friday. If there is a question about your order or a product, we will answer it; if there is an issue, we will solve it; if you want a purchase plan for a larger sale, we will set one up -- interest free. When you contact us, you reach a real person (generally Carolyn) and you are never shuffled off to an overseas calling center and bandied about.

So, this is who we are. Questions? You're always welcome to write [email protected] or use the Contact page on the website.

Steve's Digital Watercolor Workshop -- based upon the Purple Iris original watercolor painting -- nears completion and will be available for sale shortly on the Steve Henderson Fine Art website.

There are a lot of people out there who want to learn to paint, period, or who want to improve what they are already doing, and Steve's first Digital Watercolor Workshop covers the basics, and beyond, step by step in a friendly, easy-to-use format that you can follow along right on your computer or television screen.

After years of doing workshops for private and community organizations, Steve is pulling together people's main challenges and questions into a veritable workshop in a DVD case, and at the conclusion of the tutorial, students will have a Purple Iris of their own -- uniquely theirs -- and additional skill and ability with the watercolor process.

If you subscribe to our newsletter, Start Your Week with Steve, you will be one of the first to learn when the Digital Watercolor Workshop is available.

Wait for it -- but it won't be long.

Steve is putting together a PowerPoint video series of how-to-paint workshops based upon actual workshops that he gives. First on the docket is Purple Iris. While he was painting this piece, Steve took photos every few brush strokes, and he is assembling a painting tutorial that will allow you to follow the process with him, step by step.

At the end of the tutorial, you will not only have a completed painting, you will have spent a considerable amount of time with Steve, learning what materials he uses, what colors of paints, what techniques, and how he chooses the subject matter for a painting piece in the first place. The information you learn will enable you to launch forward into your next painting project.

It's amazing -- the information you would find in a two-day workshop, which can run anywhere from $100 - $300 -- but for much, much less. Think more along the lines of the price of a book but replete with visuals, illustrations, and step-by-step instructions. If you are an amateur, the guides will gently lead you; if you are intermediate and confident to push forward boldly, the information is there, and you may take from it what you wish.

We will post the new tutorials on the website as soon as they are available, and we will alert Steve's Facebook followers and newsletter subscribers as well. If you want to move forward on your art and there is something that you want to learn, contact us at [email protected] with your ideas. We listen to them all.

"Do people still buy fine art in this economy?"

My mother, ever the practical woman who lived through the Depression and successfully raised five kids to adulthood, always has good questions.

The answer is, "yes," but as in everything in this ever-changing, never-got-your-finger-on-it economy, they do it differently.

Ten years ago, when house prices were literally and unsustainably going through the roof, people purchased art, as they purchased many things, as an impulse item. Today's buyer, however -- especially collectors who live real-people lives with mortgages and angst at the gas pump -- looks at the art several times, oftentimes contacting the artist directly via e-mail, phone, or in person to discuss the work itself, as well as the price, payment information, and payment plans, if available.

The result is that, when the collector takes home the painting, he or she feels good about the purchase, because it was made with an eye to the budget. It's actually a better, more sustainable, and less stressful way of treating oneself.

Artists, as well, are finessing their products to the need of the marketplace, many offering fine art, archival prints of their paintings, some for the price of a bottle of good wine or a family evening at the movie theater. The difference is, once the wine is gone or the movie is over, the money is gone; but with the print, the art stays, becoming a part of the buyer's daily life.

At Steve Henderson Fine Art, we are committed to getting real art into the lives and homes of real people, and for this reason we welcome hearing from you who are interested in Steve's work. If you've never contacted an artist before, don't be shy or feel that this is something "real collectors" don't do. Increasingly, collectors across the board are finding that direct contact with the artist, before and after purchasing the work, enhances their appreciation of their collection.

Good questions always deserved to be asked, and they deserve good answers. You can reach us through our Contact Form on the Steve Henderson Fine Art Gallery website.

We also offer a complete line of Signed, Limited Edition Prints, starting at $55, and regularly offer Workshops for those pursuing their painting path.

These are not easy days in which to live -- there is much uncertainty. There is, however, also much beauty in the world around us, and a painting -- be it original or a print -- captures that beauty and allows us to lose ourselves in it, over and over, any time of the day or night.

Some artists make a big deal out of being self taught, but truth of the matter is, all artists are self taught.

The difference between the two is encapsulated in two questions:

Are you learning only from yourself, just from what you can dredge up from “the artist within”?

Or are you learning from other people – teachers, writers, other artists both dead and alive -- magazine resources, workshops, books, the successes of others, the mistakes of others, comments and critiques – basically external sources that you read, analyze, review, try out, and experiment with, internalizing what works and shaping it into that “artist within”?

While art is a talent, it does not grow by itself in a vacuum, and for an artist to reach his or her potential, he needs a grasp of the basics, a grounding in fundamentals, and training.

This makes total sense when we’re talking about an engineer or a mathematician, but for some reason, when we talk art, our right brain supersedes the left to the point that instruction gives way to feelings, skill to emotion, proficiency to passion.

One of the key ways of recognizing whether you need work in an area is to determine if you are compensating for your lack of training in it. Ask yourself:

Do I draw noses this way because I want to, or because I don’t know any other way of doing it?

If the answer is the latter, bring your skill level up so that you can draw a nose the way you want it to look.

Passion, emotion, and feelings – yes these are important. But they are not enough without proficiency, skill, and instruction, and the best artists – who are self-motivated, self-disciplined, and truly self-taught, incorporate all six elements, seamlessly, into their work and their being.

I work with knitters, and a student recently told me,

“I don’t like the way my stuff turns out.”

When I asked her what kind of yarn she used, she replied,

“Oh, I just picked up something cheap. I didn’t want to spend money on something that probably wasn’t going to work out.”

Bad idea.

Whether you’re knitting or painting, you’ll get the best results when you use the best materials.

While a novice, or even an intermediate, does not need the most expensive items in the store (interestingly, many professionals do not shop at the tippy top themselves), they also don’t want the two-quart tubes of student grade paint and cheap, cheap brushes, all slathered onto loosely woven, won’t-stay-stretched, canvas.

If the colors are weak and the brushes imprecise, the results will be disappointing.

The Norwegian Artist, Steve Henderson, discovered the major difference between student and professional grade art supplies in one of his early quarters of teaching, when he recommended a starter watercolor kit to his students while he used the materials from his own studio for his demonstrations.

“I know I’m a beginner,” one student said, “but even though I’m following you step by step, nothing I do looks at all like what you’re doing.”

Steve picked up her brush, dabbed it in her paint, and swept it across his canvas.

“Nothing I do looks like what I’m doing with this paint either,” he said.

From that point on, he recommended his own paint choices and brushes to his students, limiting the colors and brush choices to decrease the cost.

Yes, it costs more. No, you don’t have to overhaul your entire studio at once.

But bit by bit, buy up.



I deliberately entitled this post using a word that I have eliminated from my vocabulary: Should.

Too often we do things not because they are right for our particular situation, or because we are grown ups and can use the words “want to” without sounding like recalcitrant toddlers, but because we have this vague idea that others – who know more than we do – expect certain behavior.

Workshops are great little animals; my own Norwegian Artist, Steve Henderson, regularly teaches them, and his students, depending upon why they are there and how they approach the opportunity, move forward in widely divergent fashions.

Some people are serial workshop takers, collecting the names of their numerous instructors like knitters stash yarn. Others are there for the first time, glancing covertly at everyone else’s brushes and paint tubes and specialized plastic art boxes and convincing themselves that they are the only ones there who know absolutely nothing.

The best students, and the ones who leave most satisfied, are confident enough in themselves to realize that everyone does things differently, but humble enough to recognize that there is much good in trying something new. These students are here, not because they feel they ought to be, but because they want to be – they listen with an open mind, ask pointed questions, absorb the answers given to not only their own questions, but to the questions of others, and use the limited workshop time to its full advantage.

They’re taking the workshop because they like the instructor’s work and want to hear more about how he/she accomplishes it.

Should you take a workshop?

Misleading question.

Do you want to?

One time, when the Norwegian Artist was teaching a beginning watercolor workshop, one of the students looked about and said, "I must be the only true beginner in here. Look at everyone else -- they all have so many paintbrushes and so much paint!"

It's interesting the different conclusions we come to based upon the same observations.

When the Norwegian Artist -- who has one, very expensive watercolor brush that he uses pretty much exclusively -- sees brand new plastic carriers filled with a plethora of lightly used paint tubes and a bouquet of brushes and other tools, he thinks,

"I wonder how much they actually paint versus the time they spend organizing and arranging their materials?"

More than one of the Norwegian Artist's students, and frequently a number of them in the same class, approach him privately and apologize for being the only true beginner in the class, and his response is a variation on the theme:

"It doesn't matter where you're starting from, it matters that you're going someplace."

And interestingly, many of the people who are self-conscious about being the only beginner, once they drop the fear of that (whether or not it is true) wind up learning a tremendous amount and progressing far on their journey as artists, simply because they know that they have much to learn and they're willing to set about doing so.

Because we're all human, we all have our moments of insecurity, but looking around and comparing our situation (which we know quite well) to our impression of other people's situation (about which we know very little) unnecessarily compounds the problem, and indeed, can actually block us from our goal of progressing beyond the present.

Workshops and classes are great opportunities to learn, and if you find one that fits your needs and learning style, go for it with enthusiasm and abandon, unhindered by comparison with the other students in the room. After all, when you're looking about, you're not looking ahead.

I'm not big into New Year's Resolutions.

I know, lots of people say that, but I actually mean it. I don't deliberately make promises -- to myself or others -- that I can't keep.

That being said, there's no reason why we can't pursue improving ourselves -- all through the year -- and if an arbitrary date spurs us into trying to make  positive changes in our lives, then Happy New Year, everyone.

The key thing about successfully making changes, however, is reality, something distinctly missing from our brains after four weeks of too much chocolate, alcohol, drearily depressing office parties and too little exercise, sleep, and time with a good book. Too often, when we set our goals, we set up unrealistic ones -- not because they're too big, but because achieving them is beyond our control.

Like this favorite:

"I'm going to lose ten pounds."

How?

By eating better? By exercising more? Even if you succeed at this, you may or may not lose ten pounds, because what you drop in fat you may gain in muscle. Ultimately, you cannot control whether you lose those ten pounds, but you can control what you do in your plan to get there: you can eat better. You can exercise more. And by doing so, you may lose ten pounds.

So let's put this into the life of the artist, (who may, or may not, incidentally, want to lose ten pounds):

"I'm going to improve my sales this year!"

How?

By advertising more? By participating in more shows? By attending every artist's reception in a 35-mile radius and hobnobbing with the gallery staff (easy on the truffles and cookies, by the way, or you may gain ten pounds)?

These latter three are actions that you can control, and they may or may not result in increased sales, which you ultimately can't control.

I think our fascination with New Year's resolutions arises from a sense of discontent with where we are, and the perception (accurate sometimes, inaccurate others) that our dissatisfaction with our lot stems from some lack, some failure on our part. So, at the end of an old year and the beginning of a next, we list out all the things we want to change so that, by this time next year, we'll be stronger, better, faster, richer.

But improving ourselves is a lifelong process, and the ultimate gain in who we are is the result of deepseated changes at the core of our being: it's not that we're thinner, or more popular, or wealthier, or the possessor of two thousand Facebook followers, it's that we're kinder and more patient, smiling more and frowning less, thanking the person who bags our groceries, offering the benefit of the doubt to the idiot who just cut us off in traffic, listening to a child's loooooooooonnnnnnnng convoluted story of last night's dream when we really want to check our e-mail.

Those slow, deepseated changes -- which arise through little decisions we make as we move through the day -- through time transform us into different, better people who approach our art each day in a different, better way.

The changes may or may not result in better sales and a slimmer physique, but better sales and a slimmer physique, regardless of what we think, do not make us happier people. Being better people, deeper, more genuine people who are solid to the core, is a solid step toward finding what we're looking for.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Have you ever wanted to bring a workshop instructor to his knees?

It's easy, free, and fun -- when you enter the workshop, suspend your beliefs about how things need to be done, and follow the instructor's lead. If he says to put away your small brushes and paint with the giant one only, then do it.

If he says to put away all the blue paint and use only the red, then do it.

If he tells you to run in your skivvies out in the parking lot, then by all means bundle up in your coat and take an early lunch. Enough is enough already.

The point is, you're investing time and money to listen to this person (who could be female as well, I know; I'm just using the generic "he"), and you won't get the most of out the experience unless you consciously decide to not do things the way you always do them, and to try something different, maybe a little strange, possibly way out of your comfort range.

You don't have to continue the instructor's way of doing things once the workshop's done and you're back in your own studio, but just the process of trying a new technique -- or several techniques -- will give you something to take back and chew on.

Believe me, that attitude will knock the instructor senseless.