“Brushstrokes are what really make a painting sing,” says Stacy Barter, who works with juicy paint and bold brushwork. In the following demonstration, she shows you how to use masterly strokes to create gorgeous texture and convincing depth and dimension. in her painting My Grandmother Dreams in Peonies (at bottom; oil, 22x28), winner of the Best in Show $25,000 Award at the 2007-2009 Museum Exhibition and National Museum Tour of Blossom—Art of Flowers.

Scroll down as Barter explains her steps for painting My Grandmother Dreams in Peonies (at top; oil, 22x28)—winner of the Best in Show $25,000 Award at the 2007-2009 Museum Exhibition and National Museum Tour of Blossom, Art of Flowers.




Image 1: "I begin all my paintings with large overall mass-ins, avoiding line drawing so that I can get a true feel of volume and weight and not get caught up in details early on. Once I’m happy with placement, I bring the background in around the area I will be working on."




Image 2: "Then I begin thinking about and establishing my darkest darks and my lightest lights so I have my range of values set. I hone in on the focus right away, because I’ve found that if I get that described and it’s exciting to look at, the rest of the painting needs much less than I would have thought to bring it to a finish."




Image 3: Often my large paintings will flow directly out from the focus area. This also helps me be able to continue working wet into wet as I go. There are always details that need to be added in toward the end, but I don’t hold back on them as I go. These details include highlights, which give me things to be visually excited about and keep it interesting for me, as well as save me work and effort in the end.




Image 4: At this time I establish more of the background and the darks that melt into it, such as the dark metal bucket, in this case.




Image 5: Here I added in the leaves and flowers that fall between the focal zone and the dark background and the bucket. I also corrected the bucket shape and added in the thick highlights on it.




Image 6: This flower close-up shows the brushwork, how the strokes were pulled and pushed to simulate the texture and layering of the petals. See how I described the petals that are curling away from the flower and into the background. By working wet into wet, and knowing how much pressure to use, I can create the impression that they are softly turning. (See the finished painting at the top of the page.)




Image 7: This close-up of the bucket shows the raw canvas left to give texture to the rusted areas on the bucket and the thick paint applied with my palette knife for the highlights and the oxidized area.

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Stacy Barter attended Parsons School of Design in New York City. Her award-winning work has been featured in galleries in San Francisco, Palm Desert and Carmel, California, and Vail, Colorado. She’s represented by Sportsman’s Gallery Ltd./Paderewski Fine Art of Atlanta, Georgia, and Beaver Creek, Colorado; Eisenhauer Gallery of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts; Sherwood’s Gallery in Houston; Art-Vue Gallery in Cocoa, Florida; and Villa Fiorenza in Winter Park, Florida. Learn more at www.stacybarter.com.

Read more about Barter's work in the article “Every Picture Tells a Story,” featured in the November 2008 issue of The Artist’s Magazine.