Project Description
Stefan Baumann
Stefan Baumann believes that “Anyone can learn how to paint; all it takes is desire.” He has been an artist and is an oil painting instructor for the past 35 years and has taught the fine art of oil painting to enthusiastic art students in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as in Southern Oregon, and in Northern California. He says that artists who paint from life, which includes still life painting in a studio and plein air painting on location, have a distinct advantage when creating original artwork because they can paint what they see and feel as they apply their paint to a canvas. This personal experience with the subject is not possible when copying another’s work or painting from the limited image of a photograph. Plein air painting utilizes a painting application technique called “alla prima,” or wet on wet, in which the entire painting is completed before the paint dries. An alla prima painting can be completed in one or more sessions, depending on the type of paints used and their respective drying time; but usually, a painting is virtually completed in one session, making it uniquely suited to painting on location.