Don't Get Caught Up in the Little Things When Painting Oil Street Scenes

The approximately 35 people who came to the Nov. 26 installment of the Art League of Nassau County got a lesson in not getting too caught up in the details when creating an oil painting of a street scene.

Fashion Institute of Technology and Pratt Professor Bart DeCeglie, who has his art in several Citibanks in New York, among other places, began his lesson in painting a street scene with a canvas that had some warm and cool oil colors on it and a grid complete with 16 boxes. He then showed the audience at the Clinton G. Martin Recreation Center a photograph he had taken while walking around in Chinatown of three figures, two of whom were seated. These would be the subjects of the painting he completed within about two and a half hours that night and then auctioned off to a member of the Art League.

Of the standing figure, DeCeglie said that each stance has its own movement to it. "You don't want a standing figure like a soldier," he explained, as he was outlining his background and figures with a pink paint. 

"This is a sketch," he said. "Put it down as quickly as possible."

After the outline of each element was on the canvas, DeCeglie said artists should then fixate on the proportions of the figures and whether they are correct.

To the technical questions that he got from the audience such as what brand of paint and what type of brushes he uses, DeCeglie replied with phrases such as, "It's not about what's right and wrong. It's about what works for you."

Some tips that DeCeglie offered while painting were to work from your main point in the picture upward and to connect the darker colors in your painting with each other. "The shadow is a good way to connect the piece," he said.

DeCeglie's painting style requires not getting bogged down in the details. "I'm possessed with the temptation to draw," he said after having painted most of the figures in, "but then you lose the big shapes."

Williston Park resident Sabine Jean-Bart who has been painting for eight years and attended the meeting said she learned not to get stuck on one area and to unite color throughout the painting.