Gypsy Spirit by J. Watts, DVD

Jeffrey R. Watts

Gypsy Spirit
~4 hours on DVD





*(Shipping & Handling Costs are not Included in the listed price)






Jeffrey Watts teaches traditional drawing and painting in his Atelier near San Diego, CA; however, he personally chooses to paint in a style reminiscent of the famous Russian artist, Nicolai Fechin. Watch while Jeff demonstrates his nationally recognized expertise in that style while doing this 3/4 head study in the style of a gestural portrait, while fully explaining his actions and thoughts during the process.

The focus of this new program, Gypsy Spirit, lies somewhere between that of his first video, At the Opera, which was a lengthy, full-length portrait, and that of his most recent release, Gesture Portraits. Although Jeff still calls this video a Gesture Portrait, it's finished to a much greater degree than the quicker portrait series done in his previous "Gesture Portrait" video. This gives him the opportunity to discuss the foundation of his approach to a greater extent while applying tiles of color in a thick, gestural, alla prima (wet into wet) method of painting, blending on the face just enough to give it a "painterly" appearance while, at the same time, maintaining the "loose" and abstract look for which he is so well known.

By his description, he uses an "uncontrolled palette" that he describes as an "opened range of colors that include warms & cools of all primaries with supplemental colors added for the purpose of painting speed." He applies these colors using a wide selection of brushes and palette knives, while looking, analyzing, and then taking the appropriate action to:

1. get an accurate drawing,
2. lay in abstract color,
3. create and maintain spatial relationships of lights, darks and middle values,
4. then to finesse the edges to make his "finished" statement.

Jeff spends extra time discussing the importance and order of developing edges, values and shapes first, then adding color to "bring the painting to life", all for the purpose of explaining the general concepts of making a painting look 3-dimensional on a 2-dimensional surface, as he feels that these important concepts are either seldom taught or poorly communicated.

His intention is for the painting to have a "loose," un-rendered look by using a variety of methods and tools, including palette knives. While the previous video, Gesture Portraits, demonstrated similar techniques on quite a few models, this video is limited to one model, thus giving him the extra time to bring the painting to a more "finished" state.

Order now, and take advantage of our pre-publication discount offer of $95 for Jeffrey Watts' new DVD, Gypsy Spirit. The final release price of the video will be $125, so don't miss this opportunity to acquire this important program at this limited-time discount. The length of the video is 4 hours.

-Ralph Liliedahl
Review Copyright 2010 by Ralph Liliedahl, All Rights Reserved. No part of this review may be used or published without the written permission of the author

For Home Use Only

This DVD is offered for individual Home Use Only, and is not authorized for rental by any third party. You should know that anyone offering rental of this video pays NO royalties to the artist, and as a consequence, the artist receives no income from rental sources. Any claim or advertisement to the contrary is patently untrue. Our policy is to sell only one copy per customer, to assure that the artist who has generously shared his/her time with the viewer may receive his or her highly-deserved compensation for the viewing of this important program. If you are an artist, or someone who enjoys art, please give this artist the respect and royalty he or she deserves as a fellow artist by purchasing this program.