Elmore County Fair, Grand Prize – Best of Show, Overall Category; First Place – Oil Painting Masters Division.

The Rose

We are also pleased to announce Third Place – Oil Painting Category and a People’s Choice Award at the Idaho State Fair for:

Horizontal Daisies

Nathaniel Royal Skousen was educated by many fine-art teachers, but one who made the greatest impact was Del Parson.  “He asked me find young pretty ladies at the local university and talk them into modeling at Del’s studio. We did this for two weeks. It really made figurative painting with oil paints make sense. Del provided observation – meaning I could paint behind him and actually watch how everything was designed, how colors were mixed, how colors were muted, how shadows were considered. This was the tip of the understanding how this type of art would come together.”

This is one of my first plein air paintings done in Del’s studio.

“Later, I started renting art DVD’s. At a cheap price, I could watch and understand how masters artists paint. It was the greatest leap I made in art progress. I understood values better, I observed squinting to see larger shapes, I also watched how these painters confronted certain problems, then subsequently resolved them. There were so many simple rules that when followed set you up for success much easier than if they were not considered. Like priming a canvas before starting, just to take away the glaring white of new canvas. So simple, so effective. ”

Nathaniel Skousen’s favorite art is figurative painting. Women by a stream reading, girls in a garden chair, or a boy with a lamb.

Skin tones are very difficult to paint, especially with blues and greens from the surrounding reflecting on the warm skin tones. The American and European Impressionists were excellent at this type of art. One of them is John Singer Sargent.

Misses Vickers by John Singer Sargent

“The artist John Singer Sargent fell upon my lap as I looked through an art history book. The painting was ‘The Misses Vickers.’ I sat and stared in awe. Sargents simple style with his color usage really dumbfounded me. I decided that I wanted to study and paint this style of impressionism, although it is possibly the hardest theme to paint — the human form. Mainly the hardest because we, as viewers, can easily tell if the hand or face appear correct or ’something just doesnt look right about that hand.’ We see humans daily; we can easily justify when something looks wrong.”

The modern living artists that I study and admire and stay true to this style of painting are Jeremy Lipking, Morgan Weistling, Jeffrey Watts, Daniel Gerhartz; and Mike Malm, a relatively young and new painter, that was also taught by Del Parson.

I enjoy landscape painting, as well. There have been some living artists instrumental to me developing this talent, namely Scott Christensen. Another is Kevin Macpherson – a master of the small studies.  My favorite non-living painter is Edgar Payne. Observe his paintings on the Sierras in California, especially his rendering of the shadows in the mountains and how he delicately addresses their form.

This was my first plein air painting from Leeds, Utah (August 2001).

Plein air painting is perhaps one of the truest art forms available. It becomes a marriage of artist and elements. The artist observes and makes color notes of the surroundings. When finished these color notes become the standard for creating larger indoor paintings. These color notes are far more accurate, for the artist, than any photography. These small paintings become as vital to that day and location, as to merit greater value than large reproduction paintings. 

I also love religious paintings. When someone approaches me and states that a particular religious painting moved them spiritually, it not only gives me peace, but helps me feel the need for positive visual messages to uphold us while the world is eroding all around.