Today’s featured artist is Stefan Nuetzel , a painter (and painting teacher) from Vienna, Austria.
Stefan contacted me a few weeks ago with some very interesting paintings he’d done in Vienna’s Museum of Natural History—he’s even set up an art blog where he posts most of his paintings, and it’s definitely worth a look.
As you might expect, a museum is a fascinating place to paint.
These two ducks for example, are a lovely piece of work. Nuetzel uses the same type of easy, loose brush strokes that I often point out here on EmptyEasel—and they’re perfect for depicting the soft feathers seen above.
Not quite as soft, and even less commonplace, this giant fish head is something you’d only find in a museum.
Nuetzel used cool greens and blues to visually push back the walls, and scattered golden highlights on the head itself to keep it from receding as well.
Of course, one of the keys to painting realistically is using both cold and warm tones to create a space that will allow your subject to stand out. Most likely the museum’s spotlights even helped a little with that.
In addition to painting animals, Nuetzel has also created several paintings of the architecture and interior of the museum.
Here he’s used warms and colds to define the contours of each statue as well as the moldings, banisters, and alcoves.
Nuetzel makes gorgeous use of the light to create a focal point, and framed it all within an arch, which helps pull the viewers eye inward to the center of the paintings.
When he’s not in the museum, Nuetzel also does figurative work and even some plein air paintings in and around Vienna, like this piece, entitled Little Hut.
Just looking at this painting makes me want to see the Austrian countryside in person—I’m sure it’s spectacular in the spring.
To see the rest of Stefan Nuetzel’s plein air paintings, visit www.stefan-nuetzel.com, or browse through more museum artwork at his painting blog.
