Workshops and Events

Roger’s studio workshops take students into an intensive study and focuses them on understanding the general artistic elements of design, color, drawing, edges and paint application. A major focus is placed on design.

“Design, which after all is an abstract matter unrelated to the appearance of reality, it is the most important part of my picture” – Ken Riley

In this classroom situation, the student will learn better how to understand his or her desires and directions and how to apply it to their own work. These classes focus on bringing the student tools to help find themselves in their own painting rather than follow the teacher’s venues.

Roger holds studio workshops as many as two times a year.

For information please call or email Roger.

505 670 5320

roger@rogerwilliamsart.com

Work Shop Video (Las Golondrinas)

Answers always lie within

Painting with a New Mexico master

By Mike Masterson

Posted: September 29, 2013 at 3:24 a.m.

 

Spending time in New Mexico has refreshed a lot of memories for this Ozarks boy. After high school in Albuquerque and entering the University of New Mexico in 1965 (initially as an arts major before switching to journalism classes taught by the late newspaperman and best-selling Western mystery writer Tony Hillerman) I grew intimately comfortable with the boundless vistas, reddish mesas, towering mountains and deep arroyos etched over centuries into the landscape.

Given that background, it didn’t seem unnatural when, thanks to an early birthday gift, I was able to attend a four-day outdoor workshop taught by Roger Williams, one of New Mexico’s premier fine-art oil painters. The accomplished artist already had a full class, but thankfully squeezed in this novice who has spent 42 years painting with words rather than colored oils.

The opportunity arose after decades away from brushes and canvas. I’ve always enjoyed the unique aroma of oil paints. It reminds of those paint-by-number Christmas gifts.

At this stage of life when so many of us seek new interests and challenges, this opportunity was serendipitous. Most reading today will understand. If we’re still breathing, we can still learn, right? So to study painting with someone of Williams’ stature ranks as a bucket-list item, even knowing that whatever I layered on canvas would be appreciated most by those who love me most (and willing to lie to prove it).

 

If you’re not familiar with Williams’ paintings, he has a website with a gallery of his work, which always captures the essence of his subjects, whether it be a mother and child inside a cathedral, a chapel wedding on a snowy night or life in a pueblo. He’s become so recognized and appreciated in New Mexico and the West because he displays the ability to blend reverence and beauty into his transcendent creations more skillfully and effectively than most.

He also becomes a philosopher in explaining the act of painting and its deeper significance to our existence. High above Santa Fe as the group looked out over a turquoise sky and the changing Aspens, forests and layers of blue and purple mountains, Williams explained how “the molecules that form the paint used by artists past and present are the most valuable molecules on the planet.”

Considering what even the smallest paintings created by art’s many masters and other creative spirits through history will fetch today, I’d say Williams is right. Santa Fe is said to be the world’s second most-active art market. Williams’ work has been displayed for years at the long-established Joe Wade Fine Art.

The personable Williams, who has a particularly keen eye for the play of light in his paintings, sees far deeper than the obvious. Not only does he sometimes paint more than one canvas daily, either in his spacious, high-desert home studio on five acres outside town or outdoors “plein air” among the hills and mountains – he also devours books that deal with the mystical aspects of consciousness.

In discussing one’s intentions behind painting on our first morning together, Williams suddenly offered up the words “reactive and creative.” He then explained that someone painting with passion from their heart’s energy will note that the only difference between the two words is the letter “c” has been moved.

“When you ‘c’ things correctly you become creative,” he said.

He went on to say that most who view art (including many who paint) overlook the “sacred geometry” involved in an effective painting. That geometry invariably involves what some know as the Fibonacci principle, also called the “sacred mean.”

That probably sounds odd to readers until they realize he is talking about the familiar mathematical spiral of life shared by galaxies, sea shells, hurricanes, our inner ears and even our DNA. “Picasso used sacred geometry effectively,” he said. “The best painters always do.”

The artist (who bears a vague resemblance to actor Richard Gere) was clad in paint-smeared shirt and a ball cap with his ponytail threaded through the rear. He looked the part that he’s embraced with such obvious affection.

He also told us anyone who paints should be fully present and energized at every point in the process. That means from sketching to applying the lighter coat of under-painting and finishing one’s work with devotion. “The past and future are irrelevant, right?” he said. “So the only gift is now. That’s why they call it your ‘present.'”

As the first day wore on, the class set up tripod easels over a swath of mountainside, sketched their subjects then took brushes in hand for the moment of truth. Williams made sure to keep circulating, spending instructional time and offering help.

His advice followed as surely as the sun passing overhead. “Strive to be the best you can be without fear,” he said. “Every painting is a self-portrait. Who am I with my own art? What am I trying to accomplish? Ultimately you’ll discover the answer is joy.”

At day’s end, I wove my way down the snow-capped Sangre de Cristos with visions of reds and blues spinning (they make purple when mixed by the way) and Williams’ words still ringing. My favorite of his many messages: “We humans always are tempted to look to the outer world for something we already have within ourselves.”