Jim Wilcox: When You Can't Paint Out

Review by Johnnie Liliedahl:

"Liliedahl Video Productions spent six days with Jim Wilcox in 2006, filming an on-location study in the Grand Teton National Park, and then in his studio to capture the development of this outstanding study into a large studio work. The professionalism of the artist as an instructor is well-known to those who have to get on wait-lists to be able to study with him.

"Painting From the Outside In" is really two programs in one. First, you see how a highly skilled artist sets up in the open air to capture a scene within a fleeting hour's time. Most painters would attempt only a small study of around 8x10 or 9x12. Wilcox paints an 18x24 for his plein air study......and it is a finished painting in its own right. One wonders how he could improve on it.

The second program is a treasured glimpse into a working artist's studio methods.....watching him use his plein air study as reference for composition and color, yet not making an identical copy. Wilcox makes changes that improve the composition, explaining along the way how and why these decisions are made, and the resulting 30x40 painting is a masterpiece to behold.

"When You Can't Paint Out" is one of the most informative programs we have ever seen, in that Wilcox takes four markedly different photographs of snow scenes and extracts elements from each of them to combine together in a totally imaginary, totally believable landscape of snow and ice......a most beautiful scene of the rising sun illuminating a stand of frost-covered trees. This program is full of technical virtuosity, as well as helpful hints and insight into how a master assembles the needed references for a composition that exists only in his imagination.

The landscape painter cannot find a better resource than these two videos to gain an understanding of how to paint from life in plein air, how to paint from your studies when back in the studio, and how to paint from your imagination using your own photographic references.