Denise Antaya – Friday Night Guest – March 22, 2024

(Submitted by Elena Opara)

“Her roadmap to success avoids highways, and that’s the way.”

Denise’s landscape oil paintings are everyday themes of nature and observing how light transforms in different scenes. She primarily works with oil on linen or wood. Denise glazes a couple of layers with very little liquin; she also uses Gamsol Mineral Spirits,and 3 or 4 layers of yeso. Small brushes and nail tees to draw. Then for softer transition uses bigger brushes with rounded ends “Go softly blender” brushes. Denise does detailed under painting called “brunaille”. The process starts rendering precisely the composition, values and drawing to be evaluated before the colour is added.

In 2019 Denise won “Landscape Artist of the Year Canada”. Her first show was when she was only 14 years old. At 18 she began a 31 year career in advertising after which she went to the Academy of Realist Art. She paints plein air in the morning and is in her studio in the afternoon, with Daylight Tube and with a sky.

Denise hired a mentor, Roger Dale, who ask her to send him 3 paintings. His evaluation was: you generalize too much and need more colour variation, (she always heard people telling her loosen up), now I would like you to paint the way you like to paint, it was amazing! Do not listen to what people say. Always keep a good record where your paintings are, galleries, studios, home,etc.

You can see her work on instagram; Denise8096. Denise recommends “Deborah Paris 5 minutes tutorials” on YouTube.