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The April 2021 FASO competition was judged by Dan Gerhartz, and Thomas’s painting was chosen from over 3,000 entries.
It’s always nice when a graduate of the Virtual Art Academy has a major success. So our heartfelt congratulations to Thomas Ruckstuhl for getting a well-deserved 2nd Place in the BoldBrush Painting Competition, for “Back Home”. Read on to get the story of how he got to this stage from being a complete beginner in oil painting just a few years before, to becoming a professional award-winning painter.
The Background
Thomas’s career was originally as a Professor of Optical Physics at a University in Germany, and a few years ago started oil painting from scratch with the Virtual Art Academy. He never had a live teacher, but instead learned completely online by going systematically through the Virtual Art Academy four-year Apprentice Program curriculum. After just a few years he turned professional painter with his first exhibition, and is now doing going from strength to strength in his paintings.
How he did it
The secret to Thomas’s success is quite simple. He worked hard at acquiring key skills that are critical to great paintings. I remember him doing study after study to master color pair relationships, eventually becoming quite a master at it. He worked systematically through the extensive learning assignments in the Apprentice Program to master the key principles of painting and built up his skills one-by-one.
One of of the problems with a lot of painting instruction is that it relies too much on watching videos, or reading. Those are useful, it is true, but you don’t actually learn much that way. Read this article I wrote on the fundamental problems with art video instruction to learn the underlying reasons why.
The secret to learning is in directed, and focussed, skill based assignments.
It’s not a quick path to success and it will take quite a bit of work―at least a couple of years. You will steadily improve bit by bit. But it will ultimately lead to success.
Other approaches might be fun, but your paintings won’t get much better and you will start to get frustrated with your progress―and you can waste a lot of money in the process by not having a structured approach to your learning.
There is no silver bullet to becoming a good painter, I’m sorry. But there is a way you can achieve success. Thomas has proved that.
Well done Thomas!
Barry
P.S. Here is Thomas Ruckstuhl’s website and story
… and some of his wonderful art work
Invest in his work now before he gets too famous!
P.P.S. Read about another Virtual Art Academy student, Meng Qing Sheng, who has had recent major success with a national exhibition in China.
I started learning oil painting with VAA from scratch. Just one year later my paintings started to sell
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you find it useful. If you would like to get free painting tips by email, please sign up for my free tips newsletter.
If you are interested in a structured approach for learning how to paint, take a look at my online painting classes.
Happy painting!
Barry John Raybould
Virtual Art Academy
What The Students Are Saying
An excellent foundation on so many aspects of painting
When I got word of the course available through Virtual Art Academy, I was very excited for the opportunity to learn what I never knew about painting. VAA has provided me an excellent foundation on so many aspects of painting. The course is organized very logically, provides great examples, diagrams, thorough explanations and worthwhile assignments. I highly recommend this course to anyone with a desire for an in-depth education of art.
Thank you again, Barry, I love this course Jeanne
Read more “An excellent foundation on so many aspects of painting”
A great learning platform
The equivalent of a 4 year art education at a fraction of the cost
Read more “The equivalent of a 4 year art education at a fraction of the cost”
Only online learning program I have ever discovered using a training industry best practice
VAA is the only online learning program I have ever discovered using a training industry best practice of incorporating Knowledge and Skills to support learning a new activity. Every building block (Drawing, Form, Observation, Concept, Notan, Composition, Colour, Brushwork) incorporates a “spiral learning” approach where you are introduced to the Knowledge/Skill at one level and then reintroduced to it again elsewhere in the curriculum. Sure genius.
I’ve attended workshops, read books, and watched YouTube videos — and none of them provide the scaffolded approach to learning the VAA offers. If you are just starting your painting journey, start here. If you are a mid level or advanced painter, start here. There is a sense of community with artists around the globe. You are part of a peer to peer learning process bigger than yourself.
As a result of the VAA, I have been juried into several shows, am represented by a local gallery and have been selling my paintings on a consistent basis. VAA curriculum’s approach will grow your ‘artist’s brush’ and aid you in finding your artistic voice. As your basics improve, your art improves. Henry Hensche said, “There is study and there is performance, and we should not confuse the two, study is done for perceptual development, our performances show us where we are in that development, and we must have both…”. VAA curriculum offers both.
I went through the entire curriculum, did every every exercise, and today review my printed books/exercises on an annual basis to keep myself fresh and ready for my next painting adventure.
Onwards/Sideways,
Jay “jbird” Holobach
https://www.jayholobach.com/
Barry gave me a fishing rod so I can catch my own fish
Read more “Barry gave me a fishing rod so I can catch my own fish”
comprehensive art education
The small steps are easy to do
It is wild to see how much I am learning in this course!
I retired last year, and decided I wanted to spend my time in retirement learning how to oil paint. But having never painted before, I wasn’t even sure what to look for in an online painting course. However, I did some searches for “Best Online Oil Painting Courses,” and found several references to VAA.
I signed up for VAA’s ongoing Apprentice Program last October (2023), and I am incredibly glad I did! As a beginner, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but I didn’t have to: VAA has already mapped it all out for me. It starts out with basic, fundamental stuff, but also teaches me the THINKING that goes in the painting: the composition, my color choices, how to consciously select which darks and lights need to be emphasized, etc.
Bottomline, I am learning how to create paintings that have both visual music and poetry, and it is super fun to see my growth! I cannot recommend this course enough!
Read more “It is wild to see how much I am learning in this course!”
No need to buy expensive art books…. Just do the VAA 4 year course. I still refer to it
Read more “No need to buy expensive art books…. Just do the VAA 4 year course. I still refer to it”
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