Bill Alexander & Magic of Oil Painting

Ian_Adkins

I don't know if anyone here has sought out Bill Alexander's Magic of Oil Painting episodes, or how much success you've had. Alexander Art has some half-hour shows on YouTube, but they seem to have been recorded after Bill went off the air? I actually wonder how many Magic of Oil Painting episodes are still extant. It was a pretty common thing back in the '70s to tape over a program once it had aired, and even when the tape still exists, the tape degrades over time. I sent a note to Alexander Art and KOCE, separately, asking about how many episodes remain, but I never heard back.

I find Bill interesting in opposite ways from how I found Bob interesting. Bill is probably technically more proficient, but of course Bob is more affable and clearer as a teacher. I mean tempermentally, not just the thick Prussian accent. Bill always seems on the verge of mania.

Lilikins

I remember seeing an episode years and years ago when I was a kid and wondered why he was so angry. I think that was just his demeanor, but I found him a bit terrifying as a child.

Ian_Adkins

Lilikins Given his prior service in the Wehrmacht, I cringe a little when he uses angry martial language. "You're the general, you're the commander in chief! Just fire it in! Fire it in, fire, fire!" Whoa, Bill. Benzos, man.

Sunnylady

I recently almost fully switched from watching Bob ( i guess I watched 90% and nothing was interesting for me any longer) to Bill. In the beginning I felt that i need to be quiet and relaxed when I paint like Bob does. Bill simply looked way to angry to me. Trying to keep myself calm it was leading to a lot of frustration, also absence of skills was a big input to the frustration. After I started investigating other painters on youtube I rediscovered Bill, probably almost 10 month after I was painting with Bob. After I gained a bit of experience and getting used to Bill's accent( I am not native English Speaker) I saw episode where Bill was calm and explaining and then I realized that this was his TV personality to motivate and show how much energy and power there is in creation. On Alexander Art there are episodes of 1 hour length as well and I tried the one with Bill and used approach of firing it in and it worked way better than to try to calm myself when I paint. I like that Bill always talks about light and this is what makes his paintings standing out. Yes there are problems with how he explains things and sometimes there is no way to see what he does other than listen and trust your experience with the paints. I think Bill's show was the first and many improvements were happening for the people who came after to make things more clear for the viewers.

I think both of them brought most important thing in many lives around the globe - desire to paint and to be brave even to start, but styles are very different.

Many artists on youtube say: that one can be brilliant artist but a very bad teacher. But my addition to it is: there is no perfect teacher who is good for every student. Thus keep learning from many.

Ian_Adkins

Very much agreed. I had some professors I loved, then some whose guts I hated. Learned something from every one of them, though. If you can't learn from two teachers, then what you're looking for is not a teacher but a guru.

wybnormal

I prefer Alexander's results over Bob but I prefer Bob's calmer teaching 🙂 But Bob glosses ( sorry or the paint pun) over some key things. For example, I picked a Bill class at random and he was explaining how to apply liquid white at the beginning of the show.. It took me many shows of Bob's to get a reference of how to apply it. My first painting suffered because I didn't know it needed to be THINLY applied. To me, they each have significant value to my learning but in different ways.