Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Painting Demo and Student Work

"Yellow Tulips"  Demo  8x8"  Acrylic  (SOLD)
Here is my painting demo from Day 2 of the workshop. I always time the demos, because the name of the workshop is "how to paint fast, loose and bold", so I have to be aware of living up to the title. It took 23 minutes from start to finish.
Below is a painting from one the so-called "beginner" students. I have included the still life reference so you can see how she interpreted it. Is this painting cool or what? Love the stylization and color translation.





Monday, May 25, 2015

Inspiration

"Blue Cup" Demo  8x10" Acrylic (SOLD)


"Orange Slices" Demo  8x8"  Acrylic (SOLD)


One of the best things about teaching workshops is the mutual sharing. I share what I know and in return my students share their interpretations of what I am teaching.  I am often most inspired by the so-called "beginners" who interpret the assignments and exercises in such fresh and unexpected ways.

I just returned from teaching a 5 day workshop at Greenville Arms, where I had the pleasure of working with a fabulous group of talented, inspiring, inspired artists. I learned at least as much from them as they (hopefully) learned from me.  We had a great time. They teased me about how I don't blog anymore, so I will try to remedy that.

Above are photos of Day 1's Demos:  The goal was to show how to paint quickly using big brushes (2"), demonstrating my process. Each was completed in less than 25 minutes.

On Day 5, we started out the day doing an exercise where we all worked from the same still life.  The intention was to incorporate the fundamentals that we worked on the previous 4 days: simplified values, value to color translations, brushwork, speed. I gave them verbal instructions, step by step, mostly what value to use, not so much what color to use.   I couldn't see what they were painting and many of them couldn't see what I was painting. What a surprise when I turned around and saw their paintings... WOW!! I wanted a group photo with all these amazing paintings in one shot, here it is, below.