Obermeyer Workshop

I spent three wonderful days in Laguna at a workshop with Michael Obermeyer. I did several paintings, each one a new piece of learning for me. This study and the next one were done from Heisler Park. Here I believe the view is to the north. While many of the artists faced south, and therefore had the morning sun in their eyes, I looked this way to be able to capture the morning light without so much glare. I learned that even though I could see this point of land clearly in my mind's eye, I need to lower the values on the distant shapes. The ocean in the foreground was not my focal point, so I left it blurred. Actually, I should have increased the value even if I did not increase the details. I did start to render that rock more carefully, but it was a challenge. The light and the tide changes quickly!

I moved to a new location and faced south. I tried to get the values more accurate on this one, keeping the foreground deeper and fading in the distance. Michael showed me how to populate the hillsides with the rows of houses. It does not show clearly enough, but I also learned to use the color of the reflected sky in the ocean. I know I don't have the balance quite right yet, as it looks like a rather abrupt change. But time is always the challenge.

One fun part of this day, of course, was working with other plein air artists trying to improve our skills. It was a large group of 16 people, so Michael was going as fast as he could to get around to all the different groups and settings. The other artists near me gave really helpful tips and feedback. I think my comments helped them also. It was a very congenial group.

We went to the field across from Michael's studio the next day. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I took more time on this painting. I actually rubbed out whole sections and repainted them as I realized more fully what I wanted to do. How liberating was that! In all of my paintings Michael and others commented with praise on my brush strokes and bold color. So I guess I have some strengths to build on:)!


As I look at these studies, I may spend some extra time on each one and see if I can improve them without losing the freshness of being there en plein aire.

Final Classwork - Figure

I am very excited about going to Laguna to a plein air workshop this weekend. I have a new easel to try out - a birthday present. It feels a bit daunting to pack up everything that I need to paint, as well as everything I need to go away for a three-day weekend.

Our last painting class this week was interesting. It became mostly a discussion of the benefits of meditation. We had a model and were trying to paint a full figure. I really need to take that figure drawing class! Just getting the drawing done was huge for me! And then trying to find paint colors for the different shadows on the skin tone... I was not at all happy with my painting. I finished it up a bit more at home but it's hard to do much without the model. She had awful raccoon eyes. I managed to subdue that a little but the colors are still rough. I did capture the general shape of the figure and the dramatic lighting. It always comes down to having enough time. Although I had the picture up on this blog for awhile, I have removed it. I just don't like looking at it!!

Figure with facepaint

This is my most recent classwork. We were trying for several new techniques: using thick vs thin paint, leaving some areas incomplete to de-emphasize their importance, and drawing with the brush. Although I did not come close to finishing what I was doing, I am happy with certain parts. I feel that I did capture the pose. The shirt and the raised knee seem right even though they are under-worked. I like being able to draw with the brush. That is much more natural for me.

I also was getting the face mapped out pretty well. The heavy facepaint and the crazy spiked hair was the challenge, of course. I needed to fix the white stripe to get the shape of the nose, but I like his eyes and mouth. And this is the expression he had on his face. I would have like to develop that more.

My next class will be figure drawing. That will help a lot with this type of painting. I am really looking forward to it!!

A Portrait

This was our model in our last art class, dramatically lit with green on the right and red on the left. The challenge was to "push" the color while trying to reveal something about the real color of the object underneath. Impossible, which made it kind of liberating!

So the picture above is how I got started. I was pleased that it at least looked somewhat like the guy I was looking at! I didn't get much farther than this in class. I kept working on it once I got home - hard to not have the model still in front of me, but some of the changes were obvious. I softened the planes of the forehead and finally found the shadow side of his nose.

My big accomplishment for the day, besides painting, was to create "wet panel carriers". My homework is still wet as I go to class, and my classwork is wet when I come home. And we have so many sizes for our canvas panels! So off I go to bite the bullet and buy a bunch of carriers at the art store. They had just finished setting out a new shipment of panels, and there were the empty boxes for each size. Hooray!

 I put strips of foamcore on the insides for supports. I found tote bags to fit each size. In the photo I am still looking for those last two sizes, but I did find them.

I am doing my big Homework Review in class this week. I have to bring everything I have done. So it's even more helpful that I will be able to carry all the wet paint to and fro. Here is my most recent homework.

Too much blue background, but the dishes came out okay. I am supposed to have close to 30 completed paintings. I'm almost there. Back to work.

Moving past self-critique

Okay. So you see the painting of white on white, done with a palette knife. I was very unhappy with it when I did it. It seemed like too much moosh, and not enough definition of the shapes and values.  I brought it to my class today and the teacher loved it (pretty much, with some comments). So did the others in the class. Go figure.

We had a great class, so congenial. I am unbelievably fortunate to meet such wonderful people in art school!! I will post my classwork soon when I have time to get it photographed and uploaded.

Painting white objects

Here is the plan for my "white on white" painting. It looked simple enough. I just needed to pay attention to the detail of the values and the reflected colors.

Here is how it ended up. Yuck.

I am going to keep working on this. I actually went back into this painting while it was still wet to fix the ridge on the large jar at the back. That helped a lot. So probably the devil is in the details on this painting. It may not be as far off as it looks.