Robert Johnson Workshop - Carnations in Sugar Bowl

I recently attended Robert Johnson's workshop. It is a great experience. His set ups are spectacular and while I set up my own, he made suggestions including substituting mini pears with the clementines you see in this photo. While I liked the pears (and they would have done just fine in the painting), I agree the oranges gave it a good saturation of color.

Robert made me thicken the paint on the sugar bowl. Despite thinking I had thick paint already, my original attempt to paint the bowl does not compare to what is on there now. I now need to add the blue design.

I try to leave his workshops with at least one completed painting. That did not happen this time. First it took me forever to set up this still life and to get the right light and shadow on the subject. Second, I was completely unprepared and had not purchased the right canvas sizes or linen, so my canvas was too big (why I couldn't finish it). Third, I forgot paint colors at home and didn't have medium. But I did bring my favorite props and at lunch Cheryl Cochran (who painted along side me) and I went to Wegmans for some flowers, fruit and eucalyptus, which I find perfect for almost any set up. Eucalyptus was especially important in this painting since carnations don't have a lot of leaves and I think the painting set up would have looked unbalanced without it.

I found the perfect combo of colors for the cool shadow side of the carnations (cobalt blue and permanent rose). I'm writing it down here because for some reason I can't remember to put in the perm rose. So, here again is another unfinished painting. I'll post my other unfinished painting from the workshop tomorrow.

This class was especially fun because several friends took the class too, including Trisha Adams, Tricia Ratliff, Cheryl (mentioned above) and Dana Thompson. I can't wait for the next one!

Paintings at Gallery 222 in Leesburg until Saturday

I have not posted in so long. Lots of things getting in the way or should I say broken that required replacement - roof, dishwasher. Anyway, that has taken a real bite into my time and desire to paint. A lot of angst in figuring out how to replace these items.

In the meantime I failed to mention that I'm actually showing three paintings at Gallery 222 in Leesburg. I'm showing the "Pink Carnation in Oil Jug," "Clementines and Blue Vase" and "Hot Peppers Study". I think I might display this Carnations painting or Hot Peppers Study at the upcoming Art League show too (after the patron's show), which start at the end of February. It is actually the student's show, but the only thing left of the paintings from class is Hot Peppers, everything else has sold or is on hold.

I do love taking class at the Art League. I usually take Mike Francis's or Kurt Schwarz's class. Both teachers have a dedicated group of fellow artists followers, who are also good friends. Plus they put up with us doing our own thing. Taking class seems to be the only way I can dedicate time to paint. But it is an exhausting week, painting one night and then teaching another. It means two nights of getting home after midnight, then getting up the next day at 6 am. I just had to take a break this term. Now I have to self-motivate. It's near impossible.

Pomergranate - Sold at La Bella Luce Show

Here is my latest painting. It was sold today at La Bella Luce. La Bella Luce is a very cute antique shop that is exhibiting my work until December 7. I painted this painting last week and it was very interesting to paint. I've always wanted to paint a pomegranate and I was shocked to discover how much juice comes out of that fruit. It is a fountain, either that or I got a particularly good specimen. So, I decided to paint the puddles of juice that just seems impossible to come from this very hard, weird, seed-pod thing. I just couldn't stop this thing from dripping all over the place and on me. I looked like I had been slashed!

For my artist friends, pomegranates are like grapes. There are areas, e.g. the seeds, of differing reflected areas that need to be treated as masses and other areas that need to be distinct and treated a individual seeds, with higher valued highlights and low-lights. These individual seeds are also surrounded by very distinct dark shape and hot interiors. These factors make them pop out. There are also strange skin things that run through the interior of the fruit and they cool in color, naples yellow/cerulean blue. So odd!

I want to thank my friends for coming to the opening reception tonight. I have some new plein air items, oil sketches and small works showing - these items are more reasonably priced than my very detaile dgallery paintings--although those are available too. I invite all to come to the show.

More From Trisha Adam's Workshop

Here is another painting I did in Trisha Adam's workshop last weekend. The gerbera daisies painting was actually my first attempt and you can see I didn't keep it loose. I enjoyed keeping the leaves a mass. But, I may have gone too far with the veins and the value variation they create. I stopped finishing the leaves when I realized they were starting to have a uniform level of definition and thus affecting the focal point. I really need to finish the underside of the leaf (the cool colored one), which isn't working.

But notice again the principles Trisha highlighted in her workshop: the red/green and purple/yellow (complimentary colors) composition. The main subject is the full bloom and the other flowers are trying to point to it with the circular motion. Again I hope I achieved a strong value contrast between the flowers and the background/leaves and the high saturation (for the main subject) vs. low saturation for the leaves and background.

Trisha also talked about the notan. Trisha really presented great examples of this concept. A notan is a black and white design of your painting. Instead of having all the middle values you convert them to either white or either black (e.g. you are making decisions as to whether the middle value is more white or more black). The thought being that you should have a pleasing black white value composition (that is what reads from across the room), with not too much white or too much black dominating. I've converted this painting to a notan (well the best I can). Makes you see things in a whole different light. This notan is perhaps my ideal notan. And I like it because the whites creates two nice triangles. However, when I look at the main flower it could also read pretty dark so it is possible that my notan is nothing but black. That would be bad.

Workshop with Trisha Adams

Last weekend I took Trisha Adam's workshop. This was a treat as she doesn't teach often. I love her loose impressionistic style and thought I would learn from the master. It was one of the best workshops I've ever taken. She provided two superb powerpoint presentations, one on composition and one on color. They were so good and provided such a great foundation, I recommend her workshops to any artist. Many principles she discussed I plum forgot or never knew, including the fact that if you use complementary colors as your color design you will generally have a pleasing painting. I really never thought about that before and certainly didn't consciously plan out paintings using this principle, but it's a really good principle. It is certainly something I'm going to think about a lot now. There was also great advice given on how to get your eye to move around the painting and land on your main subject, plus the fact that you should have a main subject (which I forget often).

Anyway, here is one of my samples. Notice the blue and orange color design (Trisha's set up). Really nice color composition. Also you will notice the folds of the fabric are all pointing toward my main subject, which is the blue vase. The value contrast between the vase and the background also help focus the eye. I could go on and on with the great wisdom Trisha imparted.

I would like to finish the vase a bit more as it is too angular for this stage and correct the drawing of the vase. More tomorrow on other samples from the class. I'm off soon to the Expressions Portrait Competition Reception at Art Space.

Sunday Plein Air Painting

Yesterday I went to Georgetown to meet some friends to do a little plein air painting. There was much to do before getting downtown so I didn't arrive until about 4pm. I went to the Potomac Boathouse as that is the only place I knew that was potentially paintable without a lot of traffic. I painted right outside the gates of the club which had a great clearing and view of the Key Bridge. Here is my effort. It is 8 x 10. The size was perfect since the sun disappeared by about 6pm. Surprisingly, it takes 2 hours to only get this far. I think I will glaze a hot orange or cad yellow over the bridge once it is dry, but otherwise this is finished. It was such a blast. The only creepy thing was that there are homeless people living in the woods right behind the boat club. It made me very uneasy when the jogging and biking crowd dimished as the sun set.

Finally Done

This is the finished picture of my friend's nieces. I added the second hands/arms and darkened a few places in the water. I'm in a period now where I'm working on finishing things you have already seen, so I don't have anything really to show. I worked almost two hours on the peonies painting from before and I swear you can't tell I did anything. sigh. I need to paint something new -- I'm bored. I've got to think about what to paint for my upcoming show. I'm thinking that since the show runs mid November through first week of December I would like to paint small paintings that are more affordable. I'm open for ideas!