Report on Two Weeks of Art Class

Having said I would tell you what Sharon said about my two paintings, I'll start first by posting the two together again:

What Sharon typically does is come over as soon as we have our work out and talk to us about what we have done.  She doesn't follow a set script but tries to give us what she thinks we need.  She might ask us if anything is troubling us about what we have produced so far, or tell what she perceives as a problem and why, or simply announce that she thinks we're finished and it's time to move on to something new.  

However, last week, Sharon asked me what I thought was different in my approach to the actual painting in these two.  Not the subject matter but technique.  I said that I thought the peppers were more in the style of my early oils with a heavier application of paint, more attention to detail, and more careful.  On the other hand, the mergansers were more watercolor-ish in approach - slightly more fluid and free and certainly far more experimental with the medium, but that I wasn't satisfied with the water.  She agreed and said the peppers had a gouache-look (gouache is an opaque watercolor) to the paint application, I had lost the paper (the white of paper that shines through watercolor and gives it light), and my "table" background was too dead and flat.  Never one to leave a person gasping in pain, she went on to tell me that the peppers were very well done, and the "wall" background had come out so well I should do the same with the table.  

As for the mergansers, she wants me to add a bit more rock definition (cracks and the purpley color of the rock behind the ducks) to make a connection between the two as being at least from the same geological area.  Then she asked me if the orange blob on the top of the duck rock was duck poop.  I hooted with laughter until I saw she was serious.  So then I explained that it is a lichen/mossy growth on many of the rocks at that lake.  She feels it is too dense and want me to lift it a bit. However, she also said she didn't want me to do any more for a while until I decide what I want to do with the water, the front rock, and yes, the duck poop, too!  

As I may have told you, I didn't get any painting done this past week except for finishing the last fifteen pen and ink scrolls for the bonsai tokonomas.  Most the this week's class time was spent setting up for my next two paintings.  Sharon likes us to work on two at a time so while we are waiting for the paint to dry on one, we can work on the second.  This time I will work on the same composition, but I have a couple of things I want to try so they won't be exactly the same. The first painting is on the left and the second on the right. Even without trying, they are close but not identical.  Part of that has to do with the fact that water will go where it wants to - especially when one is carrying the boards out to the car!  

You can probably tell what the subject matter is without any help from me. 

 Let's see what happens next.