It was an interesting and busy weekend. Although I did some sewing, it's the painting that took the greater part of my time.
It was teaching time for me on Saturday. The number of students I had been told to expect was uncomfortably high, and since I planned to take the class to an outdoor site for painting, I was concerned about being able to give each student the attention she deserved. Then the weather worried me. It had been quite cold, off-and-on cloudy, rain was possible so there was something else to fret about.
As it turned out only one student showed up, the weather was spectacular, and the trees were dressed in their autumn best. Because there was only one student, I painted also - partly as an example and of course, because I love fall trees. We had only two hours, but my student had a finished work at the end which made it a success! I did not, but I had a great time anyway.
This is the view I had of trees with a wonderful stone wall behind them. I may continue to work on this (I have photos to work from), but I'm not sure. There was another view in the park that I preferred, but Student chose this one
Since I am showing sketches, the one below was an experiment. I had used watercolor pencils before but wasn't a fan. This time, I thought I would combine the pencils with regular watercolor paints. I also used a calendar photo from some I had used with an earlier landscape class (rainy weather so we worked inside from photos). It was a super fast sketch, and it was successful experiment. Now I can see how to use the pencils (building shapes, rocks) with the paints (almost everything). The pencil line can be drawn out with water, the hard line that usually is left becomes definition (left hand side of wonky lighthouse, visible lines in house, and hard edges on some rocks).
"Via Dell'Amore" now has the lantern and street name. Of course, after looking at it in the photo, I realized two things: street "sign" is too straight, open window on the right is not finished. I think I can minimize the problem with the sign, and the window is a quick paint.
Now on to the quilting that has to be completed soon!
You really do great work!
ReplyDeleteFor the past several weeks I have been doing plein air painting with the Park Painters. A friend gave me at pad of 90 lb. Arches water color paper which became strangely liberating. I no longer view the paper as a big investment which frees
ReplyDeleteme to be looser. The pond where we paint has lots of birds, fish, frogs, and turtles. It's a small pond removed from general traffic. I have loved the setting and discovered the beauty of plein air. In February we plan to do an exhibit of our paintings focusing totally on the pond. I think it's become the favorite time of week for me and can't bear that it soon will be too cold to paint outside. Glad that you took your student to paint in the grand outdoors.