First of all - oh my god.
Colleen Howe is AMAZING. Amazing artist, amazing teacher, amazing person.
I was lucky enough to get to facilitate a workshop she was teaching at the
Emerald Art Center these last three days. The workshop was titled, "How to Structure a Successful Painting" but it also pushed me to really try something new -
plein air. While it's something I've always wanted to try, I've always been terrified. How do you choose what to paint? How do you pick this flower over that tree? Colleen somehow had all the answers.
The first day of the workshop was spent learning the basics of design and composition -- something I had a vague idea in but really, when you're painting a face, generally speaking, there's isn't a ton of design to think on. However, when looking to nature, there is so much more to consider -- value, temperature, positioning of objects, so on and so forth. This is also where an artist can truly decide to make changes. As a portrait artist, I can make minor changes -- the color of the subject's shirt, or maybe the direction they're looking... In nature, you can completely relocate entire articles -- a flower that maybe would be in the upper right corner of a piece could be moved down and to the left to give it more presence in the piece. We also got into doing color studies -- another thing I've never really done as an artist before.
The second day we went out to Owens Rose Garden in Eugene. My god, is that place beautiful. Despite the constant noise of the 105 freeway being just feet away, the sheer beauty of the place is astounding. As soon as my camera battery finishes recharging, I will have some photos of the location as well as the work I did out there.
The third day (today) was spent back at the Art Center, thanks to the wonderful Oregon weather this year and the threat of rain (which did rear its ugly head around 12:30.) I was able to get us a number of flowers from TJ's this morning, so we had some subject matter. I chose a gerber daisy. Not my first choice of flower typically, but for some reason, it called out today. And boy oh boy did it. (Again, I'll have photos when the camera is back up and running.)
Also got some photos of the Stormtroopers and Darth Vader that walked in front of the gallery today. No idea....
And again, I have to express what an absolute sweetheart Colleen is. She gave me a 10-piece ultramarine set of
Terry Ludwig pastels. Oh, how amazing those pastels are! I've never had the pleasure of using truly soft pastels (my collection primarily consists of
NuPastels and
Rembrandts). I still love my NuPastels and Rembrandts, but there is absolutely a special place in my heart for these Terry Ludwigs (especially since she gave us all little heart shaped pastels!)
I have also discovered the OMG WANT! of the moment -
A Heilman Pastel Box. Colleen and one of the other students had them.....amazing, beautiful pieces of pastel storage.
Anyway, pictures to come soon. Hopefully tomorrow.
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