July 13-15 Plein Air Color Intensive.

Debra and me with her pastel

Three days of color study outside where the real color is. We studied color, values, temperatures, mixing and pigments.
We painted in the morning and worked in the studio (air conditioned) in the afternoon.on our color studies.  On the third day we switched to a larger format, painting all day.
We worked all three days on one site.  Under-painting the first day,  applying pastel the second and switching scale the third.    Most of us worked in pastel.  One student did it all in Acrylic.  I've never asked my class to stay with the same subject for 3 days.  It was a great idea.  We were able to go into depth on all aspects of color.

'Waterfall'

'Waterfall' 36"x24" Pastel on Sandpaper

We painted at Crystal Springs today. Although it was predicted to be cloudy the sun shone all afternoon. It was a beautiful day.
Thanks, Celeste, for this photo.

Park

'Park' 18x24. pastel on sandpaper with a pigment dispersion underpainting

Furthering the quest for expressive work
I was forced, by being unprepared, to sit down with this subject. I wouldn't have chosen it. I was in the mood to paint water. (when am I not in the mood to paint water?) I was happy to find that my paintings are not so much empowered by subject choice as they are by what I do with the subject. I didn't even realize how good this was until I got over my frustration. That took a whole 24 hours and many positive comments from viewers.

Deleted Oil practice phase.

I just deleted all the oil and acrilyic experiments. Vanity? Professionalism? I couldn't bear to be represented by all that mediocre work.

2012 Class schedule

My Class Schedule for 2012 is up. I'll be adding times to the color classes when they are set. I have some information about lodging as well. Please let me know if you are interested.

I kept the price low since artists aren't flocking to classes these days. There will be a small additional model's fee for the figure class.

I'm back to pastel

'Light Corridor' 36"by 24" Pastel on sandpaper with a wet pigment underpainting. Plein Air, done this afternoon.

I'm back to pastel. My first love. My explorations in oil and acrylic taught me that I already am where I want to be. Loose. Expressive. Looking forward to a whole new body of work.