Friday's Finds

Today's post, the first of a weekly feature, lists stuff that has caught my attention in the last few days. It may be a Web site, book, practical tip, local art news, quote, image or anything else that has recently amused me. So here goes:

No. 1 State parks during the week
Anyone who has been a little anxious about painting outside should check this out. Grab a friend or two and head out to a nearby state park any week day. You will probably have it to yourselves. No worries about curious people looking over your shoulder or concerns about blocking a path with your painting chair. The Beginning Watercolor class met last Monday in a Spring Mill shelterhouse and painted uninterrupted for nearly three hours. McCormick's Creek and Brown County state parks also offer tons of inspiration and short drive times.

No. 2 Art Institute of Chicago's "My Collections" feature on its Web site
I stumbled across this one while looking for examples of John Marin's paintings for my  Nov. 1 class (The topic is brushwork and, in my opinion, Marin is the master of modern watercolor brushwork.) On the Art Institute's Web site, you can create your own cyber collection of art. Go to http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/personalcollections/about and you'll find instructions for browsing the Art Institute of Chicago's extensive holdings and selecting pieces for your own collections. You can even add your own commentary. I entertained myself for several hours on this one -- and actually learned a thing or two without even trying.

No. 3 Free shipping at http://www.danielsmith.com
You don't even have to have a big order. Just enter the promo code WETREATU in the promotional code box in the bottom left of the Order Recap screen. But hurry. The offer expires  Nov. 1 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. BTW: Several watercolor brands are currently discounted in the Winter Sale.

Come back next week for Friday's Finds.

Let's keep this going

"Beginning Watercolor: Give It a Try" continues with four more sessions in November.

Nov. 1: Brushwork. Practice mark making with rounds, flats and other painting utensils.
Nov. 8: Composition. Learn some basics that will improve your pictures.
Nov. 15: Color schemes. Develop color plans to make your paintings expressive.
Nov. 22: Underpainting. Provide a unifying framework for your images.

The class will meet Monday 9:30 a.m. to Noon and costs $75. To register, call Nancy at 812-327-2535.

Spring Mill Paintout

Students in the October session spent their final class at Spring Mill working on leaf paintings. We pretty much had the park to ourselves, and for two and a half hours we worked on painting positive and negative  shapes. We "veined" leaves by impressing

the paper surface with orange sticks and by lifting paint. We mixed colors on the paper and glazed layers of color. We worked wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry. We added burnt sienna to our three primaries (permanent rose, cobalt blue and winsor yellow). It isn't the best fall palette, but we continue to surprise ourselves with the range of colors produced from only four colors.

Last week's barn paintings

Peggy and Lee brought their barn paintings they had started in last week's class. Lee's painting is ready for matting and framing; Peggy plans to put in darker shadows to better define the barn's side. Next week I hope to add Wilma's and Joyce's paintings.


by Peggy Myers



by Lee Collins



Time flies -- when you're having fun!



Lee prepares to transfer his drawing to the watercolor paper.





Joyce and Peggy sketch the barn for their paintings.





















  



I can't believe next Monday is the last session of "Beginning Watercolor: Give It a Try."



Joyce, Lee, Peggy and Wilma have accomplished so much in a short time. And in preparing for the classes, I have learned a lot along the way. (The flat wash prepared as an example for class No. 2 was my best ever!)

Take a look at the work produced in this first two sessions of "Beginning Watercolor."



by Jo Davis



by Joyce Stumpf






by Lee Collins

  Getting the feel of the paint, paper and water

by Peggy Myers

We spent most of the first class discovering the different ways to apply paint to paper, how much water is needed for different effects, the differences between mixing colors on the palette and on the paper. In class, students divided a watercolor sheet into geometric shapes and painted in the sections using various techniques and colors -- all mixed from the triad of permanent rose, cobalt blue and winsor yellow. Their homework was to draw a single object such as a cup, pitcher, vase, etc., and then draw a big loopy line through the painting to create numerous sections. Then, each artist experimented with different ways to apply the paint to the paper.





by Joyce Stumpf



by Peggy Myers



Limiting yourself to one color

by Lee Collins

The second class opened with practicing flat washes, graded washes and dry brush before moving into a demonstration of how values create the illusion of three dimensions. Students did 5-value charts of either permanent rose or cobalt blue.Each artist then examined the black-and-white photocopies of the single object they had selected, matching the light and dark areas to the five values on the chart they had just painted. Their homework was to finish the painting, using only the one-color. Everyone credited the value chart as the key to success. We all agree with whoever said, "Value does all the work; color gets all the credit."



by Jo Davis



 

Painting a picture



Yesterday we ventured into color by first painting a color wheel of the three primaries we've been working with and then starting a barn painting. The color wheel included primary, mixed secondary and mixed neutral colors, so everyone had an idea of how to achieve the various colors in the barn picture. We drew a rough outline of the picture on sketch paper and then used graphite paper to transfer it to watercolor paper. We got the sky and barn started, and I demonstrated how to approach the other parts of the picture.



Come back next week to see the gallery of barns Joyce, Lee, Peggy and Wilma create.