August 17, 2009

At the park and down to the river...


Day 3
This day we worked on shape and color. Keeping it simple but working on color temperature.




Day 4
We went down to the river this day and worked on memory and visualization. The first painting was done with our backs to the scene. We had 5 minutes to look at the scene and 15 to paint from memory. With this repeated 3 more times for a total of an hour.
Then we put our painting away and started another of the same scene with a time limit of an hour. This time we got to look at what we were painting. The exercise is meant to help tune out the extra stuff we tend to paint and get down to the basics and creating the essence of the painting without showing every little thing we see. It was a very interesting excercise.
I really do like the simplicity of these paintings even though they aren't very polished. Workshops tend to overload my brain and I don't really produce my best work with all that thinking!
Tomorrow I'll post the final -although I admit I was not feeling the love that day.

6 comments:

Calli said...

Ooo, Deb, sounds like quite the challenge. It's so easy to want to paint each and every detail. I am guilty of that and could learn much more about painting
in this manner.

I also like the simplicity in these paintings! Very serene...

Look forward to your final week's work~
~Calli

Double "D" said...

Hi Deb,

Sounds like a great class. The first one is really good. Great color changes and things come forward and or recede.

I'm going to try the turn your back exercise. Something new may break up the clog in my brain.
Continue enjoying your class and now I will slip back into vacation.

Chuck Dilmore said...

very cool, Deb!
sounds challenging!

i'm not an Artist, but i am in awe.
love zooming in & trying to comprehend
how you do what you do!

beautiful work~
C

Deb Kirkeeide said...

Calli, yes it was a challenge - especially with my memory!
The river paintings do seem very serene, don't they? The funny thing is we were at the canoe rental/launch at the park which was very busy. I've never seen so many people dump their canoes before they even got out into the main part.

Deb Kirkeeide said...

DD - it was really a great workshop, thank you. Hope the exercise works for you. Enjoy the vacation.

Deb Kirkeeide said...

Thanks Chuck. I'm not sure if even I comprehend how I do it. and I have to say I am in awe of how you do what you do!