Catching up

Oh it's been a while since my last post, but it's been for lack of time, not for lack of painting. The last three weeks are probably the most productive period I've had in years!

In brief, I have been engaged in a series of tiny color studies to work out the palette for the landscape of my dad's childhood home. So far I've completed five, and have made several modifications from my original plan in a effort to maintain realistic colors in a very limited palette.

Essentially, I want to boil this down to a value painting as much as possible, but still maintain harmonious color relationships. I'm not a colorist by nature, and since this entire scene has been recomposed in my head, I don't have any color references. So, keeping it simple is my plan.

I also had a very interesting watercolor workshop the first weekend in October with Jeannie McGuire of Pittsburgh. She works mostly with figure drawing, and her work is evocative and striking.

She was recently featured in Watercolor Artist magazine, and that's how I learned about the workshop. I saw the piece in the magazine, liked her work, and went to her website: http://jeanniemcguire.com There I saw her workshop list, and Morgantown, W.Va., was one of her upcoming stops.

Nearly the next day, the Morgantown Art Association (the sponsors) sent a flier to the West Virginia Watercolor Society about the class, and I was quick to sign up. I'll be sure to talk more about Jeannie's workshop in an upcoming post.

Lastly, I've also had to prepare for my beginning watercolor class at Camp Pinnacle this past weekend. I will write more about that experience soon, but, in short, the four ladies in my class worked hard and came away with excellent paintings of which they can be very proud. Thanks to the Hardy County Extension Office for sponsoring the retreat!