Stephen Quiller Workshop and Demo

"Utah Vista 1"
Study in Permanent Orange and Ultramarine Blue

"Utah Vista 2"
Study in Permanent Orange and Ultramarine Blue

San Juan Mountains, Colorado
Stephen Quiller demo on painting using 2 complements

Stephen Quiller explaining his 12 color system

The Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society engages many well-known painters. This week I am taking a workshop from Stephen Quiller on watermedia and color. Stephen has written a half dozen books on this topic. One woman came all the way from Germany to take the workshop!

Yesterday the demo was standing room only, and Stephen gave a wonderful demo and slide show. Today he started with the basics, teaching us to use his 12 color system from which you can mix any combination of paints that you want. This morning we did the equivalent of musical scales (a color wheel with all the intermediate neutralized colors going from pure color to grey for each set of complements, a value scale and abstract study, and an intensity scale from white to black using 2 complements and an abstract study.

This afternoon Stephen demoed creating 2 landscape paintings of the same scene, using the same two colors -- permanent orange and ultramarine blue -- to create entirely different moods. The first painting we were told to use a pure hue of the orange and the blue, with varying color intensities (neutrals and semi-neutrals), and a full value range. The second piece we were told to use the same colors, but use all neutrals and semi-neutrals, and a full range of values. He emphasized how in the first painting the neutralized color makes the pure color sing, and in the second painting, the value contrast around the warmer semi-neutral color created a very luminous quality. I used one of my reference photos taken in Utah on my cross-country cycling trip.

I had a pleasant conversation with the artist over the lunches we brought along for the day in the gardens of the Rosicrucian Museum, a magnificent set of buildings with beautiful grounds located across from the workshop venue. I managed to get most of my preparation done for Silicon Valley Open Studios, so I can really enjoy this workshop.