Colorado: Days 5 and 6

"Mountain Mist"

Day 5 dawned with rain and cold. We were a brave bunch, venturing higher into the mountains on the muddy road. At least today, no one ended up in the ditch as one of the car drivers did on Thursday. Fortunately she was able to drive out of it. Steven was set up overlooking a pasture with some cows. His work include the cows, but I decided to complete this scene sans cows until I practice strokes needed to create a herd. Jeanne and I were soaked to bone by the time Stephen finished.

The demo

Stephen Quiller's painting

Though some hardy artists remained behind, we went back to the workshop studio. I used Steve's approach to mist with the gouache underpainting. We returned late to "Station 15" as the stretch of Goose Creek is known at about 10,000 foot elevation, so numbered for the ranch fishing lotteries. Two years ago we painted at this station. Today we enjoyed a fish fry done by the chef and his staff.

We finished painting at 3:30,  saving critique for Saturday morning with our final farewell session. That evening we cleaned up and went to Steve and Marta's home where they hosted a lovely buffet. We got to see Steve's studio, which is a dream come true to any artist, sitting over the Rio Grande and just a short distance from his home, which is beautiful and filled with art. 

Day 6 started with a buffet breakfast and then critique. By now, some of our fellow students had left to get an early start on their return home. Jeanne and I had plenty of time as we planned to make our 2.5 hour trip back to Durango and stay overnight before flying home to California. After pats on the back for our final paintings, we packed our supplies and took them to the office for shipping. The day was threatening weather for going over Wolf Pass. We experienced some rain, some thunder and lightening, and snow in the pass. We stopped in sweet Pagosa Springs for lunch at a very popular cafe.

Here a miracle occurred. As we parked a man approached the car and showed us a credit card that was adhered to the trunk of the car. It belonged to a fellow artist who rode with us to Steve and Marta's home. Patty must have set her purse down and the card fell out. The water tension kept it snuggly on the car for over 12 hours and many miles! We got hold of Patty and I promised to send it to her home,

At some point during the whirlwind week I accepted the wrangler's invitation to go on a trail ride. Four of us women participated. Mind you, I had never ridden a horse, in spite of having granddaughters who own horses in Vermont and one is in Equine Management  at UNH. I learned the basics of communicating with the horse and then road up and down hills and through water crossings. I made it back without falling, thanks to a horse who has likely nurtured many novices and could deal with the rider's poor communication skills.

Jeanne and I had such a great time that we decided to do plein air by ourselves on Thursday in the mountains near her home. We also promised ourselves to consider returning to this perfect workshop and ranch in a few years. Twice was not enough!!

Colorado, Days 3 and 4

"Fishing the Rio Grande"
29" x 15" Watercolor

On our third day at the ranch, Steve arranged for the Chris, the ranch hand in charge of fishing, to do some casting at the Rio Grande that runs through the ranch near the entrance. We would make quick sketches and take photos. Rain was forecasted shortly, so we were planning to return to the workshop building.

It was a cold morning and very overcast so not much detail was seen in the distance.  Chris chose a spot where he knew he could catch fish and within seconds, pulled out a large one. We admired the fish and then he was returned to freedom. Chris then moved downstream where Steven wanted him to "pose" backed by gorgeous scenery.  He quickly caught three more fish. Steven demoed how he would capture the moistness of the morning and we returned to our work space. After lunch Steve braved the rain and painted outside the building looking across the narrow value, capturing a scene of an outbuilding with a white roof. He managed to finish the painting with minimum raindrops included. I watched briefly, but was too uncomfortable and returned to my painting.

That evening we carpooled to the town of Creede to visit Steve's gallery and to tour the amazing mural he painted for the local theater. We started getting snow and were told it was about a month early. The next morning we awakened to a beautiful dusting of snow on the valley and some with staying power on the high peaks.

Thursday morning we all bravely lined up behind Allie and headed up the now mushy, muddy ranch road toward the hills in the above photo. Steve had positioned himself to paint the old Miner's cabin. By the time we started our own work, Steve was standing in a puddle of water and mud from the warming temperatures. He showed us how to prime the paper with white gouache on the top portion to achive the misty effect.

Steven's demo painting

Jeanne and I painted a similar scene from a different perspective and it's one I would like to redo, so stay tuned. Tiring of my poor attempt, I turned to the mountains and painted the scene I showed on my first Colorado post. I used Steve's technique of priming with white gouache to create the sky. I was happy to have Steve tell me to stop and soften a few edges and call it done. He liked the mood I captured with little detail.

Colorado, Days1 and 2

"Autumn Gold"
15" x 20" Mixed Media

We arrived at the ranch on Sunday afternoon, enjoyed a chance to meet fellow participants at dinner and an evening introduction. The following morning we began days filled with painting outdoors, delicious meals, and evening sessions in the workshop building. There was little time wasted. Steven began with an introduction to his approach to painting plein air. To familiarize us folks from California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Connecticut, and other states with the landscapes of Colorado, he had us practice creating the tree shapes in the mountains. These were 30 minute sketches at most.

Sketch 1
11" x 8" watercolor

Sketch 2
11" x 8" watercolor

After lunch we queued up behind Steven's very able assistant, daughter Allie, and headed out on the dirt road higher into the mountains. There Steven demoed and then we all tried our hand at creating our first piece. Here is my first plein air piece of the workshop on Monday afternoon.

"Mountain Color"
14" x 18" watercolor

After critique, Steve showed us how he sometimes primes the paper with an acrylic underpainting, this time in Cadmium Yellow. The acrylic will not lift when we paint watercolor over it, and we can easily lift back to the yellow if we want.

Steven Quiller demos painting watercolor over acrylic on Day 2

We then tried our hand at it, and I did the painting at the top of this post. I fought that thing all the way as I selected a more complex scene. The yellow you see is the underpainting. In some cases I lifted back to it. To put in the blue sky, I used gouache and cerulean blue at Steve's suggestion. Here is the scene. As you can see, I was not wedded to every element in the scene.

Mary's view

On Tuesday evenings, the ranch throws a cocktail party for guests, so we all gathered round the fire pit outside the bar and had a great chat. Steve's wife Marta joined us. We were also treated to surry rides by Damon, a cowboy who has worked the ranch for 18 years and is raising his daughters on the ranch.

Riding in the surry with the fringe on the top.
(That tune went through my head during the ride.)

A Colorado Workshop

"Snow and Aspens"
10" x 20" Watercolor

In late September I attended a plein air workshop given by Stephen Quiller, a noted watermedia artist from Creede, Colorado, known as a color specialist who has authored books and DVDs.  The workshop was held at beautiful 4UR Ranch near Stephen's home. I went with an artist friend who had attended this same workshop with me in 2015. Again, we were amazed by the beauty of this ranch in the San Juan Mountains. We were treated to beautiful meals, a lovely workshop space, and several fun events.

The weather in 2015 was consistently sunny warm days with very cold nights. This year we had entirely different weather, ranging from sunny and cool, to rain, to snow. We found this a benefit, allowing us to learn some new techniques. Steven makes use of acrylics, watercolors, and gouache to interpret the landscape in an artistically unique fashion. His approach to color uses complimentary or near complimentary colors to make colors glow. By mixing these colors, an artist can "neutralize" or "grey down" colors. By surrounding pure color with neutralized colors, I can enhance the effects of the pure color. Additionally, Steven uses thick, dark mixtures next to pure color to make it "sing."

Steven  also emphasizes using granulating colors in neutral areas and often starts a painting with neutralized, granulating colors[. These colors do not sink into the sized paper, so it easy to lift areas back to almost pure white, as I did in "Snow and Aspens," to add the golden foliage. In other paintings, many of the white aspen trunks and branches were lifted from the background.  Acrylics make a good underpainting as it will not lift when watercolor is applied over it and one can lift back to the underpainting very easily. 

He also makes use of gouache and casein with his watercolors to achieve certain effects. In the above painting, done on Day 4 after snow had fallen in the night, I used gouache under the background mountains to achieve the swirling fog and obscure mountain tops. The white gouache mixed nicely with the cerulean blue of the sky.

Sometimes Steven uses dry bush techniques, other times he paints wet into wet. He emphasizes how you control the paint application with the ratio of water to paint. When painting into the wet surface, use a dryer brush with lots of pigment. That is how I created the trees in the foreground. As most instructors will tell you don't mess around after applying the paint. "Let it do what it will do" and "It is what it is." Steven uses the landscape for inspiration, but is not a slave to the scene. He told us "listen to the painting." He always approaches each stroke with a designer's eye. He also completes the last 15% of his plein air paintings in the studios so he can "listen to the painting."

The next post will show you how we began the workshop and other works created plein air with very stunning vistas.

Figurative Workshop in Southern Vermont

Even for me, a traveler at heart, this workshop was a bit of a stretch after being gone 5 weeks and home just 9 days. Friend Joan from CT and I always do an art related vacation together. Though she is an oil painter, but she located a watercolor workshop sponsored by the Vermont Watercolor Society, and figured she could learn a lot from Jeannie McGuire who does wonderful non-traditional watercolors. Jeannie likes to let the painting develop as she goes, she will scrub out, paint over, work in lots of pigment, and use opaque paint against more transparent passages. She won the Gold Medal from AWS and has been featured in magazines. Check outt Jeannie McGuire's Art on Facebook.

Thus we traveled to beautiful Landgrove Inn, a traditional old farmhouse expanded to Inn with it's own delicious restaurant. They built a workshop facility and their hallway is lined with works by admired watercolorists like John Salminen and Ted Nuttal who have given workshops here. We were fed three meals a day, and the 10 artists and instructor developed a sense of community for the week.

We started with portrait, moved on to single figures, and finished with multiple figures. "The Singer" is at top was the single figure. I struggled with my first pieces, but pulled this one together. "Really?!"   is from of photo of Bob.
                                           

The multi figure piece features women's soccer.

My Fourth and Final Day of the Gwen Fox Workshop

"Happiness"

13 x 14" Acrylic

 

Actually I began this painting on Thursday and completed it on Friday. This one is Gwen's favorite, which is rather pleasing as she is both an abstract and a floral artist. I did not have much to go on, mostly memory of my garden. I find florals fairly easy to paint and I like their shapes. Too bad that there are so many floral painters that it's difficult to be unique.

 

 

My biggest challenge with acrylics is to keep myself and my workspace clean. I know some of it is poor organization, but I hope to figure it out. You should see Bob's old shirt that I wore when painting. I was ready to throw it away, but Joan insisted I keep it as part of my history is on it. I managed to get my sleeve in the deep Pthalo Blue and put a big blob on the bottom petal. Thank goodness it is acrylic so I could paint over it and that is what led to the "design" of the lower part of the painting.

 

 

My Third Day at the Gwen Fox Workshop

"At Peace"
10" x 12" Acrylic

This piece was actually inspired by a photo of grasses at the University of Vermont with the iconic Camel's Hump mountain in the background. However, it looks totally Southwest to me as I was so influenced by my surroundings in Taos. I like the way I can get some watercolor effects while having the flexibility of adding a different color over the original color. I first painted the mountain in magenta and then went over it with a mixture of magenta and blue, leaving some of the original layer showing through. I also added the greens and gold. The grasses were done with a palette knife, which was very fun and new to me.

Gwen suggested I extend a few grasses above the blue mountain, which I will do when I get at painting again.

My Second Day at the Gwen Fox Workshop

"Taos in Living Color"



 

Gwen said she would be working in acrylic, so I decided to use the medium. I want to get more proficient with them because I want to combine them with collage and do abstracts.

 

Gwen suggested that I paint with acrylic on 300 lb. cold press paper that I first gessoed. I use the three fluid acrylics that Gwen had on the supply list that are quite transparent and make a wide range of colors. I included one tube of Titanium Buff. They were perfect to suggest the typography and colors of Taos.

 

I created a semi-abstract painting depicting  the deep slashing canyon carved by the Rio Grande, the eroded sandstone mountains, the plateaus, and manmade adobe structures.

 



Gwen Fox Workshop in Taos, NM

"Fall at Smith College"
8" x 10" acrylic and watercolor

I just returned from both a college reunion at the University of Vermont and a wonderful art workshop by Gwen Fox in Taos, NM, with art friend Joan. We do an art related vacation every year, so that two East and West Coasters can get together. This was a Master Class with an emphasis on Marketing and refining our art.

I want to work more with acrylic, which I first learned in a couple private lessons from friend/professional artist/teacher, Joyce Barron Leopard. The first day I made several small paintings of the colorful leaves at Smith College in Massachusetts where we met up with granddaughter Jamie. This piece was my favorite of the bunch, combining an underpainting in acrylic leaving some whites, and doing the image in watercolor over the wash.

One of my favorite design elements is shape, and a slide show of our art that Gwen arranged showed two of my collages, one at the beginning and one at the end of my presentation. That was intentional -- Gwen loves my collages which express a strong sense of design. I will apply my expanding knowledge of acrylic in my collage work. Meanwhile, I developed the common theme of shape in the workshop paintings.

Tomorrow I will show you my painting on the following day in which I expressed the characteristics of the Southwest in a semi-abstract acrylic painting.

Monday Morning Drawing Class: Another Plastic Bag

"Plastic Bag and Fruit II"

16" x 14" Pastel

This was my most satisfying pastel to date. I did the whole thing with just one mid-drawing suggestion from instructor Bob Semans. When he did the final critique, he told me that this was my best pastel to date. The challenges for me are making the bag appear translucent, creating the fruit so the viewer can determine which pieces are inside the bag, and pushing my values.

Monday morning drawing class

"Fall Pears"

14" x 12" Pastel

The setup

Here is my Monday morning production. I really liked this still life. The lovely pottery vase was nicely complemented by the leaves and pears. I am always amazed that chalk can make a shiny object. With less than three hours to draw and paint this piece, instructor Bob Semans showed me how to quickly create the impression of leaves with simple strokes of the side of the pastel chalk. I like the texture and diffuse minor elements next to the carefully rendered vase and fruit. Unfortunately, I'm not a great photographer so colors and contrast are a bit off in spite of invoking Photoshop.You can see that our instructor is using a light box these days.

My pastels are generally NuPastel  Prismacolor which are rather hard sticks. The reason I chose them, as many in our class did, was because of price. Pastels can be very expensive. Sennelier can be $6.00 a stick! However, a couple years ago I saw that one of the online art suppliers had a modest set of Rembrandt soft pastels for a very reasonable price, so I bought them. I guess I wasn't experienced enough, because they did not work for me then, and I stored them away.

Monday I grabbed that box along with my NuPastels and mostly used the Rembrandt soft pastels. I found them amazingly easy to work with, which must mean I have developed more skill. Friend and accomplished pastelist, Judith, told me she loves Sennelier soft pastels, and  Dakota Art Pastels had a great deal on a box online. Now, we are still talking serious money, but I decided that this is my birthday present to me and ordered them. I triumph over another year of life on December 3, so let's celebrate!

The Scotsman

 

"The Scotsman"

15" x 16.5" Watercolor

 

 

Just finished the portrait of Bob in his Balmoral hat that goes with his Anderson Clan kilt. Oh yes, I did leave the undershirt, which I am sure early in the morning Bob was not thinking would actually be in the portrait. Somehow the juxtaposition fits his fun personality.

 

 

My early morning photo of Bob

 

I cropped the photo and David Lobenberg, our instructor, really like the shot and the lighting. As we we were taught, I made a Paynes Grey study of the photo. I was rather pleased with the results. The only thing David had to do was help me recapture some of the white fringe of his beard. He did that with a white conte crayon, a wonderful suggestion that I will no doubt use in the future.

 



 

The study

Now it was time to tackle the painting in color. I failed to photograph the important stages, I was so into painting. First I did the "tea" stage, lightly carving out the features in very watery color. I used an orange mixed from Cad Yellow and Permanent Rose, the Rose, some Ultramarine Blue. and Alizarin Crimson, some straight, some mixed. Next I went in with thicker consistencies until I reached a point where I thought I was done. David suggested a light green/yellow as the background, the compliment of the reds. I was overly cautious and the result is a little washed out. Still I was thinking, not bad.

 

Almost done, though not really

 

I had set the painting on my easel and opened my eyes Saturday morning to go, heck no, I'm not so pleased. The colors looked washed out and I had homogenized some of it too much. I didn't have time to work on the piece, though. So finally, Sunday afternoon I hit the paints again. Let's darken that background and get a little more color into the hat. Though the pom pom is bright red, I felt that it would catch the eye too much. Better, but Bob has lot's of Scottish coloring in his complexion.

 

 

Better, but still not done

 

 I bravely went where I had feared to go. If you look at the final piece at the top of this post, you will see I added orange into his cheeks, color into his beard (his grey facial hair still has reds in the mustache and the chin areas). I defined the eye sockets near the nose with more crimson and blue, and put more blue on his right temple. I added those errant hairs to his thick eyebrows. I added a little roundness to his left check.

On Friday, David did a quick final demo and I watched the way he carefully puts down his strokes and does not always blend. He leaves lots of variations and some hard edges. I love his results. Check out his watercolor portraits.

I will save enhancements for my next shot at a portrait.

 

The No Color and Color Workshop

Payne's Grey Study # 2

8" x 6" watercolor

 

This week I am taking "No Color Water Color Portrait Painting - Taking Advantage of Paynes Gray," Sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society (SCVWS).  David Lobenberg is an adjunct professor at Sacramento City College and a wonderful painter of expressive portraits. Here is David doing his demo on Sunday. For three and a half days, we worked just with Payne's Grey to learn value without the distraction of color. David uses unexpected vivid color and the paintings are very "loose" As I found out with Ted Nuttal, "loose" is not the result of flinging paint. David is very deliberate with his strokes and puts much thought into each one. I admire the way he moves the brush around in all directions to achieve variations in his marks.







 

David Lobenberg demo

 

 

A Lobenberg painting

 



Though David, a master at drawing, usually traces his subjects to save time, he wanted us to be able to draw and understand the underlying features of the human face.

 

 

When we did our studies, he had us use photos he supplied -- he uses students and friends as subjects. An important part of the process is understanding the consistency of your paint, which he likens to tea, milk, cream and butter. We would begin by creating the structure of the head with "tea." You are careful to leave the white of the paper and define the shadows. It's a little like Michelangelo's statement "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." He stressed the importance of letting that layers dry, otherwise you end up with a mess.

 

 

Payne's Grey Study

Layer 1 done in "tea"

8" x11" watercolor

 

Next we went in and used the other consistencies of paint to finish the painting. Again, patience to let the paint layers dry is key.

 

 



 

Paynes Grey Study #1

8" x 6" watercolor

 

On the afternoon of Day 4 David had us do a Payne's Grey study of our own photographed subject.  You can, of course, guess that Bob is my subject. Here is the photo I am working from.

 

 

 

David says to photograph your subject outdoors in strong light, but Bob had to squint so much that I didn't like the photo. In the morning, I asked him to throw on a shirt and his Balmoral hat that goes with his kilt and posed him in next to our diningroom sliding doors. I didn't expect him to wear an undershirt, but found it rather charmingly quirky, so I am including it in my portrait. I have now done the tea stage, but I will save the studies and stages to show you when I complete the portrait.

 



Artist Retreat in Gold Country Continued

 

"Morning on Lake Alpine"

14" x 16" Watercolor

 

The view.

 

Our foursome ventured to Angel's Camp looking for acrylics for Jeannie, but alas, the Mercantile did not open until 11 am. Coming from busy Silicon Valley we were constantly stymied by the very limited hours of businesses. Most restaurants closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Those that didn't. closed Wednesday and Thursdays. Most shops open at 11 or noon and close by 5. Now I understand why people have multiple jobs to survive in such beautiful, remote mountains.

 

I then drove us to Lake Alpine at 7303 feet of elevation. It was quiet there with just a few people kayaking, canoeing, or fishing. We settled in to paint the scenery. Mandatory was some shade, so I found a lovely place under the trees with a view across the lake. After a few hours, we enjoyed lunch and then visited Calavaras Big Trees State Park to show the giant Sierra Redwoods to my East Coast friend Joan (not to be confused with the Coastal Redwoods near my home).  She was appropriately in awe.

 

We were too late to attend the joint critique session, so we went straight to dinner. The following morning we painted at a gorgeous property just a few miles from the center of Murphys, Ironstone Winery. There were beautiful grounds, a huge outdoor amphitheater for performances by major entertainers, and a nice tasting room/cafe. We skipped the wine and went straight to painting. I did two pieces -- one a display of flower-filled wine barrels and the other a vineyard view. I framed the florals for the art show.

 

Wednesday afternoon was a wrap-up with an art show at Hovey Winery in town. We set up on the large lawn. We could show three pieces each, one that we brought with us and two from our getaway. I had Bob cut mats, I prepared frames, I picked out one landscape to bring with me, and in the haste of leaving home left all behind. Someone loaned me frames and I bought one. I showed "Morning at Lake Alpine" and these two.



 

My "Ironstone Winery" and "Mike's Barn"

on display at the final art show at

Hovey's Winery

 

Joan brought a lovely oil painting of two lambs.

 

 

Jeannie displayed a gorgeous texture-filled watercolor of the coast.

 

Janice showed a piece from her colorful crab series and a painting of rocks and water done at Ironstone Winery.

 

 

The following morning we wandered the town and had breakfast at the old Murphys Hotel, a place with lots of history since opened in 1856. Jeannie and I were armed with cameras for capturing our final reference photos to use in our home studios. We packed out belongings and hit the road back to San Jose.

Monday Morning Drawing Class: Glass and Reflections

"Reflections"

14" x 12" Pastel

Bob brought a beautiful old bottle in a lovely golden glass. The reflections were muted and transparent  (my picture is not true to the saturation of the original). I enjoyed this challenge.

The second collage painting -- a still life in Derek Gores Workshop

 

"Edgy Wine"

18" x 18"

Collage on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

 

 

Derek Gores demos his approach to painting shoes.

 

Today many people continued to work on their portraits. I had chosen to do mine in black, grey, and white, an easier task than using color. Those of us who had finished got to start our still life. I selected a wine bottle and glass and a color palette that (hopefully) will look good with my new color scheme, earth tones and greyed aqua (looks like sage to me). I have a spot that I would like to hang it in the new kitchen.

 

Adding color to the mix always adds a bit of challenge, especially when I was attempting to find edges within the magazine pages. Finding an edge with two correct colors and values is not easy. I scoured my fashion magazines and Sunset magazine. I now have two questions: Am I done (should I add shadows of the bottle and glass)? and will the blues and greens I chose match my decor. Of course, all artists shun people who buy art based on color palette, but it does matter to me.

 

What a ride -- I will never look at a magazine the same way again. One more day of workshop to go. We are in the groove. Come in, organize our palette of papers and dive in. Derek goes around and helps us along. His goal is that we all succeed. On this one, Derek made some suggestions about variation (use different textures, colors and  for the highlights and edges on the bottle and wine glass). About 12 to 12:30 we take a lunch break. I always go to the gardens of the Rosicrucian Museum. I invite people to join me. Often the instructor will come with us and we have a nice casual lunch together. An hour later we are back at it at until 4.

 

Today Derek took some time to demo his favorite still life, a woman's high heel shoe, and how to draw and apply collage to an eye, a very complex structure. Tomorrow will be a bit shorter day as our take down crew arrives early. Four people will not be with us due to prior commitments, The Georgia artists are headed home tomorrow. Those of us who remain will have critique before we leave. We have had some interim critiques, and this is the grand finale.