May 8 - Back in Georgia, New Boot Camp Coming!

One of the demonstrations I did for the Florida CBCer's was this 6 x 8 oil of evening light, Florida Style. It starts with bland colors and some mid and low values, yet progressed rather quickly to the image you see below. It was quickly purchased by Peggy in the workshop and she says she'll be enjoying it in her studio. I enjoyed the juicy thick paint!

And what fun! The Florida Workshop finished up on Friday evening with Ocala's Art Walk, and afterward I settled in with two good friends, a bottle of wine and lots of good art conversations.

This morning I left and drove up here to North Georgia, where I was again greeted by two good friends, and we settled in for a good dinner and grand conversation before turning in for the night. I love the connections artists have. It is truly special.

One more photo from Florida before close down the computer--this one from the memory of Silver River, and the headwaters flowing around Jackie in her kayak, before we headed back downstream. You can see the sun leaving the tops of the trees here. It was dark before we regained the launch area, yet this was truly a moment in paradise.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

May 7 - Serious second pass on the 12 x 16 oil

I've spent a good amount of time working on this painting to get it to this point (far from finished at this point). Still here in Florida, and today was the last day of the wonderful first-timers Color Boot Camp. Details of the journey as viewed by one of the attendees Maggie can be seen here. (Thanks, galfriend!)

I've been putting details in the grasses of the pastures and talking up composition to the Boot Campers. I will miss their pleasure at learning the beginning steps with the Color System, and hope to see them again in Florida next year as "Repeat Offenders". Tomorrow morning I drive up north to Georgia and return to the Farm for the second week-long Color Boot Camp for newbies. I'm not tired at all!

Lynn Wade came by the Art Walk event in the downtown area, including a visit to Voilart Gallery, and I had a friend take this image of Lynn, Shraron Crute and myself with Sparky. Both Lynn and Sharon are great equine artists and I do hope you made some time to see Lynn's paintings: www.lynnwade.com and Sharon's web site.
Sharon is the co-owner of the gallery with Jackie, who put up with me. Kathie Camara organized the event and for all that, I'm eternally grateful! Thanks so much for a wonderful time!

My hair's gone all curly because of the humidity. I was born with curly hair, yet it went straight when I moved to California years ago. LOVE having it back! Can you say, "POOF?"

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

May 6 - Silver River, Alligators and Evening Light

OK, gang. After the workshop today, I finally got to do something I've wanted to do for ages... kayaking on a river, and wow, did I get my wish! Here I am on the Silver River in Florida outside Ocala, kayaking into the evening and heading for the headwaters of this massive aquifer. Clear, clear water! I'm with Jackie Shindahette, my hostess, on her second kayak, and our intent was to go for a few hours. We left at 4:30, and didn't get back to the launch until 9 p.m., well after dark--not smart, but who knew? The springs that spew out 0ver 550 million gallons of fresh water per day to create this river are three miles upstream, and we thought that would be a nice trip. (Remember, UP stream.) But try three miles of kayak paddling without being in condition to paddle. And we had to paddle back, because we lost the daylight about two miles out from our launch location. Tomorrow I'm going to be seriously immobile, methinks....

Here's one of the alligators who greeted us. When Jackie was distracted, I poked one with my paddle and was rewarded with a spray of "slough" junk, all over me, over the the kayak and Sparky as the 'gator took off, flipping his tail. Sure stunk. He was formidable, but I just had to go "poke". (I've done the same in my past with a skunk. Some people never learn.)
Today I painted two 6 x 8 skies, one sunset and one backlit for the Floridian workshop new recruits. I'll share them with you tomorrow, (if I can lift my arms).

What a great day, which just goes to show you that any life of excitement is just a few short decisions away! Now off to a much-deserved glass of wine and sleep.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

May 5 - Springtime Morning Beginning

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I have had such a wonderful time today watching and teaching the Color Boot Camp students who were painting all day. I've worked on this 12 x 16 morning light landscape in oils and this is the first pass. I started it up in Georgia, and have brought it to a more finished state, which I'll share with you tomorrow.

You can follow one of the attendee's blogs on the workshop here, which will give you one participant's perspective of what goes on--far more than I can share with you in these short notes. I hope you enjoy it!

Tomorrow I'm going kayaking on the Silver River--where the water is so clear that the kayaks seem to float on air. I'm looking forward to it!

Today, though, after class, I drove down to Gypsy Gold and visited my artist friend Lynn Wade, and took this image of Latcho Drom, the top stallion in the country. Even in the rain, he was magnificent! (By the way, Lynn kindly gave me a print from one of her lovely pastels of this horse, a portion of which is the opening image on her web site!)

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

May 4 - Misty Light Demonstration in Florida

At the Florida Boot Camp and ending the first day, I thought I would share with you the misty light painting I whipped up for their first demonstration. They are working with the Cool Box, and learning to really MIX color. I "imagineered" this Florida water landscape without seeing any of it. I need to get out more!

The painting still needs tweaking, but the idea of overcast light is conveyed, and their examples were really well done! Today they are working on Morning Light and Moonlight paintings.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

May 3 - Finished the acrylic horse

First day of the Florida Color Boot Camp here in Ocala, and what a great group of artists and students! A wonderful facility and I'm staying with one of the organizers. This evening we spent it with wine glasses in their swimming pool!

This 12 x 12 acrylic has had the final "punch" put in the color to fine tune the relationships in morning light, to bring the viewer into the image, and to tell the story.

My story for this painting is in the people who do the hard work of keeping these equine athletes ready and healthy for performing. The title of this one is "It's not about the horse". I hope you like it.

Here's an image of the facility at VoiART in downtown Ocala. Yes, we have chocolate!!


You can see my entire blog HERE.

My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.

Color System information can be found HERE.

If you need to email me directly, please click here.

May 2 - The Acrylic in the Workshop

Here's the next stage of development of the morning light wash up. I'm really enjoying the traditional acrylics again, even though I love the workability of the Golden Opens and of course my oils. I'll be returning to them this week and next, as well.

Those of you familiar with the Color System can see the cools in the distance (over 300' away) and the warms in the sunlit areas of the living things in the painting at this point. What's fun is to put the "sky shine" on the shadowed sides of the figure and horse, as well as in the wet ground. I moved the bucket to the left side for design reasons.

The advanced students in the CBC (Color Boot Camp) received a snootful of design challenges this week past. They not only dealt with the time of day, and the value plan, but also had to consider using elements and principles of design to create dynamic compositions and paths for the viewer's eye to follow. Lots of complaining, but the end results were awesome. And everyone did two or more compete paintings each day.
Check these out!

You can see my entire blog HERE.

My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.

Color System information can be found HERE.

If you need to email me directly, please click here.