Mendocino Art Class

kingstoncovestudio
The first day of glass we painted the arch in the afternoon after doing a value study of it in the morning. It was a very very gray day, so there was not a lot of color in the water, not a lot of color in the arch, no color in the sky. So even though the teacher thought this was quite successful I felt it’s a little bland and I may have to work on it a little bit.

The second day we went directly to the site to do some plein air painting. We went to McKercher Park, which is closest to Fort Bragg. On one side is a beautiful pond and on the other side is the ocean, so it’s a great place to park your car and plan our paint. I took this photo of the pond and decided to paint it that morning. I didn’t finish it that morning but came home and finished it later I think it turned out pretty well, it’s small at 9 x 11 inches

In the afternoon, we walked over to the beach area and our teacher gave a demo first and then we could pick where we wanted to paint. I chose an area with some rocks in a nice view out to the sea.
This is another 9 x 11“ painting and I was pleased with the outcome of it. The mountains were not in the background but that side of the painting seemed a little bland so I gave it some mountains. That’s a nice thing about plein air painting you don’t have to paint it is exactly as you see it , but you can paint it as you can imagine it., but you can paint it as you can imagine it.

Classes are always challenging to me as there is always a wide variety of expertise and experience and ability in the same class. This class had a wide range of artists in the class, with a few fairly experienced and most were more of the beginner variety. I always find it interesting how people talk about their art before you see what they can do. I don’t talk much about my art, as I don’t want people to have expectations that I don’t meet. I would rather exceed their expectations and come up with something that is surprisingly artistic versus talk about what I’m doing before i do anything.

The third day it rained so we were in the studio all day. We did a value study of a photo that she gave to us. Each table had a different photo to work with. You could trade, but you didn’t really get to pick what you wanted to do . Mine was a surf scene so I worked on that most of the day with a value study first and the painting in the afternoon. She gave us linen royal paper to paint on as an alternative to a Pamela campus and that was a fun experience.

It was fun painting on a slightly different medium our teacher also gave a demo on using Gouage, which I would like to try as it paints and mixes like oil, but dries quickly. It would be great for travel. You can paint on 300 lb paper, so no canvas or panels to carry!

It was an excellent class, and Ellen Howard is a knowledgeable and interesting teacher!

Mendocino Art Class

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