Sunday, April 27, 2008

Watercolor Workshop


On Friday and Saturday of this week, I stepped out of my box and took a watercolor workshop from a fine artist and fabulous watercolorist, Jann Pollard. The class was held at Filoli in Woodside, California which is one of the finest historical country estates of the 20th century. It was a gorgeous weekend and the gardens were in full bloom. An incredible place to visit.

I've always struggled with watercolors. Part of my problem is that I learned how to use them from an illustrator's perspective, always rendering and noodling everything to death. So taking this class forced me to give up on some of that mindset (no colored pencils to rescue me!!)  and just use color and value and the looseness of the brush. We worked from photographs, and I picked an interior setting because painting a landscape seemed too overwhelming for me. Our palettes were limited and we had to paint a predominately warm or cool painting...whatever was opposite the photograph we were using. So, this was my attempt, which took me about 4 hours....sweating all the way. The hardest part was knowing when to quit....luckily our teacher was hovering close enough to say "Fini!"

3 comments:

Alicia PadrĂ³n said...

Well let me tell you it turned out beautiful Deb!!!
Really beautifully rendered, the lighting is awesome and the complimentary colors work perfectly! :o)

roz said...

Oh you brave soul! I would love to do something like that.This came out beautfully!
Good luck with Surtex. I have a couple of friends that are scrambling to get ready for it too!

Deb said...

Thanks Alicia and Roz for your kind comments. I know you love your watercolors, Alicia, but it is a nailbiter for me :o) I'm working on it though. Have a lot of new directions I'd like to try when I get back from the show at Surtex. You're right, Roz, it's a scramble to get ready for Surtex. Never feel like you have enough.....