Workshop in the fall

In a few short weeks I'll be teaching a workshop in Nashville. Looking forward to meeting all the students and exploring a part of the country I've never been to before!  The class has been full for a long time, so I recently agreed to hold a second workshop later in the year, This will be up in the mid-west in Michigan. Scheduled for November 11th-13th, the 3 day workshop will be held at Crooked Tree Art Center, 322 Sixth St,  Traverse City, Michigan. Contact the Crooked Tree Art Center to have your name added to the list. Visit this web link www.crookedtree.org, for more information on this workshop, or tel. 231-941-9488.

Hopefully see you there? The classes are a lot of fun;-  I try to get lots of simple and fun ideas across, teaching techniques to loosen up and break free from conventional styles and old habits. Encouraging simple methods to create stronger compositions, and push student's color development and understanding. During the workshops, I will teach many aspects to painting, with a particular focus on color, simplifying composition, and the importance and power of dynamic ‘under painting’.

A smattering of photos from a few other workshops...

For those of you not afraid of color!

 Sunflowers with limes and pottery wine jug
36X24                     Acrylic on wood

 Here's a painting I've had in my studio for a few years, I decided to do some reworks and redesigns on it. I like were it ended up...

 The painting before changes.

Here's the painting, before I made the changes. I was always bothered by the expanse of wood on the table surface. The logical decision was to bring in a table cloth, and use a design within the cloth to draw your eye from the flowers down onto the table.

I also felt that overall the painting would be much improved from a balance/composition point of view with addition of a chair in the background. This then led to some other color changes. Finally a little adjustment to the flowers and the removal of the stopper on the wine jug.  Overall I'm much happier with these alterations, it really brought the painting together. The painting may be colorful, but it has a bold impact and power to it.

 Detail

...And Finally, here's a close up. I recently bought a new camera, it's able to get stunning detail, this image doesn't even begin to show the fidelity I can now capture.