Painting Luminous Floral Watercolors on Aquabord workshop at Mendocino Art Center

 

All non-profits have been hard hit by the recession and the Mendocino Art Center is no exception.  In addition to funding problems brought on by the economy the “MAC” has also experienced a lot of turn over in staff in the past 18 months.   So I am very happy to report that the Mendocino Art Center is alive and thriving!  Thanks to a lot of hard work by volunteers from the Mendocino village and surrounding areas, workshops are happening, (4 this week), the buildings are getting refurbished, gardening is getting done, and marketing efforts are going full out.  The result is students and instructors alike are enjoying their time at the “MAC” while learning new things and making new friends.  I feel honored to have been invited to teach a workshop at this fine institution.

My workshop on painting watercolor florals on Aquabord was attended by five hardworking students, here are some photos from the workshop:

Ann with her paintings, the one on the left was painted from live flowers, the one on the right from a photo. 

I was pleased that by the end of the week all of the students were painting from live flowers instead of just depending on photographs as their source.

Hetti with her favorite of the paintings she did, not finished yet but look at the value contrasts she is getting!

Lynn just started putting in a fun purple  background when I took this photo.  Her sunflower has beautiful glowing color, no muddy color here!

And here is Marie with her sunflower, complete with a bee in the center.   She also did a lovely painting of a complicated live bouquet of tropical flowers but since it was not finished we are posting the sunflower painting.

 

Wendy’s tropical painting was created from a live bouquet and her sunflower from a photo, both are stunning.

Aquabord is a very different surface than watercolor paper, and all the ladies worked very hard to unlearn some techniques that work well on paper while learning what works on the Aquabord instead. 

Thanks to the Mendocino Art Center for hosting this workshop and to my students for being so much fun and so receptive to new ideas and new techniques.

Proud Parrot

He’s done.  This is a watercolor on Aquabord that I started as my demo painting during the Loomis Art Loop Open Studio Tour in May.  I finished him, and I think I will use him as the postcard image for the next Loomis Art Loop October 16 & 17, 2010.

I am busy packing to travel to Mendocino to teach a workshop at the Mendocino Art Center titled PAINTING LUMINOUS FLORAL WATERCOLORS ON AQUABORD all next week.  I am looking forward to the cool coastal weather and the ambience of the art center. 

Sunflowers are “funflowers”

Yesterday the Sacramento Bee’s Home and Garden section featured a long and informative article about sunflowers.  Those of you who know me already know that I am an avid flower gardener and one of my favorite flowers to grow and paint are sunflowers.  The article in the Bee taught me a few things I did not know about these fun flowers, check it out.

Every year I teach an afternoon watercolor class on painting sunflowers usually in September.  The classes usually fill up fast and the students always seem to have a great time.  Most go home with a good start on their painting, but since the class is only 4 hours they have to finish the painting on their own, applying what they learned in class.  Sometimes I wonder if they ever finish them, and sometimes I will see the same painting come back to class next year still not finished.  So it is always fun when a student sends me a photo of a sunflower painting that was begun in class (in this case in 2009) and is finally finished.  

I especially love this painting that Marleen Merchant just finished because the flower seems to be blowing in the breeze.  She avoided that awful flagpole stiff stem that I so often see in sunflower paintings.  And, she captured the character of the leaves, great job Marleen!

My next sunflower classes are September 23 at the Sacramento Fine Art Center 1:00 – 5:00pm  fee $45.,  or September 25 at University Art Center, Marconi Avenue store, Sacramento also from 1:00 – 5:00 pm.  fee $45.  Both classes have space available at the moment, call me at 916-652-4624 to enroll.