Well, for the first time ever, Janet and Lauren got together for a big art event - which I hope we get to do more and more! Janet flew up to Vermont and we spent a week learning plein air watercolor painting with Joel Popadics. This was actually the week of August 8-12, but it was way too busy to write at that point!
This is a photo of us on Day 1 at Shelburne Museum (that's Fran in the orange pants to the left of Janet and me.) This photo was taken by another painter - Elaine Hranich! We loved the week - which got progressively hotter as the week went on!
On day 1, we went to Shelburne Museum - and were able to get started on a building or landscape in this beautiful scenic location. Joel gave us a very cool device he made with two paint sticks and a screw that helped you find the angles in buildings and then set it onto our paper to replicate. Also, a view finder so that you can paint without taking it all in at the same time. Loved both of these. He taught us how to use the stick to figure out dimensions of the building easily and quickly by figuring out the height of the building, and then using that measurement with your thumb, how many widths are they - for my building it was like four widths to one length. We all decided that these tips alone made the week worthwhile!
Shelburne Museum loved having all these plein air artists on the grounds. They took this photo of us while we were there.
This was the scene I decided on for my painting (on right).
My first rendition had turned out pretty good, until I started making the tree and shadow over take the whole building. I totally ended up messing it up. So I think it might have been the next day when we talked about the Magic Eraser (great product) and how to erase the watercolor if you want to try again. This photo shows that I did just that during that week. Then, a week or more later, I went in and the final product is the photo on the right. So - you see, we learned a lot! I will see if Janet can do a post about Day 2 - which was on the top of Mt Philo in Charlotte, VT!
- Lauren