Stephen Quiller Workshop – Spokane Oct 21-25

I’ve just returned from a week long workshop instructed by Stephen Quiller.  I feel blessed to have had an opportunity to watch Steve paint let alone have him pass on some of the knowledge he has accumulated over 40 years painting water media on paper.  He is a gifted teacher and I enjoyed every minute of the workshop.  I want to document some of the highlights here in my blog beginning with day 1.

We began with color theory – complimentary colors mix to a neutral grey.  It really does matter which particular pigment or brand of paint you use as resulting colors vary greatly.   Steve drove this point home with several demonstrations mixing neutrals to a perfect compliment. 

Palette – has anyone ever seen a rectangular color wheel?  No, I didn’t think so.  The Quiller palette is the shape of – you guessed it – a wheel.  We spent quite a long time Wednesday morning setting up our palettes and after a trip into the store for supplies we were set to paint.  I really enjoyed mixing the colors in this logical palette – SO much easier.

Next, we worked our way through the basics of value and intensity and completed several small studies.  I hope to complete some value/intensity grids to fix this more firmly in my head.  Stephen describes many aspects of his painting in musical terms – completing these charts would be comparable to learning scales on an instrument. 

There are an infinite number of possibilities for value and intensity of color mixing on this 12 color palette.  In the two studies below we explored value and intensity using just 2 colors [perm. green light & manganese violet].  The left study has a full range of value AND intensity.  On the right I used a full range of values [from very light to very dark] but the intensity of the colors is more neutral and therefore more moody.

  

In the photo below Stephen elaborates on choices for using color effectively. 

In the photo below some of the Calgary gang is front row and centre and definitely enjoying themselves.  It was a very enjoyable day.