July Romp [oil on board, 6”x8”]

I painted this last week at the Carol Marine workshop in Benalto, Alberta.  This painting took 132 brushstrokes…  I know that because I counted them as I painted it.  This was such an interesting exercise with just two rules:

• count each brush stroke
• change the paint pile for each stroke

We were given no particular time constraint for this exercise but we had approximately 2.5 hours if my memory serves me correctly.  I used pretty much all of that time.  Allowing time for setting up the still life and drawing, I’m guessing I spent 1.5 hours painting.  90 minutes divided by 132 strokes crunches out to just over 40 seconds per stroke.  Usually I paint very quickly so this was quite a different experience for me.  I like this little painting.  I think the deliberateness of the strokes made this set up doable for me.  Highly polished subjects, like this spoon, are difficult to paint.  Of course Carol was coming around regularly to keep me pointed in the right direction and Sharon gave me some valuable tips as well…  It all helps.

I’ll wind up my summary of this workshop tomorrow…  until then, ciao!