Zhaoming Wu Workshop

Today was my first day at Zhaoming Wu's workshop hosted by FCA Calgary. Zhaoming painted for the morning and then coached us throughout the afternoon. It was fun but exhausting ;). I had a great seat for his morning demo and he is masterful and magical to watch. Makes it look SO easy. NOT. Here's the beginning of my painting from this afternoon's pose. I concentrated on the early stages and will probably finish up later from my reference photos, although they make a poor substitute for a live model!

 

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Home Time (6"x6", oil)

Just fun little sketch done on an overcast, gloomy spring day recently. I had fun starting this off completely abstract and then found this red booted person. I'm really looking forward to studying under Zhaoming Wu May 25-30 in Calgary. He is an amazing artist and a very experienced teacher - it should be a great week! Click on his name above to look at his work.

Happy Friday!

 

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Floral sketch, watercolour WIP

My mom and dad sent me a beautiful tulip bouquet for my birthday. They were mostly ruffled pink tulip variety and I took some photos of them at their prime to use as painting reference. What caught my attention for this watercolour sketch was the purple spotted freesia. Anyhow, here's a pic of my work in progress so far.

Happy Monday :)

 

 

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By Any Other Name (oil on canvas, 6"x6")

Funny story about this little painting: As usual, I handed over my iPad and asked Ron what he thought about this painting. He looked hard and long and looked confused. I laughed and asked him what was confusing and he says "what is it?" Wow! Is it just me or does this look like a rose? Of course once I spelled it out he could see it but it kind of made me wonder, haha. Still, I like it. Happy Friday!

 

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Hakone Fall (WIP, oil, 16x20)

I reoiled this painting from March and attempted to salvage it, or, if that's not doable, to at least learn something from it. Some artists say they struggle with yellows, others greens. Sure, I've had my moments with those colors but RED objects in a landscape just baffle me. I feel that i need to deepen and cool the values of the bottoms of the leaf clumps. What, pray tell, am I doing wrong? Any suggestions most welcome. I love autumn and just have to sort this out. In any case, I do like it better now than I did on my first post March 1st. I will have to adjust the shadows on the pathway eventuallyand, apparently, further dull the colors of the background areas behind the trees. Wish me luck!

This is what it looked like March 1st:

 

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I Believe In Summer (16x20, acrylic)

Today I feel the need to state my firm belief in summer. Usually on the first of May one doesn't have to have such faith without sight. There have been signs of spring though - full days of warm and virtually all our snow was gone before it began again on Sunday night. Sigh, it's been a long winter!

Okay, now that I got that outta my system I'll say this; the colours in this bright, happy summery painting have done me a world of good over this past few days of snow and cold. Hopefully we've seen the last of it for a while:-). Ciao!

 

 

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