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| Cascade © Marian Fortunati 10" x 8" Oil On RayMar Panel |
David Gallup's Monday Class took advantage of a special invitation . We were invited to paint near one of our classmate's home up near a creek in Montecito, CA. Most of David's other students drive down from Santa Barbara or from even further north, so they had a short drive. In THIS class, I'm the only one who drives north, although I know that there are some students in his other classes who drive from farther away. Anyway, it's always a beautiful drive and I thought I might combine it with a visit with my daughter who lives in Santa Barbara.
Dorene had organized a weekend workshop for one of her clubs with Ray Roberts and he and his wife, Peggy Kroll Roberts, were up painting near the creek again when we arrived. Because of the wild fires a few years back, the hillsides were covered with wildflowers now. It was a glorious day... quite warm, but happily we were near water and shade so didn't suffer the heat. I decided to paint the creek bed and a little cascade of water shooting out between outcroppings of rocks. I really liked the way the rocks looked under the surface of the water. However, I knew I really shouldn't be painting ROCKS per se.... just the inspiration or impression I get when seeing them beneath the surface. And of course there were all of the rocks ABOVE the water.... If you've followed this blog for a while, you know I think rocks in general are challenging. But... I wanted to try... Why not set the bar high and paint what inspired me?
The trick, David, explained was to get the value of the shapes in and not really worry about what I knew they were. Paint what I see... not what I know. --- How many times have we all heard that? We all worked happily alongside the roar of the creek. Ray and Peggy left to paint near the harbor, saying that the bugs were getting them, but none of us really were bothered by the insects. I enjoyed painting and trying not to get "lost" in my shapes. (I often find that I start painting something that is in one place only to find that I've changed its relationship to another shape.) Although I think I was mostly successful, David has explained in the past that it really doesn't matter as long as you plan your composition well in the first place. No one is going to take your painting back to the original spot you painted to critique if you've gotten a rock or two out of order. When I was almost finished, David came by again and made some suggestions about the foam... (He did a little demo on my palette... -I love it when he does that!) ... to explain what he meant. He suggested that I make the foam corrections at home when I had a cleaner palette and the basic painting was a bit more "dry", so that my whites were more pure. He also reminded me that the vertical cascade should not be the same value as the horizontal "foam"... they were different light planes and vertical would be a lower value than the horizontal generally. Overall, however, he liked my color, shape and value choices and that made me happy.
I am really enjoying this class. And I had a bonus because I was able to visit with my daughter over a bit of tea and a late lunch before I drove on home. I'll have to take a bit of a break when my husband has his surgery, but I know I want to return to class after life calms down again.
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