Liz Wilten Workshop Days 2 and 3

My composition exercise with 4 values - SOLD

Liz's block-in plus 25 strokes demo

I loved doing the 4 value design exercise on day 2 of Liz's workshop. You can see her version on her blogpost. The fly specs you see on mine are the reminders of a very hot day in the blazing sun. Liz always used her umbrella, to shade both the painting and her palette.

The bottom image is a demo that Liz did on day 3. This exercise was the last of the workshop. Preceded by a painting done with only 50 strokes, in this exercise Liz did a basic block-in, and then finished the painting with only 25 strokes. I think she was roughly on stroke 12 when I took this photo.

This was a great workshop, and I enjoyed hosting it. If you can't make the trip to the workshop of your dreams, consider hosting the instructor yourself.

Liz Wilten Workshop Day 1

Barnacle Rocks - my block-in

Liz doing a demo on Cousin's Island

As I sit here with Hurrican Irene raging outside, it's nice to think back on the wonderful plein air workshop we had last weekend with Liz Wiltzen in South Freeport, ME. I asked Liz to travel from her home in Banff, Canada, to work with a dozen of us, and everyone thought it was an amazing workshop.

Liz began by stating categorically, this workshop is not about painting pretty paintings, you aren't going to get anything you'll want to hang on the wall. It's about exercises to build your skill. And they did, organized to build on one another, they pulled us through the basics of blocking in, design and composition, and use of minimal strokes/time boxing to focus on the essentials.

I learned a lot the day before the workshop, when I took Liz to my favorite painting spots so she could select venues for the workshop. Liz was looking for views with a more defined foreground, mid, and backround, than I had done. We had to work hard to find spots with interesting foregrounds, that weren't going to be covered with high tide during the workshop hours. So now, I have some more good places to paint!

Above is my block-in from the first afternoon, I probably took it a bit too far, but you get the idea. And a photo of Liz doing a demo the second morning at the beach on Cousin's Island.