JANUARY 16, 2020:

Four Demos and a Paint-In

Our January program was a unique combination of four consecutive brief demos by some of our members followed by hands-on experience after the break.

The first presentation was by Frank Zeller who explained the principles of good composition, showing examples and rough sketches using horizon lines, verticals and the rule of thirds as applied to a reference photo. His advice is “to look for the vertical.” No two intervals between the verticals can be the same. He used the example of fenceposts, variety of color, size and spacing. He also recommended outlining the negative spaces “to see if it works.” For further information on these topics, he recommended a book by Charles Sovek and youtube videos by Tim Wilmot. Frank’s hands-on table included reference photos for practicing composition. Art Weeks showed examples of watercolor techniques: wet on wet, drybrush, flat brush, lifting, paper choice. His table had various paper choices and the opportunity to practice techniques on various papers.

Heidi Nelson gave a brief discussion about brushwork and glazing. She showed three stages of painting a pear – first using a blue for the shadows, adjusting values as she painted around the highlights. Once that layer was dry she glazed with yellows and reds to complete the painted pear. Each participant had a chance to practice. Susan Fryer Voigt showed some of her recent work in which she used a “mother color’”of sienna throughout the painting, then blended that color with several varieties of blues to get the wonderful resulting grays. Her participants had a chance to use watercolor sticks from Daniel Smith and also Holbein silver and gold paints.