An Artist's Sketchbook

Ramblin...

Phew! Time flys by when you are not looking. Been thirteen days since my last post.
I started the "Essence of Pittsburgh" en plein air workshop this past Saturday.
Was fun and very educational. I think I am going to learn a lot from Ron. The group was small, maybe eight people, which was nice as it kept the one-on-one time more personal. Very nice group of artists and I look forward to painting with them all again next Saturday. First Ron talked about his pallete set up and color choices. We are using a limited pallete of Thalo Green, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Yellow Lemon and Titanium White.
Okay, it doesn't sound so limited, but when I was trying to capture the color of a tree trunk before the sun moved and the color changed, I panicked and struggled. I just wanted to grab a tube of Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre. But that is the point of taking this class, to learn something new and paint a little differently than I normally do. I actually like the limited pallete, as it forces me to learn better color mixing skills. I plan to create some color charts this week using that pallete.
After discussing his pallete and basic set up for painting outdoors, Ron did a demonstration and explained some of the difficulty and challanges of painting outdoors. Not only dealing with the elements and people, but mainly how you have to quickly capture the light of the scene before it changes.
After Ron's demo we had about 45 minutes of time left so he let us loose and we took up positions through the grounds of the art center and painted. I will post a photo soon. I have about 3 painting to post, just waiting for an oppurtunity to photograph them.