Starting in a couple of weeks I'll be teaching a watercolour workshop at an art supply store here in Picton. I'll be trying to demystify watercolours inasmuch as I want the students to feel less intimidated by the medium an learn to accept its often mercurial nature; the mantra being "Don't Panic."
For example, I'll try to show how to avoid such "errors" as in the painting above (unblended areas like the red circle on her cheek, her left hand knuckles, and her right hand), as well as mixing colours so they're not "muddy," controlling the paint to avoid the need for masking, and various techniques I've learned over the decades, among much else. Since I'm largely a self-taught painter, I'll be taking a fairly non-textbook approach to teaching.
Workshop details:
Thursdays: 14 April - 12 May*
6PM - 8PM
$35 per person, per class, for six weeks
7 Elements Artists' Materials & Studio
230 Main St. Picton, ON
613.476.7696
*we'll likely add a second class on Monday nights since there seems to be a big demand
I took the title for this from an R.E.M. song of the same name from their Document album. The song is a sort of call to arms: "The time to rise has been engaged..." (appropriate, since I painted this specifically to use on my first image-based business card). Incidentally, Document, Fables of the Reconstruction, and Lifes Rich Pageant are the three R.E.M. albums I listened to exclusively in the fall/winter of 1988 when I first began painting, and those songs are forever linked to my watercolour "origins."
The sketch that inspired the pose in this painting can be seen here.
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