Colley Whisson Workshop

I had the pleasure of attending a 3-day workshop with Colley 
Whisson hosted by the Illume Gallery of Fine Art  in Salt Lake City.   

He created a non-threatening atmosphere by teaching us in 
a relaxed manner with a healthy dose of gentle humor. Colley 
shared a saying with us: "I am not a perfectionist, I am a 
correctionist"  

Here's the start of his first painting demonstration.

 My version of it:

Colley's palette was limited to eight colors. He likes to emphasize
keeping the tones in the shadow areas warm and rich and also to 
eliminate unimportant detail across the entire painting.

He painted a beautiful beach scene that was simple but well 
composed. Note the reference photo on the left and an image
of his painting on the bottom right.  He used both of these as
a reference to paint yet another version of the scene.

Here's my finished version. 

This is a painting of a windmill outside a window that I 
completed on the last day of the workshop. 

Colley also showed us how to block in and complete
a quick still life painting. He said that it is a good
exercise for daily painting and suggested that it 
should be completed in no more than 30 minutes.

If you ever have the opportunity to take a workshop from Colley 
Whisson, go for it!  You'll learn a lot from this master painter!

Palette Knife Workshop at Sugar House Park - So fun!

Our Palette Knife Plein Air Workshop at Sugar House Park 
was a success. Due to the "Tour Utah" bicycle race Big 
Cottonwood Canyon was temporaily closed so we moved 
our workshop to Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City.

We set up shop and begin to work.

We first painted value studies with our palette knives.

Then by using our value studies as a support and of course 
our direct view of the scene, we began to paint with color. 
Not everyone finished their color paintings but we all learned 
to "see" value a little better!

It was a day full of changes; bright and sunny, windy and 
then cloudy. Ha-ha! This can be a challenge when you 
plein air paint.

Journaling on Main Street - A Hit!

Saturday, July 9th, a group of us painted in downtown 
Salt Lake City a la plein air (French for "painting outdoors"). 

We met at the TRAX station and rode into Exchange Place; 
a historical site in the business district.

I introduced the group to two books about illustrated journaling: 

"An illustrated life" and "Urban Sketching."

We talked about how to make the title page of each 

sketchbook unique and special.

Each student filled a page in their sketchbook with ink line 

drawings of things they saw around them. We then washed 

over the line drawings with loose washes.

Diana

Richard and Judy

Olga

There was even a creepy life-size statue of 

an old woman just a few feet away from us.

Yikes!

The sketches were fresh and fun!

Next, we focused on negative and positive space. When we painted our subject, we were painting positive space.  

When we painted the space around our subject we were painting the negative space. Painting both negative and positive space in your artwork can add variety to your illustrations and make your journal more interesting. 

These are examples that demonstrate painting negative space.

Judy

Richard

Diana

Olga

During our lunch at Maxwell's we found out that Judy (at the age of 16) 

went on a date with Elvis Presley! They went to a Bobby Darin concert 

and to the Congo Room at the Sahara afterward. This is the kind of 

thing that is great fodder for a journal entry!!!

After an enjoyable lunch at Maxwell's East Coast Eatery 

we walked one block over to visit a "Grafitti Wall,"

an excellent example of urban artwork.

It was a perfect day for sketching; good weather, adventurous 

artists and plenty of time for us to paint!