In The Studio: Day 1 of Rockport, Maine Workshop Pemaquid

Today we started the workshop at Pemaquid Point and it was a fabulous day with light winds and cool temperature.  As one of my long time students said it was the best day ever at Pemaquid.  I definitely agreed. My lesson was to take the complicated and simplify everything down to 4 to 5 value shapes and to leave out most of the details.  They were to really try to capture the essence of the subject without getting lost in all of the minutia of texture and little details and to use the white of the paper or white of the oil palette to create the center of interest.  Also I wanted to have a nice feeling of movement through the painting and then it was all supposed to be accomplished in under 1 hour.  What a great day.  Here is my demonstration.12×16 watercolor on 300lbs arches paper