When You Only Have a Few Minutes to Paint

'A Breath of Fall'           8x10           pastel          ©Karen Margulis
available $145

 I came  home from my Blue Ridge workshop to the news that my family in South Florida was heading to us in Atlanta. Hurricane Irma is on the way! I spent the day preparing to welcome them and getting our home ready for anything that Irma sends our way in Atlanta.  Since there is no time to paint I would like to share another demo I did at the team teaching workshop with Marsha Savage this past weekend.

Hurricane Harvey kept us indoors on Day one of the workshop

Marsha and I had a Plan B for our plein air workshop. We didn't want to have to use it but we did and we are actually happy that it worked out to everyone's benefit. The forecast for the first day of the workshop was predicting heavy rain for the day. We had reserved a room in the Blue Ridge Mountains Art Center so  we made the call to set up and have the first day inside. We had a wonderful solution......Plein Air Simulation! You can see the projector in the photo above. Marsha and I projected our demo photo and the photo for the class to paint.  It worked great!

The Goldenrod painting in this post was one of the demos I did . It was a seven minute painting.  I like to stress the importance of working quickly and efficiently when painting outside. It is a good practice to make small quick studies to help you gather as much information as possible before the conditions change. After my demo we all worked on 15 minute paintings. I set the timer and the class was asked to find a part of the scene on the screen and make a 15 minute study.

It is always gratifying to see how amazed everyone is with their studies. They are always fresh and exciting. When you only have a few minutes to paint you tend to only put in what is important!

Day Two...morning demo with Karen

Day two was beautiful. We spent the morning at a beautiful spot that gave us mountain vistas. My demo focused on creating depth and dealing with foregrounds.

Some of the group painting the view

Marsha showing her oil palette

In the afternoon we met at Marsha's charming cabin on the Toccoa River. Marsha did an oil demo after lunch and we had the afternoon to paint along the river. Day three was also at the cabin. I'll share more of this day in an upcoming post.

To all of my friends and family in Florida and the Southeast. Stay safe!!!