Friday, September 29, 2017

Painting workshop

James and I spent 3 days in Boone, NC this week so I could take a realistic impressionism workshop a friend had told me about.  This was my first workshop ever and I loved it and learned so much; at least I hope I did.  There were 7 of us in the class.  My friend, Dottie, and I were the only ones to paint with oil.  The others, including the teacher, used acrylics.  Dottie paints exclusively with a palette knife, which I haven't done, other than a tiny bit here and there.  The teacher also used a palette knife a good deal so I thought this was as good a time as any to explore its uses.

I paint a lot of people and animals, rarely landscapes.  This was an opportunity to stretch myself and I was a bit anxious about it.  Our teacher and my classmates were very laid-back and fun so it was silly of me to feel that way.  You know I'm not a shy person, so it wasn't because I was worried about fitting in or anything like that.  I get anxious before just about every painting I begin.  I can't explain it.

Egie Antonaccio was our teacher.  Google him to see some beautiful paintings.  He has a thick Italian accent, which was fun to listen to, and entertained us with anecdotes.  He never seemed bothered by us chattering away as he did his morning demonstrations.

Here's my first, and favorite of my paintings from the workshop.  I like the texture a palette knife creates.
Day 2's painting didn't go as well but I'm looking at this as a work in progress and maybe in the next few days I can complete it and pull off something respectable.  I didn't want to work on it the last day because I wanted to get in as much painting of new things as I could.
Day 3 painting is a little wild and colorful but as I look at it today I'm liking it a bit more.  I may change the background.  This was my first pig, Roxie and her little buddy, Wassie.  They do look happy, don't they?
Some pretty spectacular paintings came out of other classmates, especially one man, Terry, who was picking up a brush (or palette knife) for the first time ever.  I was so impressed with him.  Here are 2 of his paintings.  I'm guessing Terry is somewhere around 70 years old.

My friend, who has been painting for just 2 years, did some awesome paintings.


Some more paintings from the class.


I think all of these paintings look better in person than in these photos.

We bought one of Egie's demo paintings to have a memory from this week.  Maybe one day I can paint something like this in just an hour.
While I was in the workshop James ran, wrote and sketched.  Yes, he's getting the art bug too.  It won't be long till he's painting.

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