MARY GARRISH DAY TWO

Day 2:

     The weather man predicted some percent of rain each day for our plein air workshop but the
weather gods saw that we were good people so the rain held off long enough to give us good morning and early afternoon to paint.

     At 8:00am we met on site near a local marina which offered sky, water, boats and mangroves to visually dally with. I've painted there before but was always over whelmed by what to paint. To me it was green and grayish green water everywhere but not one inspiring scene to paint. After walking around with Mary I now see so much that would make a great painting. It truly is in the eye of the beholder.

   

Under the bridge near the marina.
                                           

 Here is a bullet summary of day two:

* Mary uses Arches Oil Paper to do design paintings. The next day I was on line ordering some from Cheap Joe.
*Sunrises are pink & yellow.
* Sunsets are orange.
* She uses windriverart.com for her brush source.
*Premix all the paints you will need on your palette before you begin to paint. Make a pile of dark and light of each color. Later in the painting you can warm it up or cool it off when needed.
* Dry brush paint reflections vertically.
*Ripples on water are horizontal.
*Baby Wipes are good to clean up brushes and palette.
*Prepare a "battle plan" before starting a painting.
    (do thumbnail sketches or notans)
*Reflections in water from an object are the opposite value and chroma as the object.

     The biggest tip for me is to add temperature changes of similar values in a space or object.(sky, clouds, trees, water, land, etc.) This simple trick makes that area vibrate.

I am still learning when to shift the chroma and value as I paint. Mary talked a lot about this but it has not sunk into my brain yet.

     Oh, another big tip was always look for the light source that will determine the shadows, reflections and high lights of any shape or object. I was a science teacher, you think I could handle that one. An example would be the top of an ocean wave crest is light in color as the sky light hits there more than other spots on the wave.

Someday I will be a great painter....I just know there is a pony in here somewhere!