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!

MARY GARRISH WORKSHOP

Mary is a delight!!! Very personable and knowledgeable but can she teach? 

Yes,  I taught high school for 30 years and I feel I know a good teacher when I see one in action. Mary had concise handouts which outlined her thought process so when we hit mental overload we could reread the concepts. She came prepared having pre-painted studies to visually show the techniques she was demonstrating .
.

So much to teach, so little time!

Look at her plein air equipment and palette. 

Final painting showing the "how to" stages.

     Mary put us at ease by stating we are not going to finish a painting, we are not going for master piece, we are doing a series of studies just for the sake of learning.

I always feel under the gun when at a workshop and my painting results show it but I always learn!

Day 1: We were in the classroom for the morning watching and listening to Mary demonstrating how to paint a sky/water scene that she had done on sight the day before. She showed the paints that she uses ($$$) and gave us their web site.              Don't buy jewelry....buy paint.
She also recommended 3 books that she feels strongly about. I have the middle one.

Suggested books and information on the brand of paint that she uses.

     I have so much to write that I will break it up into a daily journal with days 1-3. 

Look for my next two blogs.....please.

NEVER SEEN PAINTINGS

LILY POND

     Did you ever have a painting come together so well that you can not bear to part with it. Here are two of my favorites that hang on my living room wall.

These exemplify my signature style of watercolor paintings layered with Japanese rice papers.

Both of these paintings were inspired from painting plein air at Heathcote Botanical Gardens. It was one of those beautiful days where the stars were all aligned and two paintings just flowed from me.

BONSAI TREE

WHIMSY OVER THE EDGE?

                                        I really need an honest opinion.

Are the following mixed media creations too far off of the artistic chart?
I had fun making them so maybe that answers my question but I would like to hear from you.

DOROTHY'S SHOES

I took a workshop where we learned silk screen print making.  I carved a funky shoe print block, printed it and then embellished it with hand dyed Viva paper towels, ribbon and buttons.
I like it; silly me.

I went for a second printing and decorated it differently. Here I did the shoes with marbled rice papers and some hand made paste papers that I make in another workshop adventure. Now these shoes are for the Wicked Witch of the West. Click your silver heals.

BLUE SHOES

The last silk screen print was a straight forward printing which shows the cut outs that I had created on the block print.

YELLOW SHOES

If the truth be known, I just want to hear from someone so I don't feel like I am talking to myself all the time. My dog can only listen to just so much!

Please check out my art work on DAILYPAINTWORKS.COM

A GIFT FOR JANE

Jane is my hair dresser and she loves her grandkids  a whole bunch. 

She asked me to paint her girls in this cute pose. 

The first painting I did for her was an acrylic of the girls when they were babies and this one is a watercolor of how much they have grown.

LOCAL ARTIST LANDS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF A LOCAL NEWSPAPER!

Not to worry......I didn't do anything illegal, immoral or fattening. I just showed up for my normal weekly session of plein air painting and ended up on the front page of the newspaper the next day. 

A young woman with a big camera walked up to introduce herself and ask if she could photograph my set up and me painting. I'm not the center of the universe so I thought no one would ever see the pics plus I was really enjoying the weather, my fellow plein air painters and just the whole experience.

Next; buy a lottery ticket.

LADY IN WAITING-JINNY

Let me introduce my dear friend Jinny.  She is 92, still comes to open studio painting twice a week, plays bridge and she has spunk.

One of our fellow painters took a picture of Jinny waiting for her ride sitting on her art cart in the parking lot outside our classroom. We all volunteered to take her home but she said; No I'll wait, I'm just happy sitting here in the sunshine. Normally Jinny drives herself and we all meet at one of the local restaurants for more conversation and laughter. We all look forward to Mondays.

With this little painting I was trying out the new techniques that I learned in my Janet Rogers workshop. Some of the biggest mistakes I was making was painting as if I were doing an acrylic, using too much water and not dropping paint into moist areas for them to blend on the paper.

There is hope; I am teachable.