Friday, December 12, 2014

Frank Webb Workshop

     I had a great time at the five day Frank Webb workshop in Newport RI in early November.  Frank is a great teacher and shares a lot from his experience.  It was a small group so we each got enough personal attention.  Each day focused on a particular technique that could become a major way of painting, or simply an additional method for enhancing a picture.  Frank  outlines his approaches in his workshop announcements, and his examples can be seen there.  Here are my workshop products. Each is a bit rough and has the fresh quality of al primo painting. Sometimes a rough work is more appealing than a finished product  "corrected" in the studio.

       First day we practiced a base wash with other washes placed on top. This is my least happy workshop effort.  My quinacridone gold was a more yellowish hue than Frank's.  Hard to make a appealing dark sky.  this is a winter scene, from my head, of White Deer Plaza, Lake Mohawk, NJ.

 
      The second day was a wet in wet technique, but wet in dry for the center frame.  HERE I DID THE SKY AND REFLECTING WATER WET IN WET. The painting is of the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, viewed from Wellington St. in Newport.
 
 
 
    Third day we painted the darks first.  Here I tried to capture a foggy morning view of one of the mansion I had seen that morning as I drove around sight seeing.  My memory surely changed some of the contours and turrets.  Next time I will take a photo.   A good idea but needs some work--or start all over!!
 
 
 
   Here I painted a reverse view (right is left in a real life view) of Manasquan RR station.  Frank was instructing us in what he called a watercolor version of pointillism.  He calls it "patchilism."  Laying varying color of the same value next to each other for dramatic effect.



   On the final day we practiced a calligraphic painting, which to me felt like drawing with watercolors.  This is a memory of a painting I did earlier in the year of the Sparta Farmers' market.  Fun to compare the two.