Here are some highlights from the current classes being offered so you have an idea of what we did this week in class. If you missed class, this may be helpful.

If you are visiting town and want to take one of the classes, contact the studio at (802) 457-2020 to join us for the three hour session.

Individual classes are $45 per class.

Memory paintings of places I just visited. Two on outside are not completed—all on small scraps of watercolor paper, and painted from memory.

Want to see what the other class is doing this fall?

WATERCOLOR TECHNIQUES FOR LANDSCAPE AND ARCHITECTURE
10 AM to 1 PM starting Thursday, September 24, 2009

Course objective:
–To study watercolor techniques to create believable volume, distance and space in landscapes with architecture.
—To understand some principles of perspective using sound drawing concepts when observing buildings.
—To improve the painter’s ability to create compelling and evocative places.

September 24, 2009 CONSIDERING SPACE
After meeting one another and reviewing the materials list, we will create some small paintings based on various kinds of space. Working from our minds, we’ll find out how much we already have available to ourselves regarding architecture and the landscape.

In our first class, after discussing the importance of a studio and how to approach our materials, we experimented with the compositional ideas of basic landscapes. The horizon line can create a sky plane and ground plane simply by dividing the page. We tore watercolor paper into small compositions. The center one is about 3" x 5" and the others a slightly larger. I asked first to wash in a suggestion of sky: a gray moody sky with multiple colors or a cloud strewn blue sky with blotted clouds. Any sky will do. The game is to determin where your ground plane starts by ending the sky somewhere down the paper.

As these dried, we started back at the begining and worked in a second value range, building up elements from memory. For me, I had recently driven to New Jersey for the weekend, so my images came straight from landscapes that were familiar to me from that trip. Some of us drew in buildings and foliage, others simply painted. The hope was to allow the sky to influence the mood and content of the landscape. And to see what kind of "reference" you have in your own memory to create architecture within the landscape. Notice how challenging it is to create a light source when we don't have a clear frame of reference? What are the architectural details? I got carried away on one and left the other two to languish!

HOMEWORK: Draw and paint a rendition of your childhood home. Using what you learned about composition and the relationship of the building to the landscape, describe to the viewer a poignant memory of your past.

October 1, 2009 CONSIDERING LIGHT ON ANGLES
Starting with blocks on a white surface, we’ll look at how light can create the dramatic shape of a shadow. With that in mind, we’ll look at granulation as a way to create the atmospheric quality of shadows.

This sample is a much simpler composition to show the process of granulation. This painting was done in six colors: a liftable triad and a sedimentary triad. By putting aureolin, rose madder genuine and cobalt blue on the palette together, you can lay the colors on one at a time onto a wet surface OR mix them on the palette for a less luminous quality. The second triad we used was cadmium yellow, cadmium red and french ultramarine.

However, the bulk of the first half of class was spent on a careful drawing of the perspective of our still lifes which included children's blocks. These complex still-lifes became more challenging under strong light. We worked
with a strong light on these compositions of eight or so blocks set up as "architecture." To add interest, white eggs and mushrooms provided some "biomorphic forms" that helped add curved lines to the otherwise strongly angled compositional structure.

We discussed the advantages of a "bird's eye" or "worm's eye" perspective and the phenomenon of "eye level" and what affect these viewpoints have on perspective. Everyone got very personalized work on their own drawing. One big thing to remember is the rule of "parallel" sides when observing a block.
Secondly—always start from the ground up and check the relationships of the objects as you go. Relationships between the forms is what makes realism possible.

HOMEWORK: Set up a still life of sugar cubes at home. Create dramatic pathways between the little blocks and shine a light on them that gives the illusion of light on form. With only three colors, describe the relative warmth and coolness of the “buildings” in this “sugar-world.”

October 8, 2009 FOLIAGE AND THE FACADE
If weather permits, we will go outside to take some photos around Woodstock’s Green to explore the Federal Architecture available to us. Of particular interest will be the development of biomorphic shapes against the angles of the building. Back at the studio, we’ll prepare a drawing and get our colors chosen.

After walking around Woodstock discussing composition and taking several pictures of the homes, we each selected an image to paint. I have two here—one to show the underpainting of the start I made on one end of this street and the second a finished painting showing light and distance. The brilliant gold tree all but obliterates the architecture, However, it is important for me to see "through" the leaves to share the basic structure so you can understand the placement of the building relative to the tree and bushes around it.

HOMEWORK: Complete the painting begun in class. Three hours to plan a painting, draw it and prepare the color studies is not a long time. Take your time with the painting over the week, allowing there to be plenty of time for drying. We had some beautiful renditions of detailed architectural renderings from several people in the class.

October 18, 2009 USING WHITE SHAPES TO DEFINE LIGHT
John Singer Sargent was a master at evoking a sense of place through light. Working from photographs, we’ll explore how leaving the white highlights can add the strength of contrast necessary to convey strong sunlight.

In this small painting, I use the white roofs against the blue sky and buildings to show the sun's approach from the right of the picture plane. Note how the Bermudian buildings provide an unusual architecture to show off the light on this isolated island. Perspective is emphasized by describing the foliage in the foreground as larger leaves towards the edge of the picture plane while they diminish in size towards the center of the composition.

HOMEWORK: Find an image of white buildings under a strong, hot light. Consider images in the desert or at the beach or on an island. Do a watercolor leaving the white shapes to convey the brightest whites.

October 22, 2009 UNUSUAL SURFACES
Techiniques for describing stone, brick, wood and various glass details on a building can be confounding to most painters. We’ll zoom in on the details today and explore specific techniques for rendering in paint.

HOMEWORK: Choose an image from a foreign country with unusual architecture. Do a complete watercolor of the building in its setting, using one or more of the techniques explored in class.

October 29, 2009, 2009 INTERIORS TO CREATE A MOOD
We’ll explore the interior space of a local building to help us understand architecture from within. Is the landscape still part of that interior? What does the wide-angle do to help you feel comfortable or uncomfortable in space?
HOMEWORK: Choose a corner of one of your favorite rooms in your house. Spend time drawing a detailed contour line drawing in either pencil or pen. On a separate day, enjoy a painting journey, limiting yourself to no more than one and a half hours of color—keep the strokes loose, expressive and brisk. Enjoy a different result!

November 5, 2009 INTIMACY THROUGH WINDOWS AND DOORS
Architectural details of doors and windows provide an entrance into a hidden world. Window boxes, flowers, stairs, paths all provide compositional details that excite the viewer. We’ll discuss how strong composition can make these subjects interesting.
HOMEWORK: Using your own photographs or location work, do a painting of an entrance or a window that invites the viewer to explore further. Note how landscape details balance, frame or affect the overall composition.

November 12, 2009 THE STREET SCENES
A bigger challenge for painters is multiple buildings within an urban setting. Through photographs, we’ll explore how to generalize and edit to create a sense of place without losing the personality of a location.
HOMEWORK: Consider your winter schedule for another painting class!

Materials List for Watercolor: Landscape and Architecture

Brushes
Wash Brush, preferably sable, at least 1” wide
1-2 Round Brushes, sable or a combination acrylic sable in sizes 8, 10, 12 or 14 depending on how large you like to work.
Rough Hog Bristle for creating grounds
Water containers—I use two; one small inside a larger one. We have some at the studio, but bringing your own will allow you get comfortable with your set-up, if you like. I use a larger Tupperware with a smaller one inside.
Board: You can use Gator Board, 1/4” plywood, or Plexiglass in a 13” x 17” size or so.

Paper: A range of paper in 140 lb. We will use mostly Cold Press. Four to Five full sheets of paper should get you through the whole class.
Bring some drawing paper for value sketches we’ll be doing for warm-up; old copy paper is fine to recycle for this.

EXTRAS:
Watercolor Sketchbook for notes and/or color studies
Camera for taking reference photos throughout the class (optional)
Artist’s Tape (available at Cheap Joe’s)
Wax candle and/or Masking fluid
1 roll Bounty Paper Towel (yes, it matters what brand it is!)
Salt, Natural Sponges, single edged razor blade (if you can find one!) or Exacto Knife
Extra palette for your gouache colors, such as a plate or butcher tray.
A Clamp Lamp from your local hardware store to use to set up a structured light on your work at home.
Watercolors

COLORS:
The objective is to have nine primaries (three of yellow, red and blue respectively) in the three values: Light/Medium/Dark. We will discuss the properties of the paints throughout the class so that you can make more educated decisions about your palette. Use ONLY professional grade pigments: I prefer Winsor & Newton, Sennelier, Daniel Smith or M. Graham. Note the word “or” below: you only need 9!
YELLOWS: Aureolin or Lemon Yellow
New Gamboge or Cadmium Yellow Light
Quinacridrone Gold
REDS: Vermillion or Cadmium Red Light
Rose Madder Genuine or Permanent Rose or Opera
Permanent Alizarin
BLUES: Cinnerous Blue or Cerulean Blue or Peacock Blue
Cobalt Blue or French Ultramarine
Thalo Blue or Prussian Blue or Indanthrone Blue
Additional colors are fun to add but optional. Consider adding:
Burnt Umber Thalo Green
Burnt Sienna Indigo
Yellow Ochre Dioxinine Violet
Naples Yellow Sap Green
Viridian (Daniel Smith only) Chinese White
Cobalt Violet
GOUACHE: White in either Titanium or Zinc White