Snow Camp W (the W does not stand for Warm)

Back from Snow Camp W. W doesn't stand for workshop either, it stands for my painting buddy's first name, Will. Will gave up his space in the first snow camp workshop and he was the first sign up of the second snow camp workshop.

It was a great workshop. It was wicked cold. It was also wicked grey. The weak link in my gear was my glove/hand arrangement. Cold fingers at the end of the day are painful. They also stop your mind from working well.

Attending a Stapleton Kearns workshop is like taking a drink from fire hose. There is so much to learn there and you can only take in so much. My favorite items that were demonstrated were the use of two difficult colors, Viridian (check it out on the horizon of the sea scape) and cobalt violet(under the whit for snow). I like the design principle of interlocking shapes in the landscape (no long straight lines) and layering , not only the darks and lights but also the warms and cools as the scenery recedes. There was so much more. And that Stapleton Kearns;he's wicked nice...others are not so nice.

This seascape was not in the white mountains. Stapleton used his experience and minds eye to conjure up this painting to show us the similarities between sea and sky and to demonstrate amazing brush work. I plan on staying with my pallet knife but I will now go forward and use my pallet knife in less conventional ways.

I also learned my weakness, which is trees. The good news is that I love trees (especially without leaves)so that I will enjoy the practice of painting them. I also plan some changes in this painting and I will post when they are completed.I am changing that tree!

Oh yeah..and I learned I was short. And here I thought everyone was tall. Silly me.