AMAZING ART FROMCROATIA 2017
OUR CLASSROOM — A PLACE OF INSPIRATION & CREATIVITY!
Laura and I offered up an ambitious array of lessons that kept us all busy painting both during the workshop and after! I showed examples of the concepts we covered for inspiration and did quick demos to jumpstart the creative process. Laura put together another of her huge, awesome journals! We enjoyed collaborating — especially on the design lessons. Between us we put together a powerful handout on design principles that I look forward to using in future classes.
FABULOUSPARTICIPANT WORK!
Everyone was game to try out all kinds of new techniques. They were prolific and the quality of the work was high, maybe partly because of our emphasis on having fun! Here is just a small sampling of some of the wonderful art that was created in Cavtat. Click on images to enlarge them.
LAURA’S WORK!
An extraordinary painting by Laura Shea of laundry on a line, created by making colorful patterning, then painting the background area white.
Laura’s Croatia Travel journal…
MY DEMOS
A drawing of Anita Radovik on toned paper using graphite and white charcoal. It is an old technique that I hadn’t tried before, and it made a fun demo.
Sun Drenched! That’s what I call this 8×8 study, playing with warm color and sun shining through the holes in Elvina’s hat. My plan is to make a larger painting of it eventually, which I’ve sketched out below.
This plein air piece is the view from up on the hill at the Cavtat Mausoleum. Notice I’ve aged it with a crackle glaze.
Juro, Pero’s dad and owner of the villa was talking with his hands as he told us about how his Radovik home place was built one story at a time through the generations, starting with the basement. This watercolor portrait is enhanced with graphite to add texture and impart a sense of strength.
Cats! They are everywhere, and of course we had to paint them. This one is drawn as a demo in walnut ink with a homemade ruling pen on textured paper (left). Later I added the watercolor tone (right) which really made the texture stand out. The local cat I’d drawn was really a black cat, but I changed that!
Sometimes one thing leads to another… I made a demo painting from a gargoyle detail at the mausoleum, now I’d like to make a large painting of this statue of an angel I photographed in a cathedral in Lyon, France.
While I don’t often paint landscapes, this panorama was too stunning to ignore. One of the days after the workshop ended our family took a 3-mile hike to the south, ending at this swimming hole in the Adriatic. I interpreted and kept the detail to a minimum, still capturing the feel of the place.
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