Workshop Joy & Hell
So I took a two day Plein Air workshop this weekend. I was very excited about it until I found out it was going to be in the 90’s in April! Both days! The first day wasn’t too bad but then that’s at least partially because I felt fairly successful by the end of the day. My piece was not complete and not a masterpiece, but had some good parts and I felt progress as both a new plein air painter and new oil painter. You can see it even in these pictures of the painting through out the day. Note that in the last image the large logs don’t look as much like tootsie rolls and the distracting building in the back on the right is gone. The instructor complemented me on the barn (there is some glare on the photo that detracts from it).
But on the second day I was totally demoralized by the instructor telling me “Learn how to draw”. UGH! you mean after over 40 years of this I still need to learn how to draw!? Well yes and no. I need to take the time to draw and yes we always need to be practicing it and fine tuning the art of seeing. The piece from this day actually started better than it finished. I can make excuses by saying I got hot and tired but … Mostly I just lost the painting by “noodling” around too much.
