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| We’ve had a lot of good times in this studio, including swing-dancing model Michelle Long. |
I am frequently asked, “How do you feel about this move? Are you excited? Sad to leave?” I have loved the 21 years I’ve been in Rochester, but I’m ready to move on. Most of my thinking has been practical, not reflective.
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| Now my studio is dismantled, just a heap of boxes. |
Except today.
I was packing my studio with my younger daughter when a Taylor Swift song started playing. If you’ve raised teenagers, you know they tend to play songs until they’re burned into your mind, and this one reminded me powerfully of her teen years. “I don’t want to leave,” I sniffed at her.
“Get real, Mom,” she said. “Of course you want to do this.” And she’s right, but I have had a lot of fun here.
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| The girl, making me cry. |
On that note, I received a lovely note today from a student. I almost declined to take her because I didn’t feel I could accomplish much in the few weeks she had to work with me. And yet, she has turned out to be an amazing pupil and painter.
“I made a list of things I learned in your class,” she wrote. “This is not exhaustive, but some highlights.”
- Charcoal is a wonderful sketching medium, great for roughing in tones, and very easy to rub out if you aren’t pleased with the results.
- Don’t hold your paintbrush like a pencil, hold it out closer to the end and magic happens. (Okay, maybe not magic, but the results are much better.)
- How to mix reds.
- How to mix greens.
- How to organize a palette.
- All about easels.
- How to fold a plastic bag.
- Buy paints by pigments, not by their “lipstick” names.
- Warm light, cool shadows or cool light, warm shadows.
- Paired primaries—learn them and love them!
- Don’t belly-up to your painting. Stand back. And sometimes, step back.
- How to build a painting: establish a tone study on the canvas (using a mix of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna), then block in colors, and then develop them dark to light.
- Be brave about putting marks on the canvas. And keep putting marks on canvas, or paper, or whatever.
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| No student every did more color exercises in my class than Matt Menzies. Matt, I’m throwing that big palette away today. |
She learned all this in about 18 hours of instruction time.
Which brings me to my Maine workshop. If she could learn so much in just a few half-days, imagine what you can do in an intensive week of study. I have just a few openings left, and I strongly encourage you to register now.
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| Marilyn Feinberg, Kamillah Ramos and Zoe Clark, on a warm summer day painting at Irondequoit Bay. All three of them left Rochester before me. |
Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me on the Schoodic Peninsula in beautiful Acadia National Park in August 2015. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops! Download a brochure here.