Austin Workshop Day 1

"Seascape Drama", 12x9" After Colley Whisson

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend a 4-day "Impressionist Painting in Oils" workshop in Austin last week. I returned home late Sunday evening exhausted, but loved every moment taught by internationally recognized Australian painter, Colley Whisson. Colley paints very loose and is a master of light which totally hooks me. His paintings almost look more like watercolor than oils. I learned so much over the 4 days my head is still spinning. 

The workshop was very challenging working 9-4:00 each day with just a short lunch break. We used paints, solvent and a lean medium all of which I've never used before. I usually work with small 1/4" and smaller brushes, but in this workshop we used a 1" hog hair brush, and an enormous 3" synthetic brush that looked more like you could paint a house with it. At the very end of each painting, we were allowed to use a fine brush for just a few final details. Here's one of his U-Tube painting demos.

Today's painting was the first one we worked on from a beach scene in Australia. If you zoom in close you'll see there are a couple of figures sitting in the sand in the dark shade. 

Colley's methods are a unique approach for me, so I sucked it all in like a thirsty sponge. I can't wait to see how my future work will be impacted by my new wealth of knowledge. 

I'll be posting the 3 other paintings we completed over the next few days...to be continued.

Thank you for tuning in. 

nancy
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