More on En Plein Air Masters Workshop in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, NB, Canada.

Things have been kind of crazy here in the South watching these hurricanes pile up and trying to decide what level of preparedness is appropriate. As I write this tropical storm Hanna is passing through. Everyone in my family gets a little stressed and short-tempered until all is secured. Welcome to September in South Carolina. I am also preparing to head back to teaching at SCAD this fall after a summer of painting. I am looking forward to it as teaching keeps me learning and looking at things in new ways.

I must reiterate how incredibly beautiful the town of St. Andrews-by-the-Sea is as well as the surrounding area. It was the perfect place for a plein air workshop.

After years of pouring over Kevin Macpherson's books and enjoying his work I am delighted to have finally had the opportunity to take a workshop from him.

I liked that he had us all paint a scene first in the morning without demonstrating in order to see where everyone was at. He then gave a critique which he does well, spending appropriate time with each person's work. In the afternoon he painted a demonstration and I have included some of the photos in this post.

The scene for the demonstration painting by Kevin.

He emphasized seeing the lights and darks initially. He carefully placed them in his painting. He is very thoughtful at this stage and really looking to see, simplify and place the most important darks. The scene was somewhat backlit in the mid-afternoon. He tries to paint "what the air feels like" and not just what he sees in order to capture a true sense of both time and place.

Laying the the darks. Note he is wearing gloves.

I am a convert.

He made use of the three values of portland grays(light medium and dark) along with a limited palette of alizarin crimson, cad red light, cad yellow light, ultramarine blue, and pthaylo green.(It was my first time working with the grays and I liked how it expanded the the colors in subtle ways.) As he painted his demonstration in continued to place strokes and color notes. He does this in a very knowing manner it seemed to me.

He laid in the sky with a solid value of portland gray light. As he painted the painting I wondered how he would resolve the sky. I thought just the color he had it looked pretty good. Then almost at the end he brushed in some very pale subtle yellow from the horizon line up into the sky and slightly blued the upper sky. It changed everything in a stunning way! The feeling of the light was there. Then he slightly warmed the value of the roof on the building in the distance and the whole painting came together.

The finished painting.

My quick camera shot does not begin to do justice to it.

I think everyone got a lot more out of the demo having done their own paintings first and been frustrated in some cases. So the timing of his demo was well placed.

I have concluded that art books are helpful but there is nothing like learning by watching an accomplished painter paint and having him or her watch you paint and give you feedback.

As I said in an earlier post, I found Kevin to be an excellent teacher. He has an incredible eye. He is sharing and funny. I highly recommend him. By the way, En Plein Air Masters are heading to Greece next fall.