This painting was done at low tide on a rocky Maine beach during a session with Liz Wiltzen. Liz came all the way to Maine to do a three day plein air class. We focused on the basics which meant we did a lot of exercises that make you want to pull your hair out while you are doing them, but afterwards, when it starts to sink in you think, "Wow! That was awesome!"So I don't want to give away her whole class, you'll just have to sign up yourselves to get all the nuggets, but this one was my favorite. We were asked to do a painting in one hour using only 20 strokes. Yep that's right. So you really had to think about what color you wanted to mix and scoop up a big bunch so you could cover the space in just one stroke. So for example the sky is one stroke - as long as you don't lift your brush off the canvas it's one stroke.
Try it some time. Very fun.
Dawn,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the nice comment on my blog. Thanks too for sharing your workshop tips. I love the idea of the minimal brush strokes, as I've really been trying to focus on my brushwork lately. Beautiful rendering of the rock forms--love the way you honored each shape.
Cheers and happy painting!
This is such a difficult exercise. Good job.
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