Abstract Workshop

I spent the last five days in a Gwen Fox workshop. It was called "Abstracts that Glow". I knew when reading about Gwen that this was going to be something very different for me and that I was moving out of my comfort zone. Boy, was I right about that. I am an intuitive artist who rarely plans anything I am going to paint. I just go for it. Gwen started us out with thumbnail sketches and it took me about 30 thumbnails to find a design I wanted to paint. Since I attended the workshop to learn how Gwen works, I persevered and made thumbnails for each painting I did, but it was not easy to make myself do it. In the process I discovered that I really have a lot to learn about design.

Almost everything Gwen does to produce her paintings is different from what I do, but I really did learn some things about design, color and shape that I will be using in the future. Gwen was a delight to work with and always ready to critique your work and guide you into making the right decisions. I think you will see an improvement in the design of my abstracts as a result of this workshop. I also think it may have gotten my creative juices flowing again. We shall see!

I can't post any images from the workshop, as I haven't photographed the paintings yet. I will do that soon.

New Paintings

I cannot believe how long it has been since I have posted here. It just goes to show how little painting I have actually been doing. I haven't yet discovered the next big thing, so have returned to painting fruit! Those of you who have been wishing I would do that, here you go. I am working on an "all fruit" show for Local Color in a few months. The painting above is one of the first and I am currently working on a pineapple, with oranges, limes and lemons to come.