Pear Acrylic Painting ~ Pat Dews Workshop

"Pear" 1 of 9 10" squares Top Left To see the rest of the painting, click here:
Canvas by Canvas Whats on the Easel
I painted with the Canvas by Canvas group today in one of the member's garden room as Doug Walton was teaching at the Upstairs Gallery. Because of the 3 recent workshops I'm behind and most were painting on our Tuscany scene but I'll get to that one next week. The pears are a little more impressionistic than what we usually do and we'll have to see how the painting is received by the public.
It made me think about some of the paintings done during the past week in the Pat Dews workshop. I've also been going to thrift stores and the kitchen departments looking for "texture" stuff since class on Friday. We had a great time comparing and sharing items to make texture on our watercolor and acrylic paintings. Pat creates experimental water-media on paper and canvas and she paints the abstract essence of nature and it is very complicated. However, she treated our large class like we knew what we were doing and started our assignments with full sheets of watercolor paper and to cover the first one with texture. Don't worry about it being too busy and just try out our stuff - bubble wrap, saran wrap, newspaper, wax paper, stamps, stencils, sgraffito, collage and you just name it. Someone was always under their table scrambling for that perfect texture. We unloaded and carted mounds of supplies and laughed at the thought of Pat's bags being searched at the airport knowing what they'd find. The second sheet was more planned with white spaces and then we prepared 4 quarter sheets. Pat told us "Starts are easy, finishes are hard." We all agreed. The rest of the time we were putting on more paint, removing it or altering the painting in some way. Later in the week we all worked on a cruciform design with white space. We used inks, atomizer, watercolor, and acrylic, and brayer. Another project was to take a viewfinder and locate designs in magazines and translate those into paintings. I don't have a painting finished and ready to show yet as mine are still in the "start" stage. She uses paper plates for her palettes and when the sponge applicator isn't fast enough to apply the paint, Pat will turn up the paper plate and pour the color on. The workshop was held at the Artist's Showplace and it was a great creative environment with each member intent on their abstract work and losing themselves in the activity. Pat was great to demo and then walk around and give us personal attention and it was a learning experience to see her work and change her plan often and it takes a long time to paint a completed painting. Pat is the author of two books and a dvd, Designing Great Starts with Texture and Form, can be purchased from Cheap Joes.

Hover mouse over the slide for the caption. Some of the photos are reversed when taken in the overhead mirror but you will get the idea.