Myrna Workshop Friday

Nancy Portrait
22" x 15" Watercolor on Gesso 240 lb. paper

Myrna cautioned us to write down on the back of your paper what texturizing (spell check is saying that is not a word) medium you used and some of the techniques. Imagine my surprise when I went to measure and photograph this piece this morning when I saw Cheap Joe's white gesso, textured with wax paper penciled on the back. I've been telling everyone this is CLEAR gesso because that's what I thought it was as I covered a full sheet with clear and a full sheet with white gesso and got them confused. Believe Myrna when she suggests making a note if you want to try and duplicate the technique.
I began this portrait at home on Thursday night (while packing for Graham) and brought it in on Friday to have something to work on. As I wanted to have the option of entering it into a future competition, I told Myrna that I didn't want any comments. She is super careful not to paint on other's work anyway. In Texas, many of the competitions and juried show specify that the work entered can't be done in a workshop setting. To me that means if you're all painting from the same image or the instructor paints on your work but I wanted to be extra careful. It's not completed yet but I will try to get back to it sometime this week. The rest of the class was working on hands or finishing up pieces. I'll get back to hands another day as I thought this piece was interesting to work on.
I'm posting a slide show of some of the pieces done by the workshop artists and it is so exciting to see portraits with different views and experimental media. Myrna opened our minds to other ways of approaching people painting. Thanks, Myrna. We are grateful you came to Texas to show us some of your California ways. We'll keep in touch through email and blogs. Myrna has a great blog and she has a monthly challenge going where artists share and comment on their work. You may see similar photos on her slide show on her blog. .
It was going to be necessary for me to leave early as Canvas by Canvas had a reception award function to attend in Graham (about 2 hours away) at 6:00. I will post a slide show from Graham later.