Carla O’Connor Workshop, Day 4, Thursday, October 11, 2007 ~ Lubbock, TX ~ Art Blog

Nancy's 11 x 15 gouache on 140 hot press paper
Painted today in the workshop NFS

(This post is the fourth in a series about a workshop in Lubbock, Texas. Please read previous posts to get the full story).
Our last drawing day with the model and she was a cutie, a granddaughter of one of the members and enrolled at Texas Tech and who wouldn’t want to try and draw her. Carla grabs her timer and gets us going and then we hear her familiar, Change, Change. She can be a tyrant at 9:00 in the morning when you want to drink coffee and visit with your neighbor but she has her rules so we fall in line and wonder “Is this painting potential?” Again she stops us with “Gather around” for a mini demo on how to design the whole page. Today it was the design principle “Imagination” and most of us failed miserably when she gave us an assignment. Let it be a wake up call for us. She gave us a list of things to include in the drawing and most of us put them about in the same places with little imagination. She wanted Original ….something that no one else thought of. We did more sketches and set ups for a future painting with just a few marks on the page since we’d have the model for a short time she wanted us to get the information down and paint them on Friday. In the afternoon we painted and Carla circled the room answering questions and seeing if the students wanted any suggestions or help. At 4:00 workshop participants were invited to a WTSC’ members home, Gale Webb. We had a lovely time still talking art and eating lasagna provided by Orlando’s Italian. We were privileged to have some chat time with each other and Carla. Thank you, Gale and Jerry, for your hospitality. Gale will be giving a workshop in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in April 2008 for the SWS.
Lubbock has a great evening of art, music and food the first Friday of each month and it showcases local art. Maps are provided and free trolleys run and the event is free and open to the public. First Friday Art Trail runs year round on the first Friday of each month from 6-9 p.m.
November 10 and 11, 2007 there is an Artist Studio Tour planned. Pick up a map and catch a free ride on a Citibus and they will run continually in a loop. Plan to Take in the Local Color, the tour, and visit 9 participating studios, with 50 artists sharing studio space. There will be painting/drawing, ceramics, fiber, glass, gourds, jewelry, leather, metal, miniatures, mixed media, photography, and wood.

Lubbock is a happening place when it comes to art.
Other blogs where I post:

http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/

http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com/
http://myspace.com/nancystandlee
TO VIEW MORE PAINTINGS OR PURCHASE: Go to Paypal on http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com/
Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often

Carla O'Connor Workshop, Day 1, October 8, 2007 ~ Lubbock, TX ~ Art Blog

Carla O'Connor

Nancy's first day effort 11 x 15 Seated Lady Watercolor and Gouache on Hot Press Paper

I am loving this first day of the Carla O’Connor Workshop. I put down my $50 deposit last year while in Lubbock for the George James workshop. I’d seen Carla’s work online and in art magazines, admired it, and decided if there was a way possible I wanted to take from her. It happened that it was back to back with the Robert Burridge in Mendocino, Ca. and I arrived home from that one Saturday afternoon, stayed up until 1:00 a.m. getting ready, and left Sunday for this one, but I’ve made it and didn’t fall asleep in class today.
I left Arlington about 8:30 a.m. Sunday and put on the cruise and drove like a mad woman to get unloaded and to the 3:00 demo which was about a five hour drive. I couldn’t help but compare the California twisty, turn signs I’d seen the previous week to the strait as an arrow ones I saw on Sunday. The most curved one was a slight curved arrow when the interstate narrowed down to one lane for road construction. The landscape didn’t change much from open land and ranches, with lots of oaks and mesquites, until after Abilene. On into west Texas, cotton was growing and oil wells began to pop into view. One farm had harvested the cotton and it was stacked and looked like giant loaves of bread with a silver covering over the tops. I made it with one gas stop, cheese crackers for lunch and not near enough coffee. I kept listening to country music and writing down possible painting titles from the lyrics.
Because of some miscommunication Carla didn’t make it on Sunday for the demo but we enjoyed one of the WTWS society member’s demo. Carla will demo Tuesday night instead. She is a delight. She said this was a first for her to miss a demo but as of late she’s been having some “firsts”…well, join the club.
Our class runs from 9-4 and is sponsored by the WTWS. They have a converted fire house for a meeting room and it is wonderful. We had a clothed model this morning in the center of the room and all of our tables were around the model stand in a circle and there was room enough for Carla to walk by for mini critiques. I would say this is one of Carla’s strengths. She gives a thorough explanation of the exercise and then is on the move constantly seeing each student’s work and speaking with them. She’d given us a handout about principles and elements of design and we tackled the first on the list today. It was all about SHAPES. She said, “I’ll give you about 10X more information than you can handle until another workshop with me next year”. I hope. I wish. She promises to tell a good “joke” after lunch to encourage people to get back on time. Carla says she is not a big colorist and likes grays and what do you expect as “I live in Seattle”.
She stressed to forget about the figure and look for shapes. I don’t think I did that very well during the painting session the last 1 ½ hours of the class, I see her my lady's arm needs more work. She told us not to pull it back to realism and I did and I'll try to follow directions better on Tuesday.
The first drawing exercise was something I’ve never done – short gesture drawing BUT we couldn’t change our sheet of paper. We kept working on that one sheet and overlapping the shapes. Finally, we changed sheets and drew some figures and divided it into 4 sections to look for possible figures for paintings. She cautions us to put your mark down with authority. We are creating the skeleton of the painting and you want your bones to be strong. I highlighted this statement after I didn’t do it “Resist the urge to make it REAL. Make a DESIGN.” We did exercises like the “raisin head”, no curved lines, “brain strain” and “dead body” and later we painted on quarter sheets in the afternoon.
After lunch, we had a group meeting to discuss some painting techniques with her admonition “All paint is the same, just different binders and use the fuzzy end of the stick”. All I can say is that Carla has certainly learned how to use the fuzzy end of the stick. Her palette is another story. Her arrangement was given by “I put reds on one end and blues on the other.” Yes, she’s a joy. She saved her old paint in the lid to use as a wonderful gray “Mother color” and she is not continually wiping it clean. Many of her paintings are done with a gold gesso ground on hot press paper. They have a beautiful glow. She prefers round brushes and less water for the gouache paints.
Creative Catalyst has made a dvd of her watercolor instruction but it is not available yet. You can always email them to be notified when it is available.

Other blogs where I post:

· http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com
· http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com
· http://myspace.com/nancystandlee
· TO VIEW MORE PAINTINGS OR PURCHASE: Go to Paypal on http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com
· Eat Well ~ Paint Your Food ~ Laugh Often