Robert Burridge Workshop ~ Cloudcroft NM ~ Thursday, Friday, Saturday

This is one of my paintings from the Robert Burridge workshop and I agree, it doesn't look like a tree or a meadow or clouds. Several of us decided to do some figures without the landscape element.
This is going to be a good day – no rain and no plein air. Today we painted on our starts and tried to finish several and watched Bob demo his “Fix Up Day” with some starts but he knows they will be abstracts. We learned about varnishing our paintings and began putting them on the wall as The Cloudcroft Art Workshops had invited other members of the Chamber of Commerce to an art opening from 6-8. Classes all summer provide instruction in every medium and what a great place this has been for energizing our art spirit and being able to paint with new friends in a beautiful setting. Bob says to be creative, you have to be incredibly positive and believe that anything is possible. I know that his class today posted some incredibly lovely paintings for the reception. I’ve posted a slide show of some of the work below. For the evening meal, we enjoyed a great Big Daddy’s special tostada and blackberry cobbler with ice cream and home to a big fire.

Friday was devoted to marketing tips and more in depth demo of negative painting. Saturday was the opening of the July Jamboree in Zenith Park with 60 artists showing their work and the sun was shining in the morning while the artists were setting up and getting ready for the day's sales. We headed home about noon and I can't attest to the rest of the weekend's weather.

The slide show below shows a sample of some of the work done in the workshop.

Robert Burridge Workshop ~ Cloudcroft, NM ~ Monday

Bob's Tree Example


Bob ready to paint large and loose.


Cloudcroft Art Workshops

Robert Burridge 5 Day Workshop “The Burridge Plein Aire Experience”, June 7 - 11, 2008, Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Here we are acrylic painting in a charming mountain village and it is 9000 feet above stress level. There are about 20 students in the Cloudcroft Art Workshops, the number one workshop in New Mexico. We meet in a large room (the old study hall) of the Old Red Brick Schoolhouse that also houses the library. It rained Sunday and Monday so our outdoor plein air experience may be limited but the class is prepared to paint looser, bolder, and freer in the studio. We began that process today with Bob telling us “We all want to be better and the only way to be better is to paint a lot of bad paintings”. We discussed plans for the week, materials, warm-ups in black and white, with demos and then we were pumped and infused with confidence after being assured this was a “safe place” to be where we could paint for ourselves and our own approval. During the week we will be painting in a series, a series of “what ifs”. Bob is known for sharing information with his students and being accessible for questions. He cautioned that in a workshop setting a painter wouldn’t be doing his best work but can expect to have a couple of great paintings and lots of good starts. He assured us that this was our time as we’ve made the sacrifice to attend and he was present to help with any questions. At the end of the afternoon Bob discussed color and we began some color warm-ups. Students are escaping summer heat and enjoying Cloudcroft hospitality and the cool weather and rain. My Texas friends will find it hard to believe but we enjoyed a fire in the fireplace in our log cabin tonight. The Cloudcroft Art Workshops run classes from June to August, and each Sunday before workshops begin there is an opening reception and setup time from 6-7 p.m which removes lots of Monday morning stress of set up. Tuesday night they host a potluck social. Nice friendly folks here in Cloudcroft and several of the students are previous Burridge students, a high compliment to any instructor. This is my fourth Burridge workshop and I have 2 more planned. Kate Burridge, we miss you.