October 2009 Workshop- Painting Flowers

The workshop was held at Pedro Point Creative, in Pacifica, California. Pacifica is about 15 minutes south of San Francisco. Pedro Point Creative's web address is: www.ppcreative.com.

I chose white plumeria flowers with yellow centers as the subject matter. We focused on painting the shadows in the flowers first, creating depth. We used five different colors in the shadows to create interest. Next came the yellow centers of the flowers, followed by indigo in the background. After glazing over the indigo, the lush green foliage emerged. Here are some of the paintings of the participants:

This weekend's workshop was a huge success. We had a great time painting and the results were fantastic. Here are a few photos from the end of the last day.

I still have a few spaces available in my December 4-6, 2009 workshop. The subject will be "Painting Waterlilies and Lilyponds". If you are interested, please email or call me. Contact information is on my website.

Grapes Done!

I ended up removing the little green plastic tape that was fluttering on the left side of the painting, and painted in one of my white highlighted leaves in the upper center of the painting, and it was much improved. Thank goodness for the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser! My lighting is bad in this photo; there are areas in the grapes in the original paintings that are more dark like the grapes in the right hand side. I'll be hanging this painting at Viewpoints Gallery in Los Altos on November 2, and will be having a reception on November 13, from 6-8pm.

Grapes

Just added another coat to the dirt at the bottom of the painting and lots of little details in between grapes on the left.

Grapes

Grapes seem like such a nice subject to paint until you realize you have to paint every single grape. Argh!

I'm using cobalt blue, indigo & perylene violet.

I do like all the interesting shapes in the leaves. When I paint them, I just try to paint the shapes I see in my reference photo and don't try to think of the shapes as leaves. It all seems to work out in the end.

Tropics on hold-- Going Grape!

Hi, I've had to put my tropical paintings on hold temporarily. I'm having a show with another artist at Viewpoints Gallery in Los Altos, CA beginning November 2. The theme is "Fall Into Color", so I'm painting fall related subjects. Here's one of my new paintings:

I've begun a new painting of grapes on the vine from a photo I took at a winery in Kenwood, CA. It's very large, 38 x 25". I'm using a 40x30" sheet of 300lb Fabriano cold press. It's nice not to have to stretch the paper. The pressure is on. I've got to complete a lot of new paintings in time for the November 2 show because I don't have a bunch of fall themed work laying around. The reception for the show is November 13, from 6-8pm, 315 State Street, Los Altos, CA. Please come!