PAINTINGS FROM GEO. JAMES WORKSHOP

I hope everyone enjoys the slide show. I didn't get the full names of a few of the participants. The images are reversed, and the color is slightly off but you can still see the beauty and variety. It was such a fun group of people to spend time with. One person came down from Oregon for the opportunity to work with Prof. James. I have put my painting in the slide show and also posted it above. I like the color and value shifts. I had fun with the figures. They are from some of my figure drawings. The imagery in the painting is strange but it was fun experimenting with the ideas of paint application and light and dark patterns. Check out Sandy Maudlin's blog. http://www.sandymaudlin.blogspot.com/ She has shared some additional information for working with YUPO. As soon as I get a free moment, I want to try some of these techniques on the Tyvek.

GEORGE JAMES PAINTING DAY 2 OF WORKSHOP

I am posting the painting sequence that George James went through to show us how he builds a painting. I was sitting in about the 3rd row and was photographing the overhead mirror. You can see the distortions that creates. The final finished piece was taken directly looking at the painting. The color is as close as I can get it but "no cigar" as they say. I hope it gives you some idea of his process.

It is so interesting to take a workshop and experience the "student" mentality as opposed to giving the workshop and watching what others do with your information. I noticed real resistance in myself to painting in a new way. I always make an effort to try it the instructors way, so I did but was unhappy with what I produced and felt "lost" much of the time, not knowing how to proceed. You think you want to paint like someone else but it feels "wrong" when you do it. The other thing I noticed in myself was how quickly I want to give up and tell myself this isn't for me because I'm not any good at it. We don't give ourselves very much time to succeed, do we? Another observation is that, almost to a person, everyone was pretty much painting the way they always do instead of forcing themselves to work in his manner. I think there are two general categories of workshops. The first is a "technique" workshop where you attempt to paint in the style of the instructor. The second is a non-technique workshop where you are focusing on something other than technique and apply the information to your style of painting. The workshops that I give tend to be the latter. The trick for the "technique" type of workshop is to figure out how to adapt the ideas and integrate them into what you already do. It takes some time and experimenting. It seems the older I get the less time I feel I have and the less patient I am with myself. There is no skirting the learning curve. Tomorrow he will demonstrate working with the figure. That should be great fun.

Tonight a few of the workshop participants went out to dinner with George and his wife. He is a very genuine individual, with no prima donna traits. An interesting man with a great deal of experience in the art world and shares generously. I have taken quite a few workshops and have found every instructor, so far, to be very personable. I do hear stories of a few who have delusions of grandeur but haven't met them yet.

Kathy Mitchell is also taking this workshop and did a beautiful painting today. I am posting it with her permission.

GEORGE JAMES WORKSHOP...DAY 1

I spent a very enjoyable day learning to tame Yupo synthetic paper. I have done very few paintings on this material and welcome the challenge to master it...well, maybe not master it ... but at least have more control! Between Mike's (Bailey) class of Watercolor Beyond the Obvious in the next room and many of the participants in the James workshop, I had an opportunity to see lots of friends I don't see often. The morning was off to a great start.

George James is a very personable, relaxed master. He has spent 17 years working on this paper and being a former college professor, he knows how to communicate. He explained everything from how much water to have in the paint, the brush and the paper to how much pressure to apply when leveling the paint with the roller and glazing with a brush. Day one was mostly demonstrating different techniques and then we were unleashed to give it a try ourselves. He makes it look so easy but it takes a lot of practice and skill building to get it just right.

His main goal is to show us how to have control over the paint. His wet into wet technique is not very flowing, just softer edges. He kept emphasizing the goal was to control the paint, while everyone was having so much fun letting the paint flow and run all over the place, totally out of control. We were like kids splashing in a puddle, having the best time. In the morning we worked on small samples...I am going to put mine in my notebook for reference. In the afternoon I started a full sheet to try and put some of the techniques into practice. Tomorrow we will learn about designing the painting.

I have posted one of the samples... mostly it is about glazing. The second one is the painting I started this afternoon. It's not nearly finished but thought I would show it in the beginning stages. I did a sort of floral image much wetter than he suggests for the wet into wet. When that dried, I started going back into different areas with different techniques. Most of this is in the upper right of the painting. I am totally making it up as I go, which is not how I work at all! I think I will really enjoy tomorrow where we will plan the painting first. I am going to try and use my February Pose Maniac figures.