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Monday, September 24, 2012

Plein air on Madeline Island


Two weeks ago I was at the weeklong workshop that Marc Hanson did at Madeline Island School of Art.  The painting is a 6" X 8" oil which I did (yes, that's me painting it) in the field behind the School.  We drove about 8+ hours through central Wisconsin to the town of Bayfield, caught the ferry to Madeline Island and arrived at the school in about 5 minutes.  The school has a great facility for painting -- plenty of light if you're painting indoors.  We did our painting at the beach at the town park.  While I liked the painting I did (I'll post those later), I did not like the larger painting I did from the study.  That was Marc's plan for the class: paint outdoors and then do a larger one from your studies.  We did a black and white value study, then a larger full color study.  I did what I was supposed to, worked on the larger one.  When I had had enough I stopped and went outside and did this one.  Marc's comment??? ---- he liked my clear and bright color and brushwork.  In case you are interested....Marc is a very nice person, an excellent artist and a good cook -- he makes an excellent mango salsa.  OK, so now that I have taken 3 workshops --- Frank Serrano, Ralph Oberg and Marc Hanson --- what have I learned??? --- I learned that I know what I'm doing while I'm painting.  I paid a lot for the classes, gas money and lodging...but I'm sure that's worth knowing.