Summer Heat, Painting, Workshops...
I’ve been bad about responding to comments on the blog. Sorry about that. I’m trying to pay a bit more attention to the site now. To answer questions I’ve been asked about the prize I won at the Door County Plein Air Festival, I was awarded a “people’s choice” award which was given to an artist, not for a specific painting but for their body of work from the week of the festival.
As for painting, I’m getting out to do a fair amount of painting these days, but the heat is wearing me down. It’s been unusually hot here in Maine, now that it’s finally warmed up. I’m getting some decent painting done, but I’m also spending alot of time struggling with my work. I’m wiping out a lot of canvases and having a hard time getting work that I’m happy with. These things come in phases. I was really happy with how I was painting during the week in Door County, but when I got home it felt like things fell apart a bit. In the last few days things have picked up a bit more again, and I’m feeling a little better about my work. But it’s always tough to go through the rough patches when it feels really hard to pull a painting together. I think these things tend to catch me later in the summer most years as I get worn down a bit.
Also, I taught a workshop in Damariscotta this past weekend and had a really good time with the group. It was a hot, clear, sunny, great weekend to be painting. We were mostly working in a quiet harbor with a great variety of scenes. The class was a really easy group of people, who were fun to work with. We had a full class of 12 people and everyone was working really hard to improve and asking some good questions. It’s tiring, but fun to teach a class. It’s interesting to notice that part of the class is about technique, but a big part is about teaching people to see things more carefully, and pointing out the subtle things that nature does with light and color. It was a fun experience and has me looking forward to the Sept. workshop I’m teaching in Rockland. That will be a 5 day class, and I’m hoping to get to play around with some fun exercises with that group since we’ll have so much more time together. I’m starting to feel more confident about my teaching, and I’m enjoying these workshops a bit more than I used to.
Posted on Monday August 17, 2009 | 3 Comments
3 Responses to “Summer Heat, Painting, Workshops”
Leave a Reply
It was an wonderful workshop, Colin, and I think your new format is even better than that you used for the May workshop. Indeed, you taught us to see more than we had before. I think everyone was really pleased with what they learned. I know I was. And as to wipe offs, it is so good for us students to hear that guys like you can be unsatisfied with their work as well. We just need to have the guts to wipe them off! Thanks for a wonderful class.
Dude, you ROCK!
Hi Colin, Sounds like you’re having a good summer out there. If you can find a spicy Thai curry or something, that will make the outdoor heat seem really mild
Nice piece by the way too -