Yesterday's Art

These are a couple of watercolors that I have been working on with my students. The portrait is of a little boy in a magazine ad that I painted along with one of my students to show her what I had learned in my workshop. I still do not have the technique down, but I am working on it. You can also see my "doodling"usually done while showing the girls something or other. When I showed the portrait to Toby and explained that it came from a magazine he said, "Oh good, I was afraid I was suppose to recognize him."

Another of my students worked on a watercolor for an upcoming show. When she was all finished with her painting, I had her try some of the new techniques I had learned. She knocked out a gorgeous painting of poppies in about 15 minutes (sorry no photo). It seems that we all get in ruts of painting the same things and the same way all of the time. Workshops are great for learning new ideas and new techniques and for getting you out of the rut. While at a workshop I try to mimic the teacher. When I get home, I try to incorporate things I learned into my own style. The sunflowers are an example. I dropped in lots of color while the paint was wet (workshop), but I also made a more "finished" or "controlled" painting than I learned in the workshop.