By Alexis Lavine
Hello to everyone who painted with me last September at Amarillo Art Institute. I hope this letter finds you well, painting well and often, and enjoying Spring in Amarillo!
Spunky and I have been planning another watercolor workshop in August, and I am so looking forward to coming back to Amarillo and AAI! I hope that you will be in town and will sign up for it.
Here are the details:
“From Ordinary to Extraordinary”
August 14-16 @ AAI
I developed this workshop after an interesting plein air experience in St. Croix a few years ago. I was with a large (20+) group of plein air painters, at a lovely home which had several expansive porches overlooking the ocean. Virtually all of the painters were out on the porches, painting the “million dollar view.” I painted inside, where my eye was attracted to an old, paint-spattered ladder with a can of paint sitting on top of it. The other painters thought I was nuts. Why wouldn’t I be outside painting the sparkling Caribbean sea and the shapes of the cliff? Truly, I thought that my subject was much more interesting and it was certainly different. Here is the result. I called it “Redecorate.”
So – after this experience I thought a lot about the fact that many of us feel like we have to find the PERFECT, fabulous, ideal, picturesque subject in order to make a good painting. And that’s just not true. Oftentimes there are fascinating, surprising, engaging subjects right at our feet – – if we just allow ourselves to see them.
So this workshop will be all about painting those humble subjects and making great paintings from them. It’s all in the seeing, designing, and interpreting. Fun! And exciting too!
I will have several watercolor demonstrations planned for you, using “ordinary” subjects. I’ll paint for you and give you lots of useful information about everything that goes into making them, from my first idea to my last stroke on the paper. We’ll have at least one group critique plus lots of individual painting time and one-on-one help. Please tell your friends they are invited too. And people working in other media are welcome too. Aside from my manipulation of watercolor on paper, most of the info I will be sharing will be very useful for people using oils, acrylics, or pastels.
Spunky has three new watercolors of mine on display at AAI – ordinary subjects for you to see. I have also updated my web site recently, so you can see lots of new paintings there. And I’ve been using Facebook every couple of weeks, to post a new painting and some info about it. So if you are on facebook, do look me up.
Oh, and one more thing: I have two paintings in two different juried exhibitions in Texas right now!
Southern Watercolor Society‘s annual exhibition is in Kerrvile, Texas this year!
$350.00Read more
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