Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Chinese Painting and Plein Air Painting

What a great few days it has been of painting. On Friday, our painting club had lesson two from Linda Lashbrook, on Oriental Painting. It might not be something I pursue full time, but to stay fresh in my own work I find it important to challenge myself with different painting styles and techniques. That is just how I work but you may tackle your own art work differently. I guess that is what makes art work so personal.
 
In the workshop we practiced our fish and bamboo from lesson one. Let me tell you it was definitely necessary to refresh ourselves with the specific strokes. Later in the morning we learnt some techniques for flowers and we focused on the chrysanthemum. I am looking forward to practicing  flowers more.
 
Who doesn't like panda's and someday I hope to have the pleasure of painting them plein air but for this workshop we relied on photos our instructor provided. Too much fun!!! I only wish I had a photo of the cardinal birds Joyce painted to show you. She captured them in a few strokes so they had so much movement.

San Diego Zoo Pandas
I also had an afternoon to plein air sketch and paint. The drawing was done in ink without pencil drawing first, so it was a challenge. Sometimes if leaves or blossoms were missed, you just had to keep going and make it up a little.
Plein air Journal Sketching
'Pot of Petunias'

1 comment:

Win Dinn, Artist said...

It looks like a ton of fun to be learning those Chinese brush strokes. I am, however, loving that Pot of Petunias sketch. It's especially cheerful when we're experiencing -18 degree Celcius weather here!