Anne Watkins NYC's photostream  

Ok Flickr friends - here is this week's demo. A struggle, but still worthwhile and fun. Here is my note to the class, who hung in there with a fine spirit of adventure:

Thanks for a great second class. Was wonderful to see all of you and your efforts. It is enormously gratifying to watch you set up your equipment and plunge right in.

The still lives I set up were complicated. I disregarded my own advice to keep it simple, and paid the price in cabbage struggles and disappearing leeks. What a beautiful piece of sculpture a red cabbage is. Perhaps you can each find something this week that captures your attention the way it did mine, and do a little painting of it. I hope to do some studies of that deeply rich burgundy head of cabbage before it wilts or goes in the soup pot.

As you paint, remember to:

Put your subject in easy view so you don't have to twist to see it.
Place your paper in front of you, and your palette, water dishes and brushes on the side of the hand you paint with.
Keep a piece of towel or paper towel near the water pans to drink excess water from your brush.
Get a second flat brush (1 or 3/4 inch is good) so that you can work quickly in two colors- or two values, a lighter one made by using the second brush dampened with water alone to draw out the color of the first.

Here is the scan of today's demo. I did touch the cabbage and leeks a tiny bit at home. But the subject needs a fresh start, which will have to be launched on a new piece of paper on another day. Vegetables are good for us, right?

See you next week. Have a good one.
Anne

This dog is going to be the death of me!

Light, then dark, then light again. Great day on the river.

It really looked like that! Startling day of contrasts - drama!

Dewey and Billie walking with Susy in Central Park. Well, Billie is running! And is Susy is juggling leads and toys and treats, as always.