A Day Out West

West Jefferson, NC, Saturday, July 26, 2008 -- With my watercolor kit and an assortment of framed paintings, I drove to Jefferson Station for a short workshop on watercolor painting for the Blue Ridge Art Clan, a non-profit group of artists. The "Clan" is made up of officers and members from various towns and villages around the High Country, such as West Jefferson, Todd, Boone, Trade (Tennessee), Ashe County and Watauga County. I was the "entertainment" (so to speak) after the regular monthly business meeting.

My demonstration covered all aspects of watercolor, including paper, paint, brushes and techniques for using all of these. I prepared for the demo by first creating a mono-colored study of what I planned to paint. I do studies to layout where objects will go in the painting, determine the value of lights and darks, and generally warm up for the actual painting. I keep these monochromic studies in a binder. This is study I showed at the demonstration:

Demos normally last only about one to one and a half hours. My host Barbara Sturgill later told me that most guest artists don't finish their painting in that allotted time frame. I was no exception. I guess in retrospect I may have babbled on a bit. :-) I do go on when talking about watercolor and painting in general. I really do enjoy all aspects of it. Easy to lose track of time when you're discussing something you love.

I barely got any paint on my paper by the end of my talk. Just enough to make one wonder if I was actually going to demo anything or not! I'll show you the demo piece in my next blog.

At any rate I guess it went all right. Nobody threw rotten tomatoes at me! I did promise to complete the painting so that those interested could see where I was heading when the whistle blew for lunch!

L8ter,

Wetbrusher