Collie Whisson and Jon Redmond hold Artist Workshops at FLPC in Lowell Michigan for 2016

My wish book arrived via e-mail with all the workshops available in 2016 at the Franciscan Life Process Center in Lowell Michigan. I need to buy some winning lottery tickets to avail myself of all the wonderful artists Art Director Kathy Bechtal has lined up ! I have a process for elimination, and money is not the first criteria;what fun would there be in that?
The first thing I do is read through the line up and see who is coming, the artists particular media, and the thrust of their workshop. Then I sigh,  because they all sound good, and I can't take them all, money aside, because my husband would feel neglected. Then, I write down all their names and look up their websites, read their bios and artist statements  and then look at images of their work. This takes some time-and is very enlightening. 
Then I start crossing off workshops. The first ones I cross off are any I have previously taken-that usually eliminates-one to.... none. oh well. Then it's media I am not using or don't want to learn.Let's face it art supplies are expensive and to keep trying new media requires usually quite an investment. This actually is somewhat relieving, because it narrows my choices. After that it is the focus of the workshops, for instance -I don't like to paint still lifes so those are dismissed, then the artist's style. They are a wonderful artist, but I am not interested in hyper realism or whatever.Then after the first of the year, I get the dates for my husband's vacations, and that eliminates more, and the Mary Free Bed Art Exhibit weekend is also eliminated and Grand Rapids Art Prize-if I am entering.  But, I don't have those dates yet (except for Art Prize), so I have gone from a list of  twenty to eight. I am still not looking at finances. That comes after the final elimination of dates. I need to sell more paintings so I can take more workshops!
Here is a link to all of the workshops so you can see the variety Kathy has engaged. List of workshps and images of the artist's work
I am so blessed that this facility is so close to where I live. It is close enough I  can drive daily to the workshop which saves me travel expenses as an overnight guest or flying expenses.
There is one other criteria which eliminates my attending a workshop-sadly that is is if not enough students sign up for the lessons. Classes are small-fifteen is the most I have seen.  Wouldn't it be nice to be wealthy enough to sign up, and if there weren't enough students I could just give some scholarships and fill the class or just make up the difference and still have the instructor come for fewer students. One can fantasize.
One really cool artist coming is Collie Whisson (Sep 2-5)-all the way from Australia!

English-Rooftops by Whisson
His art book -"Creating Impressionist Landscapes in Oils one of the first art books I purchased. Perhaps, that isn't something I should mention-I've had it awhile and he might wonder why I am not at this point teaching a class myself.............(yes, his is one I want to attend-along with Jon Redmond (July8-10)

,This is by Jon Redmond titled Penobscott -Bay
Other artists I am interested in attending their workshops are(and I will be uploading an image of their work in my next blog:
Jennifer Balkan (April 1-3), Catherine Kehoe, (Aug17-20), Eric Bowman(June24-26),
Zoey Frank(May 27-29), Edee Joppich(April 21-24) and Aline Ordman (May 13-15)

plein air experiment

Monday I got up early to conduct my painting experiment. Okay, so it wasn't all that early, but it was before noon-8:30 AM to be exact when I got outside.  My goal was to capture color and values to compare with the same scene from inside the house so I didn't worry about composition, just some contrast. Initially I was just going to paint color planes, but I did a bit more...........although it is still a quick study.
My choices were limited. I wanted a view from the house that wasn't all tree leaves, and was on the first floor. I didn't know how fast the sun would change and going upstairs is not a fast procedure for me so the ground floor it had to be. And then I wanted something kind of interesting or pretty. I also wanted a counter
or table available so I didn't have to try and rush in with my easel. Of course had I been really prepared I would have set my easel up inside the night before, I did not think of that.  Now, you  know why I was not a science major...........
Outdoor considerations revolved around ease of access back into the house, not facing directly into the sun, a shadow to set up in would be preferable and flat ground . That left out most of the yard, not because it is excessively hilly, but because my husband hadn't been able to mow it, and the grass and leaves were too high for me to walk safely. So I ended up in our driveway, about 15 feet from our side door, below the kitchen windows.
I divided my canvas in two horizontally, deciding to paint the top the outside view, and the bottom the inside view.  The same view except for the vantage point, but not as drastic as if I had been upstairs. I painted my neighbor's field and his out buildings.  Here they are:

The inside one is darker, but not by a great deal-one or two values. I tend to paint  my values too dark outside -I'm working on that so it may have been lighter than what I painted it .It looks like I messed up the tree inside or the sun changed enough that it wasn't as dark as the outside one when it should have been darker,. One other consideration may be the distance of the subject matter. The farther away something is the less contrast, and this view was about 1/8 of a mile away . Corot advised "Begin you foreground fifty feet away."(from Carlson's Guide to landscape Painting by John F. Carlson).
 Today I also sent a dozen  paintings to Lyons District Library , 240 E. Bridge St., Lyons, MI. My paintings will be on display until the Wed . before Thanksgiving. Their hours are Mon: Noon-7:30,   Tues/Wed/Thurs:10am-6:30pm, Fri&Sat:10am-2pm-, and Sun-closed.