Sorry it has been so long-I promised to be consistent, but Thanksgiving, then Christmas preparations have taken time, not to mention I rearranged my studio -but that is another blog.
The next three artists I want to highlight for the Lowell Franciscan Life Process Center are Jennifer Balkan, Edee Joppich, and Aline E. Ordman.. Jennifer Balkan  will be there April 1-3. What I like about Jennifer's paintings are her bright colors and that her figures are in unconventional poses. I would love to take a workshop with Malcom T.  Liepke, but he doesn't give them, so I am considering Jennifer's workshop(April 1-3 2016)

This  is one of Malcolm T. Liepke's.
Here is one of Jennifer Balkan-"Blue Moon II "

Her's are not as refined-if that is the correct word-and seem a little more of a caricature, but she uses a lot of color in her skin tones like he does, and her figures are close to the viewer like his although not quite as close.
The next workshop that appeals to me is by Edee Joppich (April 21-24 2016). Notice it is one day longer.Most of the workshops are for three days, but she is  giving a four day one. Edee is from Detroit Michigan and is primarily watercolor and collage. She owns Jopich's Bay Street Gallery gallery in Northport , Michigan. http://www.edeejoppich.com/gallery.html .

I think her workshop would be interesting to find out how she constructs her images and what kinds of  materials she uses and if she alters them and how . Also,  how hard it is to find buyers-people are cautious to spend money on oil paintings which if painted correctly can last hundreds of years-how do you convince them to spend money on an image made of unconventional (so to speak)materials?Maybe her materials are all archival. This will take more research, but this is what struck me when I perused the list of teachers at FLPC. Her style is very different from the other artists I really like ( and will  feature in future posts) so it could be a really big stretching and learning curve for me.
The last artist I will highlight today is Aline Ordman (May 13-15 2016). She works in oils and pastels and the feature of her workshop is painting from photos. This appeals to me because much of what I want to paint is from my walks-and the highway department frowns on me setting up in the road to paint plein air so photos I must take.(Because I wear braces I cannot take trek over uneven ground so getting off the road to paint that view is seldom possible.) She is an impressionist painter.

This painting is called "Frolic". Her colors appeal to me and I like "happy" paintings. This is interesting because the figures are so close to the right edge. Of course MOST people read a painting(at least in the West) from left to right. I am not one of them.I tend to enter a painting from the right. Painter Ian Roberts says you should design a painting so it is "entered" with the viewer in mind as if  he is standing directly in front of it. That seems fairly logical, when you think about it.

I would love to take one of his workshops. This is one of his paintings "Dogwoods at Kalopore". Sadly, he is NOT giving a workshop at FLPC.At least, not in 2016