Workshop Painting #4

This was the last pose of Zhaoming Wu's workshop. As usual, numbers were drawn and we all took our places. As luck would have it, I chose the worst possible spot. No, really. It was the worst spot! I determined that it was a learning experience and that I just had to make do. Zhaoming asked if I wanted to move since several of our group left earlier in the day. So, move I did but, it took forever to get started because I knew we had precious little time remaining. I wiped the drawing off four times. I just couldn't let my last painting be the worst and decided better no painting than a bad one. Once we returned from break we had a little over 2 hours to paint. So, as you can see, it needed more refining but, I will leave it as is. A workshop is a place to learn and, over all, I am very pleased with the result.

This sweet model is Amy, the daughter of one of the other artists in the workshop. She did a great job!

11"x14", oil, not for sale

Workshop Painting #3

We had two models each day of the workshop. To keep things orderly, we were divided into groups A and B and then were assigned individual numbers. Whichever letter we were initially assigned stayed the same throughout the workshop but, the numbers were drawn daily to decide where we would be positioned around each model. Sometimes the draw was lucky and sometimes not so lucky but, it was a very fair system.

For this model, I could not have been more pleased. I was so happy that she was going to be our group's model for the day and, when I drew this particular spot, I was over the moon! This was one of those days when everything falls into place and the painting almost paints itself. This beautiful model is Michele.

11"x 14", oil, private collection

Workshop Painting #2

This is the second painting I did in Zhaoming Wu's workshop. No, you didn't miss the first one. It is not fit to see the light of day.

We were told to bring five canvases, one for each day of the workshop, and, depending on the lecture, we had 1/2 a day to a full day to work on a pose. Most important was to get the gesture correct. If not, the painting had no chance of success. I feel I captured the model's gesture, thanks to many weeks of gestural life drawing classes. Which, I must add, was time and money well spent.

You can see much of the underpainting still showing through. The combination of too much medium and a slippery oil primed canvas made painting quite a challenge. Because time was of the essence, the medium did not dry enough to keep the painting from getting a bit muddy. One lesson learned, use less medium on an oil primed canvas!

Over all, I was very pleased with how the painting came out and determined to do better on the next one. Stay tuned. I think you will agree that much progress was made on the ones that follow.

11"x14", oil, not for sale

Workshop with Zhaoming Wu

There are no words to describe how honored I feel to have been able to study with modern master, Zhaoming Wu. Many thanks to Qiang Huang for coordinating this workshop and to his wife, Song, for helping everything run so smoothly. There are so many things I would like to share but simply cannot find the words. It was a week in artist Heaven, to say the least.

In the next few days I will share some of my paintings from the workshop. Meanwhile, please enjoy this one by the Master, Zhaoming Wu!