floral gestures workshop, day one

(5x7)
I'm back from a wonderful two-day workshop with Jackie Saunders.
When we walked into the studio there were buckets and buckets of fresh flowers: Jackie very sensibly had us start by spending the morning painting individual flowers, looking at their shapes and colors. The peonies were gorgeous, but I especially enjoyed the snapdragons--I wound up painting all types of flowers I would never think of even trying to paint and learned that an arrangement needn't be beautiful or perfect to produce a good painting.

 (11x15 sheet)

(5x7)
I experienced a little exasperation with my Fabriano hot press paper, which was much too "soft" and didn't really allow me to do much adjusting or moving of the paint once I'd put it down. (The next day I used a piece of Shelby's Arches hot press, which was much better.)
In the afternoon we made small arrangements. Jackie emphasized that we should move from one flower to another making connections, allowing the colors to fuse. Her demonstrations were inspiring and really made everyone paint enthusiastically!
Jackie also teaches life drawing and I really hope to take a life class with her sometime.

(7x11)