Mel Stabin workshop: first days (and my palette colors)

(Congress Hall, 5x7)

(The Carroll Villa, 5x7)
One morning after his demo, Mel sent us out to make sketches that we would then paint from. So these are the two I managed before walking to the bakery for some pre-lunch danishes.
The painting below is from the first day. The reference photo always appealed to me, but I'll have to get a lot faster and more confident with my washes to pull it off.

(11x15)
This was my second Mel Stabin workshop in two years. Mel's a great teacher and critiquer and about the sweetest guy imaginable.
He said there are three important things in a painting, in order of importance:
1. Shape
2. Value
3. Color, which is very subjective

Jane asked me yesterday what colors are on my palette. These are the colors that are always on my palette:
aureolin, Indian yellow or new gamboge, cadmium yellow; cadmium red, carmine; cerulean, cobalt, and ultramarine blue; green-gold, sap green and Hooker's green; raw sienna (I think Winsor & Newton is the brightest and most transparent), quinacridone burnt orange, burnt sienna.
I like to have a couple of oranges and the ones I seem to have settled on are Winsor orange and Schmincke's transparent orange.
In the pink-purple range, I have: permanent rose (or quinacridone rose, always!), cobalt violet (which differs a lot from one manufacturer to another, and is sometimes additionally labeled "light" or "dark"--I prefer the light; my current favorite is Winsor & Newton (PV 14) or Sennelier (PV122) in the tube, but I wouldn't recommend buying this color in the pan; in my experience it's usually too hard and oily and doesn't soften up), Holbein bright violet (BV 7.15), quinacridone magenta, quinacridone pink, and a dark blue-violet (dioxazine, usually, but Maimeri Blu's blue violet is beautiful). Opera pink too, which is quite bright for a nice punch but also mixes well.
I'll also add more blues, like manganese--I like it's brightness and transparency--and, a current favorite, indanthrone, or Antwerp for a dark blue. I usually have cobalt teal and thalo turquoise, though I don't seem to use them much.

 

apple blossom

 

(5x7)

Yesterday was the last day of the Mel Stabin workshop, which really fun and enlightening. I hope I can apply some of Mel's ideas ... but for today, it's back to work; I have a lot to catch up on.

Over the weekend I'll post paintings form the workshop and some of the things Mel said.

 

(7x11)

 

(11x15)
This wouldn't have been so bad if I had stopped trying to "fix" it!Too bad i painted it before the workshop: Mel advocates working on an area once, maybe twice, then getting out!

final daffodils '13

(11x15)
The last of the daffodil (paintings ... the daffodils are long gone).
The workshop with Mel is fun, and, of course, mentally exhausting! I'll post about it when it's over ... 

 

(5x7)

iris

So much more fun than tulips! :-)

(half sheet)

This morning begins a 4-day workshop with Mel Stabin in Cape May, NJ. 

tulip

(9x12)
Struggled--though not much and not for long before I gave up and moved on to irises--with tulips, as I do every year. Other people paint them so beautifully--I especially like the paintings where you look into the center ... Why oh why can't I?

a very weak attempt at being Nolde-ish

an utter disaster! oh well.

lemons and white jug again

(9x12)
Wanted to have another go at the jug, to try to get the ellipse at the mouth right ... "Try" being the operative word.
Also painted on a pre-colored ground, this time intentionally, but somehow it just doesn't have the glow of the first (below).  Maybe because, overall, it's cooler; also, the edges of the pitcher are harder, less lost.

 

"milk"

(11x15)
I like this jug, the lettering, which is not so long or complicated as to be a chore, and the little jughandles.
I regret that dark, flat shadow in the bottom one. Tried lifting, but no luck. Maybe I'll darken the background (the background: another cause for regret!) behind it, couldn't hurt.

(11x15)

(11x15)

more daffodils

 (11x15)
More daffodils. I never tire of them, but you think I'd learn something about yellow: I think it's the color I understand least.
The ceramic jug was sent to me by my friend Robin, who went on a quest to find me a Cezanne-ish type pitcher, a thing which I had always coveted.

daffodils

(half sheet)
In progress ...

 

lemons and white jug

(8x10)
This was a happy accident. I was going to paint this setup on a fresh piece of white paper when I saw a sheet that I had at some time toned with aureolin-permanent rose-cobalt blue washes and decided to use it instead.

(11x15)
More with the lemons, and a great little jug I got on eBay.

(11x15)
I thought this painting needed something behind the white jug, so I added this little strip of cloth ... Not particularly happy with the result, but I am happy that I tried something! 

prima fiore

(11x15)
My first try at daffodils this spring. I have a few different kinds ... Right now very delicate, small two-bloomed white daffodils are in bloom. Most of the big yellow ones are done.
I think I paint daffodils better when I don't draw them first; having the drawing makes me want to be "accurate"; not drawing may free me from that, as in the forsythias.

A few sprigs of forsythia, always fun to do.
BTW: I don't want you to think I'm being so productive ... The paintings I have been and will be posting this week were all done over the course of the previous two weeks or so. I'll be running out in a few days!

 A cup I bought at a thrift shop thinking it'd be good in still lifes. Haven't painted it yet!

easter lily

(7x9)
Every year I buy an Easter lily to paint; it's a challenge, but a pleasurable one, getting lost in those leaves ... I like trumpet-shaped flowers, and love the leaves on the Easter lily, so many spiraling up the stem.

little, still, life

(6x8)
A "simple" still life that turned out to be not-so-simple. Not for someone so out of practice.
From a photo for a (April 2010) challenge at A nos pinceaux.

 

complements of spring

Freehand sketches of flowers from my yard. Irises in March!