Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Plein Air Painting with Andy Evansen


Here is some of my work I did in a week long workshop with Andy Evansen. It was so wonderful to paint plein air all day for an entire week! We even had the most perfect weather, too. Andy is such a pleasant and humble teacher. He really tried to help each of us with our struggles to paint loose. He had us work on 4x6 or 5x7 paper in gray scale to practice capturing the values. Andy works very fast and makes it seem so effortless. My favorite quote from him that I will remind myself was "just indicate...". We do not need to paint every brick etc., just indicate it is brick.

My favorite piece is the value sketch in the middle photo. I feel like it has the eurythme I always want to capture. The darks, the movement, the hint, the looseness and the freedom. I did not finish the color image below it. This was all done on site. I didn't get the darks in as dark as in the value sketch. Notice one of the value sketches at top was from one of my plein air paintings from the Cape. The bottom photo is from the last day of the workshop. We painted in the trolley barn down on McKinney St. We did White Rock Lake, Farmer's Market, the West End and Turtle Creek.

This Saturday is the BIG day. The show runs through January 3. But, I would love it if you came by to see me at the reception this Saturday:

Where Texas Gets its Color
The Dutch Art Gallery
10233 E. Northwest Hwy (corner of Ferndale)
1:00-5:00

7 comments:

  1. Your work is beautiful, I find it very hard to not paint the detail, and I will keep the quote in mind "just indicate"!

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  2. I really like these value sketches, particularly the beach, which caught my eye first. I admire the looseness you've achieved in the lower row of that sheet, also. I, too, will have to remember the advice to "just indicate...."

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  3. The value sketches sing - they are so beautiful.
    A whole week of painting plein air in good weather - that must have been heavenly! xx

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  4. All these are very very beautiful Liana. I just loved the fluidity and te looseness in all of them. I think you had a great time with Andy.

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  5. I have an enormous struggle with being loose so I can totally relate! You are streets ahead of me in that department and these tonal sketches are absolutely brilliant - so lively! I'd be very proud of these :0)

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  6. The beach scene and the fellow leaning over his desk are really quite good as well. "Just indicate" Photography is for detail, right?

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  7. This plein air paintings are all so beautiful.
    I love the bottom picture.You are so talented.
    It's not easy to paint such large objects and get the perspective so well!

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Thanks so much for taking the time to leave your thoughts. I love hearing from you!