Second Day of Still Water Workshop

I went to the second session of the "still water" painting workshop taught by Karen Philpott. I am learning a lot from this workshop. I love that it is so motivating for me. I've come home from each of the two I've attended so far, eager to get in my studio and paint!

A side note of general workshop info: One of the best things about this particular workshop is that Karen doesn't demo for HOURS. At some of the workshops I've attended (by both well-known and not-so-well-known artists) the artist would get so wrapped up in his/her own painting that they'd spend literally hours demo-ing how to paint a particular scene. The attendees end up sitting there watching for hours. And of course there are the attendees that hero-worship the artist and ask lots of questions and make lots of flattering comments, and so (in my opinion), the artist is off on a major ego-trip. In an all-day workshop, the demo would last ALL morning. I've had to employ the ever-handy "got to go to the bathroom" move just to stand and move around and get my blood flowing again. That's the reason there are two artists, in particular, that were so long with the obvious ego-inspired demo that I will never take another workshop from them.

Thank goodness, Karen doesn't do that! With Karen, she shows how she begins the painting and how she lays in the main shapes, and how she start laying in the lights, and then sends us to our set-ups to start painting the same photograph. She sets it up so we can see her finished painting of the scene (that she completed and framed before the workshop began) and the one she'd begun in class as a reference. The rest of the day is spent with us painting and Karen right there giving assistance.  It's a great plan of action for a workshop.

Here is my painting from day 2 of this workshop:

Oil on 16x20 linen panel

This week's photo reference was three empty boats tied up to a pier - although the pier isn't in the photo. There is actually the tip of a fourth boat in the far left of the photo, but Karen left that out, and so did I. 

I'm pleased with this painting. I may do a few more touch-ups after it has had time to dry a little.