Friday, September 16, 2011

Point Lobos, CA


Point Lobos Study 1, 6 x 8 in.
nfs


Point Lobos Study 2, 9 x 12 in.
nfs

Last week I was able to travel to California to attend the Weekend with the Masters conference and workshop in Monterey. I spent four days soaking in everything I could in a fantastic learning environment, and painting in some very beautiful (but cold!) spots.

These are the first two studies I did--both in Kevin MacPherson's class, and both at Point Lobos. Kevin's emphasis in this class was on simplifying the outdoors--a lesson that continuously bears repeating. Doing a thumbnail sketch, or several, and keeping those simple, can help focus your composition. As Kevin pointed out, there are many things vying for our attention when we paint outdoors. Finding your darkest darks and your sunlight and shadow sides, keeping your lines connected (versus creating various separate shapes), and finding the rhythms that go through your composition help to keep a focused composition.

It was quite foggy, cold, and windy the first two days we were outside--think eight layers--so we got plenty of "gray days" studying in!

-julie davis

6 comments:

Marian Fortunati said...

Looks like you had a successful weekend!

Too bad you got cold weather... Point Lobos can REALLY be glorious!!

Laurel Daniel said...

Thank goodness for that eighth layer and shopkeepers who are ready for any weather condition when that extra layer is required! ;) These turned out great - I especially love the distant layers disappearing into the fog.

Carmen Beecher said...

Simplifying the outdoors--how I struggle with that! This is a wonderful painting.

Susan Roden said...

Wonderful 2 studies and particularly fond of the 2nd, for it's depth and composition. Curious Julie, how much time as devoted for each and did you work more on these later?

julie davis said...

Susan, thank you. I didn't work on them later--they are just as I finished them on location. I'd say the first was 2.5 hours and the second more like 45 minutes.

julie davis said...

Sorry, I have that reversed because I painted them in reverse order of how they're listed--confusion with the uploading order on my part! So, Study 2 was actually done first, 2.5 hours, and Study 1 was much quicker.