Last Day in Matt Smith's workshop

On the last day of Matt Smith's Plein Air workshop it was raining. We met at the Lost Dog Trail and the weather didn't look so hot and everyone decided to go back to the studio at Scottsdale Art School. Matt had a bunch of pictures we could pick out to paint from and of course I picked out a Colorado snow type of landscape- at last something I was familiar with!

It was easier painting in the studio and it was nice to hear what Matt was saying to everyone when critiquing. After we were done, Matt did a beautiful demo of a rocky ledge. It was a breathtaking piece when he was done. We talked more about materials and colors- and how to prepare plein air panels etc... then time to start home.
This workshop was extremely valuable to me. Matt taught me the importance of keeping my palette fastidiously clean. By the last day of the workshop, I was cleaning it so much that I felt that maybe I was getting a little anal but I did notice a positive change in my paintings.

He taught us the importance of having good equipment and materials. He uses a lot of his painting supplies from Sourcetek and they carry many items that artists can't find in most other places. I ordered all of my panels from Sourcetek before I left because I just didn't have time to make any and they were wonderful to paint on. I am going to order some brushes from Sourcetek and of course I always get my Miracle Muck from them.

Watching Matt paint was extremely important as well. He has a beautiful type of calligraphy when laying in the painting right from the start. All in all it was a very valuable class!

Matt Smith Plein Air Workshop

The next day of Matt Smith's Plein air Painting workshop was at the Tonto Forest area- beautiful indeed! Yet, the sky had some wispy awful high clouds that did absolutely nothing for the light. Matt decided to go ahead and start with a demo and picked a very difficult long range vista to paint. Things were going along Beautifully when he completely lost all light which changed the scene incredibly. He did a beautiful job but didn't like it so just wiped it out on the spot-- I about cried.....

This is a picture of the scene he painted- well I tried it later- the same scene which was really stupid and it didn't turn out at all well - so I'm not going to post it-- sorry..

This is a picture of Kitty and me --Kitty is on the right- she is from Long Island and a very experienced painter . We carpooled to the sites since we stayed at the same hotel- it was fun having Kitty to hang with. I am so glad I don't have my hat on in this picture since it is huge and swallows my head up-- it is a Smoky Bear hat and I know I look ridiculous in it- I will have to get a new hat- I want to look more like Coni - when she goes painting she looks like she's going out to a fancy coffee shop. Gee my hair looks kind of wild!! eek

I decided to to this painting in the last hours of the day and was in a hurry because we went to Matt's house for wine and cheese. I was just loading up when he came barrelling up in his cool FJ LandCruiser( just like mine but with much larger tires- I am so jealous!) and yelled "are you coming?" We all followed him back to his beautiful home checked out his studio and fabulous collection of art.

The Desert is Tough to Paint

Matt started out the morning doing an absolutely beautiful painting of the desert- the weather was perfect for painting so he turned us loose around noon to get started.

I truly had a difficult time with this painting- I was trying to put way to much color in the shadows so Matt came over and put some real simple and bold color into the shadows- it looked just right so I didn't touch it again- I then had to resolve some forground and middle ground issues- this is what I came up with- I just think the desert is hard- all those fuzzy bushes everywhere- I have a hard time differentiating the form of one thing to the next- one nice thing, there is some beautiful color in the desert....

Matt Smith Workshop- Day One

The first day of Matt's workshop consisted of morning lecture as he talked about values, color, shapes and trying to create excitement on the canvas. He talked about color selections and told us the colors he uses in the field.

He did a very nice demo from a picture and he worked it like magic- made it look easy too- which fired me up for painting in the field that afternoon..

We ended up going to Lost Dog Trail with beautiful views all around and everyone started to work. Matt's only warning was "watch where you are walking and don't walk into the jumping cactus which will burrow into your feet and will be extremely difficult to get out."

I decided to walk back to the Cruiser to get my camara (why do I forget these things?) and I walked into some cactus. I spent some time trying to pull pieces of cactus out of my socks and then decided I better get to painting.

I was about halfway through the painting when Matt came around to see what I was up to. First of all, the cactus on the left side of the painting was really quite large and he said it overpowered my canvas so he cut it down to size. And then he said "Um, Sue" and I said "Yes Matt, " and he said "You put your cactus right in front of that mountain over there- and that mountain happens to be a landmark around here- it's called Camelback Mountain and important to people - you really shouldn't do that." Oops!

More tomorrow.......

A trip through the desert

Well, I was off to Matt Smith's plein air painting class and got an early start on Sunday morning- I had wanted to leave by 6:30 but I ended up driving to my studio first to pick up more panels to paint on (one can never have too many panels!) This is a picture of the alpenglow as I was traveling through South Fork, Colorado.

My Garmin navigational device took me on a wild ride through the desert and so I thought I knew which way I was going but really didn't have a clue-- this is a picture of turning outside of Cortez Colorado and heading off towards Teec Nos Pos- I wish I know how to pronounce that.

As I worked further south , the mesas became richer in color - I think this picture was taken close to Chinle which is super close to Canyon de Chelly - I should have stopped and checked it out but I was trying to stay within a certain time frame to get to my sister's house in Anthem, AZ before dark. I made it in time and tried to prepare myself for class the next day- a drive into Scottsdale as class will start at 9:00 am.

Happy New Year!

Waking up early in the morning can have it's benefits. The day is still and a slight fog covers the earth before the sun breaks through in it's glory. Winter in Colorado can be harsh but the beauty is so incredible - especially the mornings. Happy 2009!