Wow.

Today I started a five-day workshop with Carol Marine, and I'm whooped. And we only painted about 90 minutes out of the day!

Just trying to absorb the knowledge flowing out of Carol is exhausting. Fortunately, she is funny as well as smart, and she is an expert at feeding her students information in an organized and entertaining way. There is just so much to learn, and as she says, painting is hard.

We had about an hour this afternoon to set up a still life and paint it as we wanted to, as Carol walked around the room getting an idea of each painter's style and skill. Some of us fiddled with the lights and objects too much, which ate into our painting time. Guess who.

This is a iPhone photo of my set-up. I love red bell peppers. Yeah, there are a lot of bumps.

We then did an assignment to study value — doing a quick painting using only one dark color, and three main values in varying proportions. I finished this pomegranate in about 15 minutes, and then returned to my bell peppers. 

I was able to sort of finish the peppers, although I wasn't happy with the result. Ever notice how bumpy peppers are? Lots of planes, each with a reflection and/or shadow. I couldn't get a good photo, as the room lighting was challenging, but here's an idea. I do like the greens.

©2013 Cindy Greene

I'm very excited about tomorrow. I know it will be another full day, and I can't wait.