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Provence, encore
Provence, encore
Well, this picture sums up the fab week that we all had near Rousillon in Luberon. There were some of the ‘usual suspects’ attending along with a few new faces who soon blended in and we were learning and laughing together.
The weather was perfect. Fresh and crisp first thing, brilliant blue sky and then the temperature started to rise and the parasols had to go up. We were able to work outside all week. Awesome!
This was the first time we had got together in the autumn so we spent some time playing about with colours, painting turning leaves and working in very wet watercolours to achieve some fabulous effects.
They were enchanted by my recent grape and vine pictures and wanted to create their own. So they mixed colours and poured them onto the paper with gay abandon and waited for the sun to work the magic on the drying washes.
I hadn’t quite finished with this theme myself, so I worked on another painting, this time with green grapes, as part of a demonstration. I started with two very thin washes pouring lemon yellow and cerulean blue onto the paper and let it find it’s own way around. When it was dry I searched for blooms and marks that gave me the starting point for deciding where to put my leaves and grapes. This really is a question of letting the paint and the water lead you to your composition. This is all about working with the water and letting go of control, something that a lot of people find difficult.
The group are all moving ahead at a steady pace, learning and gradually coming out of their individual comfort zones (with gentle encouragement from me) to experiment.
There is one things that holds many people back and that is the limited belief they have with regard to experimenting. When I say something like, ‘the shadows need to be darker,’ the response is often, ‘ I’m frightened of spoiling it’. So they play safe by staying in the middle ‘values’ and often end up with a pleasant painting that could have been so much more eye-catching. This is just a question of confidence which can only come with knowledge and experience. If the finished picture is not as you would have liked it to be, don’t fret. The most important thing is to enjoy the process of the ‘doing’, the rest will come later.
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