Tom Lynch Waterfalls Workshop

I have finally finished my paintings from the Tom Lynch Waterfalls workshop last weekend at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh.

Colorful Waterfall, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2016

Rocky Waterfall, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2016

Tom painted this scene with us, and also had many other paintings of the same scene from his previous workshops for our reference.  

I like all the color change and splashy water.  I came out of that workshop with paint spots all over my face and eyeglasses!

I drove to our mountain home yesterday for the Thanksgiving holiday.  When I came in view of the ridge lines of the Blue Ridge mountains, I scanned for signs of smoke or wildfires.  I did not see any on the way up, but have been hearing about a new fire in Ashe County.  There has been no rain in the western part of North Carolina for a long time, and the dry conditions plus gusty winds have sent wildfires soaring over thousands of acres throughout North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia.

When we went to town today, we could see the smoke from the Ashe County fire as we approached West Jefferson.  I took a photo from the parking lot at Ingle's grocery store.

This is about twenty miles from our cabin, but we know people whose homes are nearby.  I am thankful for all the firefighters who are away from home, putting their lives at risk to save land and property from fire damage.

Sterling Edwards Landscape Painting Class

Today was a double-header for me at Art of the Carolinas, with both morning and afternoon classes.

First up was Big Brush Landscape Watercolors, with Sterling Edwards.  Sterling lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina.  He has a deep voice, sort of like Sam Elliott.  He was very laid-back and fun to learn from.  Here is the painting that he completed in class today.

Waterfall painting by Sterling Edwards, Art of the Carolinas 2016

Edwards says that he used to do photo-realistic paintings, but now exclusively works with colors  and shapes rather than detail.  He has his own line of Big Brushes with stiff nylon bristles.  He used those in his demo.

I ended up not purchasing his set of brushes.  I used my own brushes, including some that I inherited from my father.  Here is what I came home with today.

Waterfall painting by Jeanne Turner McBrayer in Sterling Edwards' workshop

Sterling helped me add the darks along the waterfall and made it a two-tiered waterfall.

I would like to rework the trees at the top a bit to make them more interesting.

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Contemporary Figure Painting Class

Now I will report on my first class at Art of the Carolinas 2016 with Bob Burridge.  The title was Contemporary Figure Drawing.  The advertised photo example was this:

That is what I thought he meant by a contemporary figure in art.  I was quite surprised to find that it was a Life Drawing Class with a nude model!  It was not embarrassing or awkward at all.  First we did timed sketches in charcoal on gray paper. The model assumed various poses and we sketched until time was called (just a few minutes to start with.)

I will share some of my sketches.  Please note I have never taken a life drawing class before, OR worked with charcoal!

There was a strong emphasis on dark against light and light against dark.

After using the charcoals on toned gray paper, we graduated to adding acrylic paint on watercolor paper.  Bob thought my painting of the seated figure was very successful, but said I should soften and lower the line between dark and light background that is dividing the picture in half right at her elbow.

All together, I probably did eighteen sketches or paintings during the one-day class.

 Did I mention we were to exaggerate the model's features?

I have to say, I really loved this class, and would take any class from Bob Burridge again.  He is fun, down-to-earth, and hugely talented.  He was very encouraging.  And, I would love to take another life-drawing class so I can get better at it. 

This afternoon,  I visited the Art of the Carolinas Trade show at the North Raleigh Hilton.  I came away with some replacement tubes of Holbein watercolor paint at half price, some toned gray paper, a casein spray which is supposed to protect all artwork without mounting under glass, and some new Pigma Micron black pens.  I also got some 11 x 14 gallery-wrapped canvas for only $2.99 each.  I had no problem finding parking, and the lines were not too long for checking out.

Tomorrow I will take a morning and an afternoon class with watercolor artists Sterling Edwards and Tom Lynch.   I can't wait!

Coming This Weekend: Art of the Carolinas!

Only two more days...until my first workshop of Art of the Carolinas 2016!

Held at the North Raleigh Hilton, it is a fabulous trade show with dozens of vendors selling art supplies at big discounts.  But the best part is that art instructors from all over the country will be here offering either three-hour or all-day workshops.

Here is my line-up of classes.

Thursday:  I am taking an all-day class with Bob Burridge on painting figures.  I am a big fan of Bob's videos (Weekly Bob-Blasts) on his website, and have tried many of his techniques.  This one should be fun!  He uses acrylic paints, but I have applied many of his lessons to watercolor painting.

Bob Burridge Painting Contemporary Figures workshop photo, AOC 2016

On Friday I may visit the trade show to stock up on supplies.

On Saturday, I will take two watercolor classes.

In the morning, I will take Big Brush Watercolor Landscapes with Sterling Edwards.  He is a world-renowned artist and teacher.  I will probably end up purchasing some of his "big" paintbrushes.

Sterling Edwards Big Brush Landscapes workshop photo, AOC 2016

In the afternoon, one more workshop with Tom Lynch, this time on painting waterfalls.  I have taken many previous workshops with Tom.  He has been a big influence on me, particularly in the use of bold color. I own lots of his books and DVD's.

Tom Lynch Painting Waterfalls workshop photo, AOC 2016

Hopefully I will have lots of new work to show you after the weekend!

Dramatic Skies Class with Tom Lynch

Last weekend was Art of the Carolinas...a Raleigh trade show and artist instruction conference sponsored by Jerry's Artarama.  I have attended quite a few lessons over the past few years.  In fact, that is how I got started on watercolors.

This year we were away for all but the last day.  I signed up for a Sunday afternoon class with one of my favorite art instructors, Tom Lynch.  The title of the workshop was Dramatic Skies, Clouds, and Sunsets. Here is the photo used for the class information page.

Tom Lynch artwork

I probably was too worn out from the trip to Florida for hubby's surgery, but I did learn some neat tricks.  I think I need to do them again when I am not so wiped out.

We were not aiming for finished paintings in this class, but rather practice of new techniques.

Here is a colorful sky created by letting three different colors of wash blend together.

Here is a big fluffy cloud.  I need to add some more color to this one, I think.

 This one is a fail.  The top one got too dry before the colors could blend.  The bottom one got too wet and got a big water blossom.

The sunlit mountains are a technique I will probably use again.  We did the dark strokes first, then added a wash of orange/gold on top.  The dramatic dark sky also got a little too wet but I like the contrast.

Tom is a good instructor, and I would love to take a more intense class with him.  Perhaps when we are finished getting my husband's cancer treated, I can take a week long class.  Maybe in Tuscany some day?

Watercolor Batiks on Rice Paper

Last week, I took a class with Kathie George at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh.

I had never tried any kind of batik before.  Of course, as quilters, we are all familiar with the lush batik fabrics available to us commercially.  This class combined the art of using wax in making a batik with the art of watercolor painting.  Instead of using fabric, we painted on rice paper.

Kathie is a delightful teacher who had everything prepared for us, including the Ginwashi rice paper, melted wax in small electric pots, watercolor paints on a palette made from a clear CD cover, and drawings and a reference photo.

The way it works is that you trace the original full-size drawing on rice paper with a Pigma marker, then use a different copy of the drawing to add each layer of wax.  The numbered drawings have darkened areas where you apply wax each time.  The wax acts as a resist so that when you paint, the waxed area remains the same color that it was.  The unwaxed areas keep gaining depth of color.  I think we had four or five layers of waxing and watercolor for this fish painting.

                                

Isn't it cool!  I had to add additional paint and even some colored pencil marks when I was finished because my fish kind of ran together.  I love the cool blue and green washes and the little pops of complementary oranges/yellows.

I enjoyed my batik class with Kathie  so much that I tried her technique again at home, using one of her kits.

Sunflowers, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2014

When I did my original batik in her class, I had difficulty seeing the lines of the drawing, which I traced with a Pigma micron .05 pen.  

But what you don't see in the fish painting are the black outlines of the original drawing.  When I traced the sunflowers, I used a Pigma brush marker that was noticeable darker.  You can see the lines clearly, and it was easy to see where to apply wax.  Here is one of the early layers. It almost looks like stained glass.

However, that dark black line remains even at the end of all the waxing and painting.  That is not the look I was going for.

However, I like this piece.  It is painted on Ginwashi rice paper, a very thin, textured paper which is almost like a delicate fabric.  I need to do some experimenting to see if it can be made into an art quilt without the paper tearing when I stitch it.  It might need to be coated with an acrylic varnish first.

Kathie mats and frames her pieces, with the batik mounted on a piece of white mat board.

I will have to figure out what to do with these.  The underwater ocean scene does not exactly fit in with my mountain cabin decor!  It is a really interesting and fun technique, and I recommend taking a class with Kathie George.  I am pretty sure I will be trying this on silk or muslin at some point in the future!  Not sure if watercolor paints will be the way to go on fabric, but stay tuned!

Country Road Watercolor Painting

Here is my project from today's class with Tom Lynch at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh, NC.

A Country Road, copyright Jeanne T. McBrayer

I like the back-lit trees, high color and contrast.  I think I might paint this one again and try to improve the shapes a little.  But this one was a good class with a great teacher.  He was very generous with his time and helped each one of us with his critiques while we were painting.

I bought Tom's book 150 Charts.  It is not sold in stores.  It was pricey, but has lots of helpful techniques, color studies, and how to paint particular items such as trees, water, rays of sunshine/shadow, and waterfall.  I know I will learn a lot from studying this book.  He had a gorgeous mountain creek and waterfall from another class at AOC this weekend.  I wish I had gotten into that class, but it was full.

Creek and Waterfall Painting from Art of Carolinas 2014, Tom Lynch

I have tried two watercolors featuring the waterfall over the dam at our mountain cabin.  I am going to try again one of these days, using some of Tom's hints on contrast and bright color.

Peak Creek Dam at Dogwood Time, copyright Jeanne T. McBrayer

Peak Creek Dam, Creekside View, copyright Jeanne T. McBrayer

Two New Framed Watercolors

I gave my husband, Charlie, two of my framed watercolor paintings for Christmas.

The first one reminds me of the New River in Ashe County, North Carolina.  We have gone "tubing" down that scenic river many times.


Mountain Creek, by Jeanne T. McBrayer, 2012

 

 

It was begun in a class with Tom Jones at Raleigh's Art of the Carolinas.  The object was to achieve the look of the sun splashing through the trees and reflecting on the water.

 

 

 

The other one was also begun in a Tom Jones class.  It represents a cabin in Yellowstone National Park.  The object was to represent the mist over in the mountains.

 

 



Mist in Yellowstone, by Jeanne T. McBrayer, 2012

 

We have never been to Yellowstone, but hope to travel there some day.

 

These two paintings have the same frame size and style, although the mats are different.  I think Charlie plans to hang them both in his office at work.

Art of the Carolinas: Day 2

Today I went to another watercolor painting class at Art of the Carolinas with artist Tom Jones.  Today's topic was painting mountain mist.  And, much to my surprise, there were only two of us in class today!

Here is what I finished up with.

 

We learned some neat tricks to soften the edges of the mountains, make treelines, make smoke, etc.  Mostly Tom helped me with mixing my colors and loading my brush, which I had never really learned to do very well.

 

Tomorrow morning I am leaving for South Carolina and a weekend of babysitting with my grandchildren.  Charlie went to the mountains with our dog Kasey.  I won't be back until Monday. 

 

Can't wait to go see my little monkeys!

 

 

Art of the Carolinas: Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of classes at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh, NC.  The vendor mall was not yet open, but my class was held at the nearby Jerry's Artarama store, which sponsors the art conference.

First I checked in and received my free gift bag with a bottle of water, a bamboo mat that rolls up to hold your paintbrushes, and a nail brush.

Then I went to Jerry's and bought two new watercolor brushes for the class.  When I checked out, I got a free Jerry's T-shirt.

My class last night was with Florida artist Tom Jones.  The workshop was called Sunrays Filtering Through the Forest.

The subject matter reminded me very much of a scene from Ashe County in the North Carolina mountains, where we have a weekend place. 

When I went into the room, I found a slimmer Tom Jones, who has lost twenty pounds since last year.  Also, I was delighted to find that there were only four students registered for this class, and one of them did not show up.  So, we got lots of individual attention!

Tom provided the paper and paints.  He did a great step-by-step demo.  He brought his painting around for us to see up close after each step.

 

I loved working with those gorgeous autumn colors.  The little green speckles in the water area are frisket, a mask applied to preserve white space.  It is rubbed off when the painting is done.

 

This was my painting about halfway done.  The water area sort of looks like a blue sky with fluffy white clouds at this point.  In fact, one of the students in class was doing his whole picture upside down and had to start over.

 

 

Here is Tom's finished painting with a working mat.  It is taken at an angle.  I think his is gorgeous!

 

 

And here is mine at the end of class.  There are a few places I want to work on.  I might even do it all over for practice.

 

 

I have another class with Tom Jones later this afternoon.  This one will be about painting mountain mist.  Here is the sample from the website.

 

 

Beautiful, yes?  The bare brown mountains look more like the Rockies than the Appalachians of North Carolina, but I can't wait to work on this one.

 

 

 

 

Jewelry Re-Design

Today my art quilt bee met at Beautimous Beads in Cary, NC.  We had visited there back in August after going to the art quilt exhibit Narrative Threads at the Page-Walker house.  This time, we arranged time for a Jewelry Re-Design/Re-Cycle session.  We all brought old, unwanted, or broken jewelry or beads, and made them into something new.

Bridgette and the other employee at the school were our consultants and experts on putting our projects together.  We sat at a big table in the store and worked on bead mats.

Here are Roberta and Toni hard at work.  (Isn't that a stunning beaded piece Roberta is wearing?  She added the beads to a piece of felt.)

 

We have a new member, Marion, who I met for the first time today.  She is the one that comes after me in the Surface Design Round Robin challenge.  I handed both my fabric and Toni's off to her.

 

I went through my jewelry drawer and pulled out all my beaded necklaces that were broken in some way.  Some were missing clasps, or needed jump rings or crimping.  I spent most of my time re-stringing the necklace on the right, that had completely come apart and was missing some beads.  The store staff fixed everything else for very minimal fees, between $1.00 and $3.00 per necklace.

 

I also found a chain in my drawer that did not have a pendant or anything, so I purchased this little owl pin/pendant.  I must like it, because I also included a picture of it on my blog after my last trip to Beautimous Beads.

 

 

Here is the new bracelet that Roberta put together after taking the charms off an old necklace.

 

 

And here is our Toni, looking radiant with her hair recently grown back following chemo.  It is now a beautiful silver color!

 

 

Ruth-Ellen was there, too, but must have been avoiding the camera!

 

After I finished with my bead projects, I went to visit my Aunt Billie, who is back home in Cary after being in a nursing home for six months.  She looked so happy to be in her own home with her daughter, Erin, and her frisky cat, Thor.  I did not get his picture, but Thor was trying very hard to play with my newly repaired jewelry as I took them out to show them off!

 

It was a nice day.

 

Tomorrow I take my first class at this year's Art of the Carolinas at the North Raleigh Hilton.  I have signed up for two watercolor painting classes with Tom Jones.  I hope my results are as good as last year's.  This is the painting that I did in one of Tom's classes last year.  It is now hanging in my husband's office.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mountain Barn Watercolor Painting

For another Christmas gift to my husband, I matted and framed one of the new watercolors that I painted last fall.  I began the painting in a workshop with Tom Jones during Art of the Carolinas.




Mountain Barn, 2011

For those of you who live in the area, I have been having my artwork framed at Michaels on Capital Boulevard in Raleigh.  I have been happy with their assistance, materials, and service.

I very much admired Tom Jones as a teacher and artist.  Charlie bought me his book,  Simplified Watercolor Landscapes, for Christmas.

                         

It is in a wonderful format which provides a working sketch, step-by-step instructions with photos, and a photo of the finished painting.  Mountains are the subject of several of the lessons, so I know I will be trying them out.

We got a good chuckle when I opened the book and read the personal inscription by the author:  "To my new friend and fellow artist Charles:  Have fun painting and remember you are better than you think you are." Charlie is many wonderful things, but have never known him to be an artist!  I take that back, he was a true artist on the trombone for many years.

There is also a nice little value sketch drawn on the inside cover under the inscription.

He also included a small colored painting on watercolor paper.  Tom is a generous artist, as I found out during his class, when he provided all paints and paper for our class, and also gave away the demo painting.

I have been procrastinating all day because I have to take the ornaments down off the Christmas tree.  We usually wait until New Year's Day, but we had a leak right before we left for our trip.  Either Charlie over-watered, or the water container has a leak.  Thankfully we mopped it up before we left, but I expect it is still damp under there, and we need to take it down before our wood floor starts to buckle.

It was a beautiful, cold morning, though, and I took Kasey to the greenway for a walk. 

She was on high alert for awhile, stopping and perking up her ears.  I thought we might see some deer moving around, but we did not.  She gets equally excited over squirrels.  I am glad to have a dog to give me a good excuse to walk on pretty mornings like this.

                     

Love having my doggy back home!  So does her daddy.