Day One of Kitty Wallis Workshop

You've heard the expression "Color gets the credit but value does all of the work"? It's true! You can see how value carries this painting along and gives the shapes their meaning and place, despite their color. This painting was rendered from a black and white photo using a playful limited value palette.

We are rapt whenever Kitty paints demos. She starts with a pigment dispersions to create with wet media under painting that becomes her value map. Once it's dry, she adds pastel marks to the top. Her first question when she start with the pastel is: "Now, what do I need correct?" That's where she starts with pastel.

This is my second painting today, done from my own photo reference. I made big mistakes with the under painting and then muddled my way through the rest of the painting. Sigh. Still so much to learn!

Kitty Wallis. Extraordinary artist, teacher, and human being.

Unfinished but promising

36 x 48 WIP

18 x 24 under painting

It takes quite a bit of space to get distance on my big painting (top photo). Before I turned out the lights in the studio yesterday, I positioned the painting on my big easel and turned it to face the door. That way, as soon as I turned on lights and entered the studio, I would have that delicious experience of a first impression with it.

As soon as I saw it, I knew that I needed to do something with the background trees. They were coming forward and too detailed for the recession I desired. I brushed pastel off first with a 4" Hake and then wet the brush and wiped it around to flatten the color and pull out the definition. I don't know if it's the right value yet, but it's better and it's going back a little more. I'm slowly working my way down the painting. The land forms are folding and curving the way they should. I like working BIG!

The bottom photo shows the under painting for my next beach scene. No pastel yet, just Guerra pigments in water dispersion, painted onto Wallis Museum paper. It has some nice movement that I hope to keep when I begin applying pastel tomorrow. It will dry on my board overnight.

Any day with time spent painting is a good day. Today was a good day, indeed.