The Southern Atelier, Sarasota, Florida

Atelier Model

10" x 8"

oil

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of painting at the Southern Atelier, Sarasota.   A few artists were comparing notes about the Steven Assael workshop which was held there last week and I was all ears and eyes observing his influence on their work. 

Artists were using black, so I cranked open my rarely used tube and painted it into the background.  There's a lot of glare on this photo because of the wet paint, but you can get the idea of how it makes the figure pop by contrast of dark and light.  The light from an overhead skylight on a cloudy day was cool so the shadows needed to be warm.  I may have overdone the cad orange a bit in my painting frenzy.  Artists influenced by the workshop were welding fan brushes and mixing colors right on the canvas.   Not the way I usually work and because I left my fan brushes at home, I didn't do too much blending.  They also said, Assael stressed the "bones" of good drawing and structure.  Learn how to draw with a paintbrush.

The artists glowed with inspiration and praised Steven Assael's workshop.  Some traveled great distances, even from Canada and London, to repeat this workshop.  I'm saving up for next year.

Steven Assael's show, Illusions of Reality is at the Naples Museum of Art until January 9, 2011.