Day 4 of workshop.
On the last day of the artist workshop @ the Art Loft in Dahlonega, GA, Patrick focused his efforts on doing a demo of plein air. The day include the usual rain and mist just like the past several days.
However, where the workshop was being held we had a huge porch to set up our easels that gave us plenty of protection from the rain. The spot I chose was on a corner of the porch overlooking a good portion of the yard that had a nice light of the sky coming through the trees. I focused on this and in 2.5 hours this painting came together.
The biggest area of improvement (or what I learned the most from this painting) is that you must really SEE what you are painting. Patrick would come by several times and point out things that really were not in the right place. He told me I was painting what I thought I saw and not what I actually saw. So I just looked at my scene. And continued to look. Studying every branch and trunk in comparison with one another. I then focused on fixing my painting and tackling all the big errors. Truly, I should have nailed this in the drawing phase of the painting, but like everything else, I had to remove some layers of paint to get some trucks back in the right area.
Another big thing I learned is that when you are tired, it reflects in the laziness of your painting. You begin to stop looking or not really assess if the color is right that you are mixing. A lazy painter creates garbage! This workshop was 4 days long and I did push myself to paint on evenings as well, so my mental capacity to concentrate was minimal at the end of the painting. So, don't paint when you are tired!
Overall, given the corrections and fixes, the painting became exactly the scene right in front of me.
There is nothing like being outdoors. So much more to learn!
Cheers!
