Friday, May 20, 2011

Painting with Colin Page - Day 1

Oil on panel (approx. 5"x7")

Oil on panel (approx. 5"x7")

I've enjoyed Colin Page's work for a couple of years now. Colin is a plein air painter that lives in Camden (my hometown). When I saw that he was doing a plein air workshop, I signed up early. At that time (back in early March), I had never before painted with oils. The first day was overcast but not threatening to rain so we drove up to the Camden Yacht Club. He started the class with a demo and then we spent the rest of the morning on a value exercise. We painted in only black and white, dividing our 11x14 panels into 4 sections and then painting one panel in 2 values, one panel in 3 values, one panel in 5 values and the last panel in as many values as we needed to represent the scene.

In the afternoon we added ultramarine and burnt sienna to the palette to study both value and temperature. The studies above were done with this palette. The top one is a 3 value study and the bottom one was not limited in value - just color. At the end of the day we lined up all of our paintings and talked about them. You can see a short video of that here.

2 comments:

Jill said...

Ken, I just found your blog (again) through the Lincoln Street Center. I am so impressed with your work! I have been considering taking a class in landscape painting to learn some new tricks. You may have me convinced after seeing your work. :) keep it up!

Ken Foster said...

Thanks Jill! Good talking to you today. Come back and visit again sometime!