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I’m in a two day pastel workshop with artist Stan Spurlak.

We spent the morning doing the value study shown first below, moving from light to dark within a red/violet hue.

Then we were given 20 minutes to paint a mostly monotone painting that included light, medium, and dark values, and a single hue outside the monotone. This exercise (shown above) was to show us how quickly a painting can come together if you keep it simple and close to monotone.

Lastly we were given a photograph that we were to study, and then paint from memory. Stan is not in favor of painting from photographs, preferring painting from either life, or the imagination. Looking at a photograph (or even a live scene) and then just painting your impression of it, without referring back to it was interesting. I can see that the more you did this the better you could become at it, and that doing so would improve your visual memory. My effort at that exercise–given a very intense cloudscape– is shown last below.

The weather is to be sultry but clear tomorrow. I wonder if we’ll paint outside?

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