Watercolor Workshop With Jan Foss

On Friday night I met Jan Foss, from Lake Tahoe, CA at the Paint Chip in Davis, CA where she was showing her art at the 2nd Friday Art About. She told me about the classes she was teaching in that town over the course of several days. I thought I might take the one on Sunday and learn some more techniques. I bought a sheet of 140 lb watercolor paper from Jan, but used my "student" paints to make this "wash" of wet on wet painting. This allows the paper to lay flat on the table and does not curl up on the sides this way. I learned about working from light to dark colors, about using liquid mask to leave white on the paper and be able to paint over it (I did not do this as my trees were dark)...so far so good...a light pencil sketch and then light colors painted in. The yellow in the background is sunlight.

the green tree leaves and bushes...the brown dirt road and ground...

I believe there were twelve of us, one man and the rest women...many were experienced painters already... You can see the teachers demo painting on the front table.

I could not get the hang of "splatter" painting for texture; I learned that trees are not brown, they have shades of blue and purple in them; that blues and purples can also be used for leaves in bushes to show contrast; and how to lay out rays of light coming through the trees by laying a long narrow strip of watercolor paper diagonally across the painting and rubbing out the color with a sponge.

Thank goodness she said not to expect to be creating a masterpiece today, but to concentrate on learning different techniques. I am looking for Bambi in this picture, do you see where he ran off to?

Needless to say I was exhausted on Sunday after my long busy weekend. Actually went out to my car mid afternoon to take a short nap. I was that tired.

If you read my blog from Friday to today you will see why. Fun, but I am actually looking forward to going to the dentist this morning because I get to lay back, close my eyes and rest some more. Even work will seem like relaxation in comparison.

Have a great week!