Workshops 2010

WATERCOLOR & WATER-MIXABLE OILS
Plein Air to Studio
July 23 & 24, 2010
Chris Chapman

The Rusty Barn  www.therustybarn.com 
Cost:   $200

Here’s your chance to create a large finished studio painting from small field sketches.

Outdoors:           
On location at beautiful Arroyo Hondo Canyon, Jewel of the Gaviota Coast.  Owned and operated by The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, the 782 acre Preserve will be ours for a day.   We’ll spend most of our time in the upper canyon where the creek has carved through rugged sandstone walls.  Trails curve through meadows, oak woodlands, sycamores and bays.  You may choose to travel light and discover many quiet spots with your sketchbook or bring your full painting gear and focus on the views from Hollister Meadow.  Enjoy a relaxed creekside lunch and take a restful break before getting back to work.  We’ll spend the last few hours of our day in the lower reaches of the canyon, sketching the barn, the 1842 Ortega adobe, and on past the orchard where the creek flows out to sea.

You’ll be painting small, quick studies, drawing compositional and value thumbnails, shooting reference photos, and creating ideas for the studio.  Chris will demonstrate watercolor and water-mixable oils, explain her approaches, and concentrate on giving individual help. 

Indoors:           
The focus will be on developing your personal voice, within an environment to foster personal vision in painting, as you create a large finished piece.

SCHEDULE:

Fri. July 23, 9:00-5:00                
Arroyo Hondo Preserve (Directions will be sent)

Sat. July 24, 9:00 – 4:00           
We work in the studio to create a larger finished piece in the natural light of The Rusty Barn.  Bring all your sketches, paintings, notes and photos. Here we slow down to consider, choose, then draw, and begin laying-in color shapes.   Demos and individual help.

Botanical Illustration ~
Plant and Nature Portraits

April 23 & 24, 2010    9:00 – 4:00
The Rusty Barn, Santa Barbara
Cost $175

www.therustybarn.com - contact holliharmon@cox.net or (805) 967-7711

A two day workshop in botanical illustration and nature drawing, open to all skill levels, with some prior drawing experience.   Botanical Illustration is an exploration of form and function.  If plants and organic objects excite you, this is the place!  Instruction and demos will be in graphite, watercolor, gouache, and ink, but all mediums are welcome.  

In the beginning, participants will identify their goals, then settle in, relax, and draw from life.   The most important thing is to work from a subject that inspires YOU.  For this reason, participants will bring their own subject matter.     Choose native plants, backyard varieties, or any other organic subject.   Two still lifes will also be set up.  With Chris’ simple approach, individual help, and demos along the way, you will find this to be a quiet and calming art, losing yourself in close-up observation.

OUTDOORS IN
Pastel Sketches to Finished Paintings,

for All Levels of Artists Working in Pastel
June 4, 5 & 6th, 2010, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Rusty Barn, Santa Barbara 
Cost $300
www.therustybarn.com  -  contact holliharmon@cox.net or (805) 967-7711

The best of indoors and out, creating a finished studio painting from field sketches!  The first day will be on location.  We’ll start with a demonstration on painting quick studies: value, compositional and color sketches, explanations and ideas about the process.  We’ll work through the morning, have a nice lunch break, and then return in the afternoon to do a larger field sketch.  Guidance on creating a composite for the studio and tips on shooting good photographic references.  

Then we move indoors.  Day Two you’ll gather all your sketches, notes and photos to create a large finished piece in the natural light of The Rusty Barn studio.  The scale-up drawing will be done by hand onto large format pastel paper or board.  Here we slow down to get it right, and by afternoon you’ll be massing in values and shapes and laying-in color fields.

On Day Three we’ll work all day on the painting.  There will be another demo with one-on-one help at the easel.  We’ll wrap up with a constructive group critique at 3:00.

To be notified about upcoming workshops by Chris Chapman email your name and address here.