I met Theo and Asia. After briefly talking with them, I was "assigned" to Joe Anna Arnett to paint with all week. There were seven of us total in Joe Anna's workshop and she is an execellent mentor. Joe Anna paints still life and landscapes, has an execellent grasp on composition and colors and is just an adorable soul! Of course all of this is a vast understatement! Check Joe Anna out for yourself by clicking here.
We traveled out to Back Bay, just outside of St. George New Brunswick. This is a little working harbor with quaint little homes/cottages and those who work the sea for their living. The docks were spotted with equipment sheds and boats floating in the bay when they weren't coming and going earning their living.
We also scouted what Joe Anna kept calling "an adorable little blue shack". It was located on a pier waterside or bayside. The behind it had clothes hanging out on the line to dry. After a brief discussion with others in the workshop we decided to paint on this location.
Joe Anna gives us instructions to sketch the whole scene first and then crop down to the composition you want to capture on the canvas. Using the viewfinder to help me sketch and sketching the whole scene as she suggested was a great little "AH HA!" as I always try to cram to much in or not enough. This little technique is really going to improve my compositoin selection!
Earlier in the morning I was instructor by my mentor, Kevin Macpherson, to paint complex subjects. Well, folks, it doesn't get any more complex than maritime scenes!! We spent 4 hours here and everyone humming. Joe Anna was extremely helpful as I finished up the abstract shapes and catching the proper values. I got to a point where I always begin to wonder what next. I know it isn't finished--there is more I wanted to do--but didn't have the courage to do it. Joe Anna was right there to explain and encourage.
I have to say the end result was probably one of the better studies...but it was all improvement from here! Here's the shot of the beginning and "end" after 4 hours.
After lunch we moved to the working harbor and wharf. Seaweed was bing harvested and fishing boats with nets and traps that harvested the sea for herring, sardines, and in a few days lobster were bustling around the harbor.
We walked around the site and found a number of compositions that would work. I photographed and sketched quick pencil studies in my sketch book. However, one area was calling to Joe Anna and for a good reason. A red boat with a green boat sitting in the foreground. The boat were facing opposing directions keep the viewer's eye inside the painting. A gift--as Joe Anna was saying. The red/green compliment was just that and we quickly set up and sketched our compositions. As fate would have it, the owner of the red boat came over to inform us that the red boat would be leaving. We talked with this sweet man, who was so sorry for taking our subject matter away from us! It was his living!!! The owner of the red boat's friend, William, pulled up to ask what we were talking about.
Sweet William, as he became known to us, offered to move his green boat--same year boat and same angles as the red--in place of the red boat...and "You can just paint it red in your painting." Needless to say, everyone in this town that we talked to where so friendly and welcoming. Sweet William moved his boat for us and we were off and painting again.
We spent 3 or 4 hours on tis painting and the lesson of hte afternoon painting is that sometimes you just don't have the time to keep trying to mix that perfect color off a limited palette. Joe Anna and I joked as she provided just the right color blue I needed to mix within five seconds the correct value of the teal colored boat.
"Gee---plein air painting is easy when you have the right colors." I joked and then said how my mentor is not going to be happy with me.
That evening when I saw Kevin I made this comment with Joe Anna present. He knew he was being set up and joked with us about our rudimentary skills. It was all done in good humor and I would have gotten there eventually if I hadn't gotten frustrated. Just another lesson that I've got more to learn when it comes to color mixing....you are always learning.
As I picked up my gear and head back to my car, Joe Anna complimented me on a great day of painting. It was a great day. Joe Anna and the group I am painting with are a great group of people. You'll discover more about Joe Anna and this group over the coming days as I enter more journal entries. While I'm not yet ready to say the journey is over--I don't think it will ever be over--I am ready to say improvement has been made. And Kevin and Joe Anna are the big reasons why!
Check back in for the next day's report on the workshop. It just gets better and better!
Caio,
Linda
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