Recent News- Upcoming Classes, Paint Out Results, and a New Article
Howdy folks! It’s been a very busy 5-weeks, full of art, and things look to continue that way for atleast the 5. :) I’ve got more articles to write for International Artist,
Mendocino Paint Out Results-
My recent splurge of plein air painting came in to use in Mendocino, where I won Best Watercolor for this painting “The Fog Rolled In, Soft and Quiet”. Yay! :) And it really was foggy. I was going to drive off to paint elsewhere, but went down to the headlands and saw this scene, and thought, “I gotta try and paint this!” Things started foggy, but then cleared up half-way through. But I stuck with my foggy subject, and 45 minutes later, presto-chango!, and things were foggy again. LOL.
That sort of “stick with it” attitude was a big part of the weekend. I can’t tell you how many paintings, plein air and studio, I’ve thought were terrible part way through, but I stuck with them and that faith paid off. In Mendocino, one day I had to shrug off a terrible morning of throw-aways to paint a seascape in the afternoon, and another I had to slog through 3 washes, over and over again, to get the right value for the water, walking back and forth to dry them on car’s dashboard with the heat blasting on.
I was rewarded though, after the event ended, with a lovely time painting with new friends along the bluff. There was some real magic there. All the pressure was gone, and we just joked around and enjoyed paying attention. It’s a good feeling when these sort of times occur. It’s why you go plein air painting. A shout out to Catherine Randall, Sterling Hoffman, and Jessica Willis.
Upcoming Classes in Mendocino-
In Person Plein Air Class-
Sat & Sun, October 16th & 17th, 930-430
I’m teaching a weekend workshop in Mendocino. We’ll be working on notans, digging in to the logistics of painting plein air, and doing touch ups back in studio. Enrollment continues through the 12th of October. Attendees are required to be vaccinated. We’ll be wearing masks while indoors. Find out more here- PLEIN AIR WATERCOLORS AND NOTANS — Mendocino Art Center.
Zoom Class on Notans and Design-
Sat & Sun, November 13 & 14th, 1030- 330
In this zoom class, I’ll be teaching a condensed 2-day version of the workshop. This will be a great way to dig in to notans, if you’ve been curious about it. We’ll be doing things in 2-hour blocks, learning how to make notans, simplifying values and building stronger compositions. Finally, we’ll also be applying notans to the painting process. A link is upcoming.
“The Mechanics of Water” article in International Artist
The 3rd in my 4-part series “The Way of Watercolor” with the International Artist magazine is out and available. In this one, I introduce folks to the different ways to assess moisture levels on the paper and the palette, and how different brushes affect moisture levels. I just sent off the 4th and final article for the next issue! You can buy the issue here, on Amazon- International Artist Magazine Issue October November 2021: Adolfo Castillo and Wendie Martin: Amazon.com: Books
If you’re interested more in this subject, you should check out theses two posts of mine. One is from a book review (of a fantastic book on this subject), and the second is a series of videos taken of me during a class, where I also touch on the logistics of wet into wet painting.
Book Review- Ewa Karpinska's "Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Painting" — Seamless Expression
Some Essentials- Thoughts From Teaching Workshops — Seamless Expression