I have just returned from conducting my first 3-day plein air workshop in Southern Oregon’s beautiful Applegate Valley! It was a wonderful 3 days in a gorgeous setting, and I have to say, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

I get asked to do workshops all the time, but as I am not one of those people who can organize events I’ve always told people that I’d be happy to show up and teach if a gallery or an arts organization, or an art school would take care of all the organizational and administrative stuff.

I never expected anything to happen when I said this to someone (that’s you, Jo) inquiring me about a workshop a few months ago. But Jo had other ideas. She knew of an art studio / B&B that hosted workshops (mostly ceramics) and contacted them, and bada bing! We had a workshop.

Fast forward 2 months. I arrived in Applegate Valley and immediately loved it. It’s just a gorgeous little valley with barns, horses, cows, sheep, trees, streams, vineyards, even a snow capped mountain in the distance. It was breathtaking. There was no shortage of views, to be sure.

Hummingbird, which hosted this workshop is owned by artists Leslie Lee and Dennis Meiners two wonderful people who made everything go so easy and smoothly for me.

They have this really cool straw bale and adobe house, and a separate studio which is ideal for doing indoor demos and such.  Leslie took me on a scouting run and we went to several private properties to which she could get access, and they were all fabulous. Many properties had the river running through them. I couldn’t wait to get paintin’~

My friends Kay and Harriet drove up from Sacramento to take the workshop. It was nice to have a few familiar faces there, although I quickly learned that everybody was very nice and friendly. (There were 12 students in all)

On Day One, after a fantastic breakfast prepared by Leslie and Dennis, (this place is a B&B. They know what they’re doing!) I took the morning to do a demo indoors. I thought it was the best way to take the students through the process slowly, showing how I do what I do, and explaining why it makes sense to do it that way. I couldn’t have done that outside because I’d have to go at full speed, and it would just be too much information too fast. Learning to paint outside is difficult enough without going a million miles an hour!

Anyway, after lunch (and what great lunches we had. They were included in the workshop. What a great deal!) We went on location and I did another demo, this time at full speed. Having done one slowly and step by step earlier, I think that the students were able to follow this one much easier. Although in hindsight, many were just eager to start painting so next time, I may restructure the schedule a bit and do the full-speed demo on the second morning, or something)

Day Two found us at a different location, and I started with a short demo on Sargent’s Five Qualities of Light, in which I showed what the characteristics of each quality were, and how it applied to painting something as simple as a sphere. Then I repeated it, demonstrating that everything I just did on a sphere applied to painting a tree. It’s a simple lesson which many beginning painters either don’t know or just forget. But it’s as important as anything else in painting, and ya gotta know it backwards and forwards. A student told me that now she understood why she had to do endless boring renderings of spheres and cylinders in drawing 101, and it was very helpful to see the direct connection between that experience and this one.

The day officially ended at 4pm, but many stayed much later and painted, and I kept helping students too. Watching everyone paint all day got me all fired up and, as the sun was still pretty high up in the sky, I set up and did a little sketch as well. Fun stuff~

We returned to the same location  on Day 3. (there was just so much good stuff to paint there!) and got right to work. I think everyone was feeling more familiar with the process and a bit more relaxed by now. Another day would have been good, but 3 days of painting is enough to get you pretty tired. So after lunch, we went back to the studio and did a critique session. Everyone put their works up on the crit rails and we talked about what was working, what needed improvement, and how this workshop helped. It was a big group discussion with a lot of positive energy.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on discussion and demo of whatever anyone wanted to know. (Relating to what I do, that is) I came prepared to do a demo on making linen panels, so I did that, step by step. We talked about linen vs. cotton, oil primed vs. gesso, birch vs. mdf vs. gator board, etc. There was a lot of practical information which I take for granted (and therefore didn’t even think to include in the hand out) but to someone who didn’t already know, was very valuable and helpful. I’ll be including some of these tidbits in my handout in the future, definitely.

And so the workshop came to a close, and I think everyone had a good time and got a lot out of it. Leslie had them fill out a short evaluation sheet, and I got to peek at it later. And unless they lied, I saw nothing but good reviews, so I was very glad and relieved. One very important thing that I’d discovered was that I really enjoyed doing this kind of workshop! Of course, Dennis and Leslie made it so much more enjoyable than I ever expected, so I wouldn’t necessarily expect every workshop to be like this. And the students were all so friendly and nice people. Like at other plein air events, I come away making more good friends in such a short time. I really value that about doing this for a living.

One last thing. After the workshop was over, there was still a few hours of daylight left, so Kay, Harriet and I went and painted on Adrienne’s property just down the road. (thanks Adrienne!) A very nice ending to a very nice three days. I didn’t take any pictures myself, but when I get some from Leslie I’ll post ‘em!

If you’re interested in hearing about future workshops, please let me know and I’ll put you on my mailing list. I’ll announce workshops and events on my website and my blog also , but only AFTER the newsletter goes out, so if you want to be one of the first to hear about them, please make sure I have your email address!