We're here for the week in Southwest Harbor, painting around Mount Desert Island and in Acadia National Park. We have a good group of students, a total of eight, and they hail from Montreal, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. They're all intermediate to advanced painters, and I'm looking forward to working with them this week.
On the first day, I talked about plein air basics and especially about stripping down your gear. One of the most important things to having a good experience is to minimize the baggage. (Like the airlines, maybe I should charge a baggage fee!) I pare everything down so I can carry the gear in one trip from the car. Of course, it's easy to forget important items when paring down, so it's also important to have a checklist. Although I've got mine memorized, I certainly refer to it when preparing for a workshop. It's good once in awhile to go through your bag and see what it is you haven't used the last ten times - that's probably something you can leave out.
We went to the Seawall picnic area for painting, where I also did an oil demonstration to show my approach to composing, blocking and and adjusting shape relationships. Here's a shot of the demo, in situ. It's a 9x12 on a homemade panel. I'll probably adjust it a bit once it's back in the studio. I also did a 5x7 rock demonstration, which I'll try to get a photo of later.
By the way, I am getting more men in my workshops than I have in the past. I only have one this week - Michel from Quebec, below - but lately I've had a higher percentage. I think I taught a workshop this past winter where the males were actually in the majority.
I still have room in my Campobello Island plein air painting workshops for the summer. If you'd like a maritime painting experience, take a look at www.paintcampobello.com.
