Arne Westerman's book Paint Watercolors Filled With Life and Energy contains a chapter called "Ten Ways to Get Unstuck." I found this at the right time as I hadn't painted in a couple of months. And this chapter's item number eight: "Attend a workshop" really hit home with me.
In March I was able to participate in a three-day workshop by Mr. Westerman held in Springfield, Oregon at Emerald Art Center. Notice I didn't say paint - but participate. This is because for three days we mainly worked on thumbnails and color sketches, their need and importance. It was an amazing workshop!
Next, a national artist was doing a three-day workshop in April in Portland. I thought it might be a good chance to kick-start my painting routine. Wrong! As never before at a workshop, I left feeling I'd waisted my money. This artist was all about making themself look good and putting down the amateur artist, arts organizations, etc. For example: a student received assistance on color and composition (several times) yet when it was critiqued, the visiting national artist took a sponge and washed away the lower half of the student's painting telling the audience how wrong this painting had been set up. Enough on this egotistical artist!
By now I really needed to get to painting. Like comfort food, I have comfort instructors. A couple of these are Vickie Nelson and Bev Jozwiak, NWS, who co-teach workshops in the Northwest. They did their annual week-long Portland workshop at the end of May. And I can happily report that I did restart my painting. Many of the paintings from this week have been critiqued and after retouching they'll be added to this site - soon!
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