Time to Learn

Roger Dale Brown, an internationally acclaimed artist from Franklin, Tennessee, conducted a landscape workshop in Tuscaloosa last week.  He was assisted by his wife, Beverly Ford Evans.  Ann Foster was our gracious hostess at her studio, Brushstrokes.  I was privileged to learn from him.  Many thanks, Roger and ladies, for making this an enlightening and pleasurable experience.

Roger feels that planning is paramount to having a successful painting.  Valuable tools in the process may include sketches, photographs, and plein air studies.  This collection of data helps an artist remember the scene.  Its lighting, temperature, overall impressions, and feelings enable the artist to return to the studio and create a larger piece.
                                                               

One of our exercises was to paint a tree being careful to show the values of the various planes, i.e. ground surface, upright (trees), slanted (hills), and sky.  Our goal was to create shapes within the tree showing nuances of light.

We had these precious 4 legged classmates with us, as Roger and Beverly travel with their terriers.

Roger is an excellent teacher, showing us through demonstrations his painting thoughts and process. He emphasized the importance of adhering to acceptable design principles.  Most of all he encouraged setting goals and persistence, putting in time and effort necessary to succeed.  I left eager to incorporate new ideas into my style of painting.