Plein Air Demonstration Memphis TN 2013 - Day One

I am so excited about finally getting this workshop review posted. I am sorry for the delay, but my daughter had our first grandchildren right after the workshop (twins!) and I am just now getting back into the swing of things. First, let me say what a JOY it was to have Ken come to Memphis to teach. He had never visited Memphis before so, being the true Southern hostess that I am, I made sure to treat him in the kindest, most courteous way I knew how. After following his work for awhile online, I finally met him two years ago at the 2012 Florida’s Forgotten Coast Paint Out in Apalachicola, FL. He is not only a fabulous painter, but such a fun and kind guy to hang out with. His genuine smile and spirit are contagious, and of course, anyone that loves to sit and talk about art is always someone I enjoy hanging around! But on to the workshop. I am going to split this post into three parts because of the amount of photos and information I would like to share with you. Ken arrived on a Tuesday and we had a meet and greet evening with the workshop participants at my home that night. I will say if you are a workshop teacher, this is the BEST thing to do, especially for a 3 day workshop. This way, the teacher can get to know the students some, the students can meet and chat with the teacher and each other, and the first day of the workshop is spent painting. I have been to many workshop where we either spent the whole first morning getting to know each other or we didn’t introduce ourselves at all. This evening before thing is a great idea and I hope more of you teachers out there will adopt this idea. Anyway, we had good food, drink, and conversation, and were all ready to go the next morning.

We spent our first day of the workshop out at a litte private farm on the edge of town. Ken decided to paint the covered bridge on the property, partly because of the shade in which we could sit while watching him. As he was so good to point out, this is not the best way to pick your subjects, but for our purposes, it was nice to sit in a shady spot and was also a pretty good subject.

Ken began the demo with a brief description of his palette, which is a limited palette consisting of titanium white, ivory black, and a warm and a cool of each primary. He uses a fairly large hand held wooden mixing palette, which he handles so very well while working on his chosen subject. After toning his panel, he lightly sketches in his design with a vine charcoal, which makes it easier to make changes in design and composition than using paint at this point in the process. He then decides what the lightest light, the darkest dark, and the brightest color will be in the painting and paints these in as a guide for him as he proceeds mixing and painting the painting. See below:

Ken was so good at sharing his thoughts as he progressed along in the demo, and answered questions from the group as they were asked. I know from experience how difficult this is and appreciated the fact he was able to do this.

After his morning demo, we took a quick lunch break and all chose our own spots for painting. See photo below for Ken’s finished demo – well, he said he would tweak it more if he had more time but I loved it as it was then!

For Day two of the workshop please follow Link below-

Memphis Day Two

Provided by Denise Rose - Thank you Denise!!

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