Workshop notes: Painting Landscapes

I recently taught a workshop on landscapes and wanted to share a few slides with you... 

 I LOVE teaching! I taught here in Pontotoc in January.The group was great and we had fun. Thank you to all the attendees.  Jackie helped me welcome 14 artists form TN, AL and MS.

My next workshop is in Greenville in May with the Delta Art Association. Hope you get to come! Here is a link to details.

Here are a few tips straight out of my workshop handbook that I use when I teach. I love to share, but all images are my paintings, and therefore are copyrighted ©2013  Dot Courson Workshops. So feel free to use and share these- I encourage it as a matter of fact! -  but I require you attribute the painting and slide images and painting to me please. : )

Value planes. ©2013 Dot Courson

Arial perspective. ©2013 Dot Courson

Movement in painting. ©2013Dot Courson

Please leave comments below. I love hearing from you! 

Happy Painting! ~ Dot

Another Backyard Plein Air

Getting ready to go teach a workshop in Greenville with the Delta Arts Association this week. I love teaching!

When I paint outside en plein air, I start massing in the values any way I can... with any color. I work fast. I've found that the sun does not stay still and wait for me to get it down, so I admit that I start messy and tighten up as I go. 

Another thing that I do: I generally put some warmth into green foliage as it helps show the green up - and to me it just looks better. 

Here is the start of a recent plein air painting in my backyard:

Progress:

Final painting: Another Backyard Plein Air 12x16 Oil:

Another Backyard -Plein Air . Oil ©2013 Dot Courson

Update:  

This painting was judged into the Cumberland Society National Juried Exhibition. The judge was artist Peggy Kroll Roberts. Thrilled and blessed that it won an Honorable Mention- the Omega Frames award of $500 ! 

Here it is hanging at the show at Richland Fine Art in Nashville, TN: 

Backlit Trees, 12x16 Oil, ©2013 Dot Courson

Traveling and Painting

This week I will be traveling to Richmond, VA!

Here is the flyer for Plein Air Richmond. I so honored and really looking forward to painting there! 

 

 On my trip, I'm taking a painting for Senator Roger Wicker's staff to come down and pick up in Richmond. It will be on loan to hang in the office of Senator Wicker in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC!  I'm honored to have The Natchez Trace there.

For almost 3 years it hung on the top floor of the Walter Sillers Building, Governor Haley Barbour's official capital offices in Jackson, MS.

Here is a photo of us. On it's last day there he signed it for me at my request- before I picked it up. This is funny now but I was initially mortified because somehow he was mis-directed and signed the front (rather prominently) instead of the back as I had asked - so I had to take his signature off! I hated to do it - I'd wanted his signature for the provenience of the painting. But guess what? It turns out that alcohol removes permanent magic markers! Who knew? 

 Before it was in Governor Barbour's office it hang for almost a year in the Tupelo Regional Airport terminal. Actually, that is why I painted such a large painting. The airport marketing manager (shown below) wanted a "really big regional work of art" and I made this from several other paintings I'd done.

Upcoming News: On my return from Plein Air Richmond, I'll be painting the Delta as I'm teaching a workshop for the Delta Artists Association in Greenville the 28- 30th of June.
Hopefully, I will post some photos maybe of all this on my next blog. 
Incidentally, this painting- The Natchez Trace Parkway is still for sale! Send inquiries to artist@dotcourson.com or visit Caron|Prince website for more information and pricing.

Artist Workshops

My husband Jackie and I host workshops for artists. 

If you are an artist you understand about workshops. If you are not a painter, just think of it as education and continuing education for artists.

These workshops are for students, intermediate artists and professionals. Sometimes the students are professional artists studying with another artist that they admire. Sometimes even the professional artist instructors themselves study with the other professional artists that they admire! No artist ever stops learning and we all learn a lot from each other. 

I see lots of different styles of painting and work that I admire and their work styles range a lot. We recently invited and hosted a workshop with Anne Blair Brown. Her work is loose and she has beautiful sense of color relationships within her works. A lot of what I love about here work is the beautiful colorful "grays" she mixes. I also like the way she lays in the work on the canvas. She limits her brushstrokes and some of the exercises she had the students do was to "count" brushstrokes and to keep it under 40 strokes. What a challenge!

Anne talks with students at lunch break on the square in Pontotoc, MS

Anne's demo on the square.

Ann was so caring about her students needs. She is a good clear communicator and her demos also speak. She painted several demos at the student's request and had them painting some of the scenes in our little town that drew the mayor, editor of our newspaper and reporter, and the director of our chamber of commerce to our painting site in the middle of our little park area of our downtown square! One of the local opticians downtown also came out and even joined our group the last day of the workshop.

In June - a few days after the Plein Air Richmond, I will be teaching a workshop with the Delta Art Association. There are lots of great artists in the delta and I love to paint that area. Here are some of my paintings of the delta:

If you are interested in this workshop please contact Iris Mitchell at lilyiris@suddenlink.net for details. This is for the Delta Art Association in Greenville, MS and they may want to put you on a wait list until the members have a chance to register unless you are already a member. Not sure how that will work.

  In July we have artist Lori Putnam from Nashville here teaching her still life workshop. I like her work- especially her still life work and we are looking forward to hosting here here for the first time. This workshop is full for now- but do let me know if you want on the waiting list. There could be an opening last minute- you just never know! Here is a painting I did in Memphis when I took here workshop. It is very loose:

Sunflowers 20x 16 ©2011 Dot Courson, Oil

Here is one of Lori Putnam's works:

Painting ©Lori Putnam, Oil

New!
We have added another workshop this fall. Robert (Bob) Harper will be back again and we love Bob. He is one of the most energetic and funny and sharing instructors you will ever meet. Here is a painting of his behind country recording artist Amy Grant.

Amy Grant bought his painting - actually Vince Gill bought it for her --and she loved it so much that she put a larger copy of it on the stage for her DVD that won a Grammy. That is amazing to me to see Bob's beautiful painting that large. What a huge honor. That image had to help account for Grammy!

I have not started advertising spots for Bob's workshop yet but if you are reading this and want in to it please let us know. Dates are October 22-24- That is a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday-3 full days and is $295. Contact us at artist@dotcourson.com to register. 

Painting Class

Last week in my "Monday Afternoon 3 times a Month Art Class" class was en plein air in a pasture across the road from where I live. My neighbor rehabs old vehicles to make street rods or antique cars. He's getting ready to build his building there and has a couple of interesting ones that I think are ripe for painting.

It was fun but was windy and in the 80's and not everyone came - and one person got too hot... and the wind almost took us down! But hey- that'a plein air painting! 

Here are all the paintings done on site and one also that a Facebook friend did from photograph:

I even had a Facebook friend who painted the picture (below) that I had posted on FAcebook.... Here is her version that was painted from a photo:

She calls her paintings "Mater and Sally" form the Cars Movie... 

...and I named mine (above) "Mater's Momma"! 

Thanks to everyone who participated!