Anne Blair Brown Workshop...Part Deux

We had the best weather for the three day workshop! Even though storms were forecast, Anne and Rachel were somehow able to alter the weather patterns so that every day was sunny and excellent for being outdoors :)  Actually, they insisted that they have no control over the weather...regardless, it was wonderful. Day 2: we met at a very public corner in Franklin where several roads converge and by noon there is plenty of foot traffic. No room for shyness in plein air painting! Anne again started with a demo:  this time of a lovely, Southern church. The great thing about Anne's demos is that she is instructing through the entire process and doing so in a way that is very understandable. 

The drawing part  done, Anne move on to developing the painting's values. The darkest areas are going to attract the eye so they are kept near the focal point. She aims for four values: dark, light, and two middle tones. Now the canvas is pretty much covered with some degree of burnt sienna. The warmth of this color will glow through in the finished painting. One way to study an initial lay in is to squint down and see the major shapes, lines, and the dark/light areas. Does it feel pleasing? Are there obstructions or glaring errors in the lines or subject?

I hope you're not tiring of the redundancy of the process, but here goes!: Anne likes to start with a white canvas (as opposed to a color-toned one), she makes some initial design decisions of where to place the church and locate the lines of sight that lead to it. Do you see the grid lines she's painted onto the canvas? The steeple base hits right on the upper left grid intersection, a great place for the focal point. She continued the drawing, shown in the right photo (my apologies to mobile device users if the photos are not next to each other!) As she "draws" with her brush and diluted burnt sienna, she is looking for the darker areas and getting her lines and perspective in correctly. If she needs to wipe an area that creates some tonal notes to the stark white canvas.

Finally it is time to add color. This was a big take-away for me: to take waaaay more time starting my painting, using a tonal lay-in and developing the values in burnt sienna first. You can see that she leaves spots and blops of white canvas peaking through in several areas. I find that to be so interesting in Anne's paintings. I also love the clean colors and the warm, friendly yellows that she mixes. If you look at her palette, you can see the mixes of colors and how they all work together. Of course, she is expert at color mixing!

I could say a lot more about the minimal details, the value contrasts, the diagonal lines, the airy sky, the loose brushstrokes, the flowering cherry, the soft trees...oh wait. 
Thanks for reading my blog!!