I’m exhausted. Three days of painting from 10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. with an hour lunch break in a style foreign to me and in a medium I am brand new to using and with bigger paintbrushes and on bigger canvases than I am used to using has worn me out. But I learned a lot and had a blast.

I probably am not going to be a complete convert to acrylic paint, but I have a lot more respect for the stuff now. I don’t like how it darkens as it dries. The fast drying has positives and negatives. I did figure out  that if you put the paint on thick enough, it doesn’t dry right way and you can do a little manipulation of it on the canvas. But you must work very fast.

On day three, Brenda Sylvia, our instructor, had us first push our pallets. I opted to avoid white as much as I could. I liked the painting and then after lunch she had us work on some Faux style paintings using the same composition.

Here is a picture of the morning painting:

I kind of actually like this one. It is 18 X 24″ and definitely has a happy emotional flair to it.

This is the afternoon version. Same composition with colors that weren’t even close to the local colors. I think I overworked it and some of the drawing went south.

Here are all of the works from the workshop lined up in order of assignment. From Left to Right: First day’s painting. It’s not finished, but over all, it’s where I started. The second board was a color study against a colored ground. The third is the second day’s painting and then the two above. Lots of work in a short period of time I learned a lot! Thanks Brenda and thanks Rappahannock Art League for hosting her workshop!