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This was exciting.  My friend, Sharon Will and I had planned a night time painting session at the local ice cream stand, but blustery winds and occasional down pours forced us to adjust our plans.  We actually tried to wimp out of painting at all, but that is the beauty of the buddy system, you hold each other accountable.  We finally agreed that we would go and paint the dramatic sky for one hour.  The back of the local library faces west and backs up to an orchard so it is perfect for sunsets. We painted from the backs of our cars which helped keep the cold winds at bay.  This was the most intense plein air session ever!  The sky changed every 30 seconds.  Every minute was literally a new painting.  The sky started as gray with purple striped clouds with small peeks of pink and orange.  The orange continued to grow and finally the sky opened into a lovely green blue.  At one point a bright orange cloud sailed by and was made more dramatic by the backdrop of deep purple clouds.
I did not pay much attention to the foreground but I think I could go back to the same spot and work that part of the painting separately.

I am now hooked on sunset paintings!

This is one of the paintings that I did at the Robert Liberace workshop at the Southern Atelier in Sarasota, FL.
I originally had a strong highlight placed on the models head with the background lighter than her face.  Rob pointed out that if I lost the highlight and darkened the background the figure of the model would become the focus.  The adjustments took a few minutes and I was very surprised at how much stronger the painting was.

Lesson learned; simplify, simplify, simplify!

This is my first oil painting since returning from a workshop with Robert Liberace in Sarasota, Florida.  The workshop was 4 days and was held a great school called the Southern Atelier.  I felt like a kid in a candy store at this workshop.  Not only were there lots of demos but there was also a good amount of personal critique from the instructor.  I found him to have a very good eye for zeroing in on where students needed help, and his way of teaching was informative and encouraging.

I also learned new ways to paint that I was unfamiliar with before.  I found his method of traditional painting very user friendly.  He started by laying in the shadow with burnt umber and sienna and then building up the lights.  He payed special attention to the transition in the half tones by using a drawing brushstroke that helped soften and blend but did not overwork the edge.  He emphasized that the lights should be thick and opaque. 

I layed out this still life to practice his method.

Here are the links to his website as well as the Southern Atelier.
www.robertliberace.com
thesouthernatelier.org