Wednesday, November 12, 2008

"Hiesler Park, South" ©



Day 2 John Cosby Workshop -

Today Cosby started with a demo on composition. What was most interesting was his discussion on leading the eye of the viewer without being obvious. To punctuation his point he lead us through the William Wendt exhibit at the Laguna Museum, picking examples that clearly demonstrated lovely S compositions that actually worked as a circle too, so that the viewers attention never left the canvas. Cosby suggested that all of us read "Composition To Outdoor Painting", by Edgar Payne at least once a year. He explained that each reading you will discover new information that will help us all on the journey to understanding of how to paint. Cosby demonstrated a painting from on the path overlooking the ocean, and spent time reinforcing the concepts from Monday, along with a "palm tree" lesson. The one line about trees that was most enlightening was, to paint the growth pattern. Simple as it sounds, if you move your brush as any plant life grows your painting will already be headed in the right direction. We saw great examples of this in the Wendt exhibit. One last comment, the William Wendt exhibit is breathtaking, if you have the opportunity GO.

Oil on panel, 9" X 12"

2 comments:

Marian Fortunati said...

Great information, Laura! If you take his class again next year, I'd love to join you!!
I'm hoping to go down next weekend to Laguna to meet my daughter and see the Wendt exhibit. Glad it's worthwhile!!

Kimberly M Zamlich said...

GORGEOUS

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