“I’m Becky Joy, an artist, a painter, a teacher and an explorer…….at least in my corner of the world.  I’ve been known to take off on a minute’s notice for a painting trip. The exploration of new places is as exciting to me as the process of painting. Plein air painting is that perfect combination.”

Becky will be joining us Sept. 14-23, 2014.  Join Becky as she welcomes you into her corner of the world to experience the light and colours of fleeting moments…glowing sunsets and light filled, luminous landscapes with a visual delight of colour and playful, painterly brushwork.

How to Adapt to Changing Light in Plein Air Painting

Have you ever wondered what to paint first and how to get it all when the light is changing so quickly when you are plein air painting? I’ll tell you what I think about and my process.

As you know, it isn’t wise to start chasing the light. Once you do that your painting can be all over the place, inconsistent and not hold together in a strong composition.

The first thing that you need to do is assess your situation with the weather.

• Which direction is the light moving?
• What time of day is it?
• How much time do you have?

You need to anticipate. If you know which direction the light is moving, you will be able to tell what may be in shadow. If it is early in the morning or late afternoon, you will have less time for the light to change.

After I have thought about those variables, I look at the scene and try to figure out what will change first. Is there a rock face in shadow that may be exposed by the sun in a half hour by the moving light? In that case, I will paint the rock shadows first. Is there a tree shading something that I want in shadow? I may start there first.

Anything that is important to my story and will change quickly, may be a good starting point. A large field on sunlight probably won’t change much in a short period of time. In the middle of the day, the sky won’t change much. But it will change with clouds, sunset or sunrise. So, that may be the first thing that I paint in the scene.

Leave the things that won’t change as rapidly to the end of your painting session. It varies with each scene and sometimes the light is fairly steady and doesn’t change appreciably while you are painting. In those cases, you can paint a little more leisurely.

So, assess your scene. Paint the things that change the quickest. Then move onto the parts that will be more constant.

Enjoy painting out there!

Becky

Ingrid Christensen: I’m an oil painter working in an impressionistic, loose style. My favourite subjects are people and landscapes. I’m a fanatical painter. I live and breathe paint – which is probably not too healthy – from morning till night. When I’m not painting, I’m thinking about painting or researching techniques or looking at gallery sites or blogging about painting.

Ingrid joins us in 2014. Book now for her April 29-May 8th dates and don’t miss this opportunity to learn from Ingrid while enjoying the beauty of Croatia.

Painting Metal

Painting metal, like painting skin, seems to intimidate students but it’s actually pretty easy and I think it’s a lot of fun. I enjoyed the challenge of rendering the reflections and distortions across the surface of this brass pot because it was an exercise in simplification and colour modification.

The painting was about simplification because there were many more marks in the reflection than I put into the painting.  The most important thing to keep sight of was that I was trying to create a believable form, and the more reflections in the metal, the more the form broke apart and became hard to read as solid.  So I sacrificed some of the interesting little reflections in order that the pot felt like a single, rounded object.  By editing for the fewest, big shapes that I could, this became easy.  I could depict the surface as, essentially, a dark top and light bottom part with the reflection of the little square dish and a couple of the pearl onions in the middle.  Although I could see my easel and a lot of other details reflected in the brass, I left them out and just put in these few major shapes.

The colour modification was interesting because I had to render the reflections that I saw in the pot with the correct influence of warm, yellow brass.  So the green dish became warmer in reflection and the white table cloth looked almost peach coloured.

None of this was guess work; the set up was right in front of me and I just had to look.  The tricky part was, as always, understanding what I was seeing and translating that in simple terms to the canvas.

The peonies gave me no end of trouble, but that’s another blog post.

Happy painting!

“1975: in the midst of a clambering market place, unable to speak the language…I became aware of the importance of the common bonds that universally unite us all. The necessity to communicate these visions, feelings and emotions became paramount. Art became my language.”

Susan will be adding one more country to her extensive list & will be joining us in Croatia, Sept. 26 – October 5 , 2014.

 Painting on the go – Painting supply list

Starting in 1969, I started traveling the world. At first I thought that traveling to Europe was something to do and “get the wanderlust out of my system”. However, after 7 weeks in 9 countries in Europe and England, all that trip did was wet my appetite for new cultures and wonderful countries all over England and Europe, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, New Caladonia, Tahiti, and more. In 1994, I decided to share these trips with artists that wanted to paint in excellent locations. First I ventured with my students to the Bahamas, next trip was Tucson ( it really is exotic and a great place to visit ), soon I ventured over the ocean to teach in England, France and Italy…. many times. In 1997, my husband, Howard Friedland, started traveling, teaching and painting with me!

Many artists have asked me what supplies I bring to paint and draw when I travel. Here are two photos showing the minimum equipment that I recommend. Personally, I usually expand this a bit, more colors, more panels, larger panels, a tripod, artist’s umbrella, etc., but this is the bare bones for travel. With the little 6 x 8 pochade box, I still can paint 8 x 10 or 10 x 12 paintings.  This is the minimum painting supply list for sketching and watercolors.

Minimum Supplies for all artists

For those that want to also use oils, the following photo has shows the minimum painting supply list that you would need:

Minimal Supply List for Oils

All of this fits into a rolling backpack that doubles as my carry on when I fly. Just don’t plan to have your tubes of paint, palette knife, palette scraper, Murphy’s oil soap, Vaseline, or brushes in your carry-on luggage when you fly. Pack those things in your main suitcase that you check in.

Do NOT bring solvent of any kind. Once you arrive at your destination, if you are near an art store, you can purchase your solvent then. If there isn’t an art store near by, you can purchase mineral spirits at any hardware store. One other idea is to switch to walnut oil, olive oil or sesame seed oil. But that is another blog for sometime…

From Tucson to New York, Montana to Florida, Europe to China, I hope this helps all of you artists out there that are wanting to travel with your paints, but are completely baffled as to what to pack. Yes, I know, many times you pack your equipment, and hardly have time to touch it. But, bring them anyway, you never know when the moment appears and you will be ready to swing those brushes!

I have always felt that the best souvenir that you can ever bring home from your travels is a sketch or painting that you have done right there, locking in your memories. Quietly painting in some corner of this glorious world, listening to the sounds of the village, smelling the food cooking, listening to the laughter of the children coming home from school… all of it becomes captured in your heart as you paint.

Now, Go pack a travel painting kit and keep it ready for the next time you venture far from home. While you are at it…. Get a passport too! If you have it, you just might start using it!

Over the winter the vines are pruned right back so that they look like this:

Basically you are cutting last years shoots back to 2 or 3 buds, which are picked for best growth of new shoots,

Then as the vines start to grow in and flower, they need to be thinned to help produce the right amount of grapes so that it does not tax the plant, which will cause it not to produce anything next year.  Ideally the plant will produce about the same amount of grapes each year.

Over the last couple of days I have helped with the thinning process… I like this statement: “Grapevines are like unruly children in the spring and early summer. They want to push buds wherever they can.“

Unruly Children

Disciplined Children

When thinning off shoots the goal is to have the shoots evenly spaced on the cordon.  With many cultivars there is a tendency for more shoots to grow in the yoke region (where the trunk meets the cordon). This should be avoided. Shoot thinning is best done fairly early in the growing season, typically when the shoots are 3-10” long. The way I was taught is that when you look at the vine you will see leaves along it, the space between the vine and the leave often has a bud and from here is where a new shoot will grow…. this is what you are snapping off.  The removal of new shoots must also be done along the trunk.

Snap off centre bud

In the whole scheme of things, it is not a difficult job… unless ofcourse you have back problems and then you will want to take some ibuprofen and head the couch with a heating pad for the afternoon

We had a great group of 14 who got along really well together and seemed to be laughing all day.

We had some really nice weather with only 2 rainy mornings… perfect time to do some finishing work on the balcony.

I wrote a daily journal, which you can find on our blog, and which now has photos as part of it.

Please take a look at our workshops for the Autumn and think about joining us!

Sretan Slikanje! (Happy Painting!)

It was an early morning, with a 6:30 breakfast start so that we could be on the ferry at 8am. We arrived in Orebić at 8:20, stopped at Bella Vista for coffee at 9:30 and arrived in Cavtat at 11am after having to stop for several one lane road works.  Everyone took their luggage to their rooms and we were on the bus and heading back to Dubrovnik but 11:30am.

On our way to Cavtat, Tomi and I both noticed that the road leading into Dubrovnik’s old town (Stari Grad) were closed, which meant that we had to drive back to the main bridge coming into Dubrovnik and loop back through the main port to get to the old town. This added 1/2hr to the drive and by the time we arrived in Stari Grad, and made our way to the restaurant, it was 12:45… just in time for out 1pm reservation.

Lokanda is located in the port part of Stari Grad and is an outdoor restaurant with lots of white umbrellas.  It has a unique way of serving food as all the hot food is served in black iron pots.  We started with appetizers of octopus salad, tuna pate, cheese, sardines, and anchovies.  Salad followed and then the hot dishes came out.  I let everyone know that this was a tapis style meal and only take a little of each as there were many options to choose from.  Grilled squid, breaded squid, seafood risotto, black risotto, shrimp, mussels, and smelts. Once that was all gone we reordered a few favourites. Rozatta was the only choice for dessert, which a few people had, while others finished their meal with coffee.

We had an hour before our tour started and so people were able to wander about a bit, or in Marks case, take a nap on some fishing nets!

Danjela arrived promptly at 3pm and we started our historical tour.  Danjela is a wealth of knowledge and spent the whole time talking and answering questions.

Our tour ended at 5:15pm and half the group decided to catch the 5:30pm water taxi back to Cavtat.  The balance of the group caught the 6:30pm water taxi, which arrived in Cavtat at 7:15pm at a different location to where the 5:30pm ferry had dropped off the first group.  So we walked around to the opposite bay and met the rest of the group so that we could all walk to the restaurant together.

Galija restaurant has one of nicest patios and views in Cavtat. It is located on the far end of the port next to a church. The patio is covered by large pine trees and is protected from the wind by the church.  Dinner started with spinach soup, then salad and finally vegetarian cannelloni… the first purely vegetarian meal on the trip! By 9:30pm the group started saying their goodbyes for the last time, or until they met again.

I want to thank the everyone who attended this tour for making it a wonderful experience.  This group connected so nicely and my most vivid memory will be how much everyone laughed.

If anyone has some pictures they would like to share for this day, please email them to me.

Until we meet again

It is a beautiful sunny day today!  A perfect way to end our time on Korčula.  We packed up my car and then everyone walked to the marina to catch the water taxi to Vrnik.

I was not on the island with everyone as I had to make an unscheduled trip into Korčula, so I am writing what was told to me at the end of the day.

Once on the island, a few people went back to the same location they had painted from on the previous trip, while others found new locations.
In the afternoon, the wind picked up a bit and some were forced to change location.

Ardyce was tucked away in an alley and the resident of that alley brought her some homemade lemonade.

I believe another gentleman took Mark on a bit of a tour to the middle of the island where the quarry is.

By 4pm everyone was ready to go and Stijepo was there to pick them up.  I met the group at 4:15 and everyone headed back to Lovric… well everyone except Mark and Gaye, who invited me for a beer on a patio.  Without thinking, I parked the car and we sat there for the next hour, while everyone at Lovric waited for me to return with their bags which had their room keys in them!  Luckily Sylvana was home and was able to let people into their rooms.  Oops!  I blamed Mark and Gaye

At 6pm everyone arrived on the back porch with a few examples of the work they had accomplished over the last 8 days.  I was overwhelmed by the beauty of work that was produced!  Wow what a talented group of people

Our last dinner on the island started with lentil soup, then salad, followed by chicken and green beans and tiramisu for dessert.

Just a few examples of student work:

It was another rainy morning and so Gaye did a pastel demonstration on the front balcony while Mark did a cloud demonstration on the other side of the balcony.  We stayed there until lunch and then a small group headed back into Korčula for some picture taking and shopping, while others painted or napped.

We had grilled fish on the BBQ tonight, and I am always amazed at how much flavour it has compared to the fish I can get at home.

Happy Birthday Randy!

The weather looks to be similar to what we had yesterday.  The oil painters are still going to go out in the field but the balance are going to do some finishing work on the front balcony.  And what a successful morning they had!  Infact we were thinking that if the afternoon cleared up that we would go over to Glavica to paint vineyards but the consensus is to stay put.

Over lunch the rain started to come down quite hard and we were worried about the oil painters as they had decided not to work under the front porch of a small church but to go out into the field… and for most of the morning that would have been fine but then it really began to come down.  Silvana went into Lumbarda to pick up Mustafa and found our oil painters in a cafe having lunch.  They were dry and declined a lift back to Lovric.  We would see them at 4pm… either they would walk back or if it was raining, they would get picked up.

Everyone felt they had a very successful day, as most had finished a painting or two.  I went at 4pm to pick up the oil painters and when I got there they were so immersed in their work, that they had no idea it was 4pm!

At 4:40, everyone met on the front balcony and we had a lovely walk to Bire Winery.  The walk takes us across the road from Lovric and up the hill, where there are some nice old building in different states of repair, so some nice photos were taken.

Frano Milina Bire, is my cousin and has a beautiful family farm where he started with organized tours and dinners for tourists, offering them a taste of local produce like goat cheese, dry-cured ham, organic vegetables, sugared almonds, olive oil, brandies and wine. Then he realized that in the long run it is much better to turn to production and not just rely on tourism, so he focused on producing excellent white wine from the indigenous Lumbarda grape Grk, as well as a very good red Plavac mali.

We were received by his Frank’s wife, Višnja, who took us on a tour through the production side of things and then settled us in the main cellar for some tasting.  We tried 2011 Grk, 2009 Plavac Mali and then some of their distilled liquors made of cherries, lemons, and mandarins.  We also tired their rakija with herbs.

By 6:30 we left for our walk back to the main house and for dinner.  Tonight we are having ćevapčići, which are small sausages made of beef, lamb and pork, and are a favourite of mine. I have been doing the ćevapčići dance (made up by me) all day!  Silvana also served them with french fries and every plate was clean by the end of dinner.  Silvana made Randy a chocolate torte for his birthday which served with champagne and a loud verse of “Happy Birthday” from the table.

We have finally made it to Korčula!  The weather is a bit iffy but is suppose to clear up this afternoon.

We started our day in Korčula with a Filigree Jewellery demonstration by Seba Dizajn.  Doka’s family had been making Jewellery for generations and now it is his turn.

After the demo, everyone had time to themselves to wander around Korcula and take pictures.  We would reconvene for lunch at 12 and then painting would commence.

The oil painters and Andrea decided to paint before lunch and found a spot down along the outside wall of Korčula where all the restaurants are.  They were treated very well by the waiters who brought coffee and drinks all day.

There was a cruise ship in Korčula today and so we had lots of critiques throughout the day!  As always, everyone had their favourite artist.

Mark’s group sat up top by the Cathedral and sketched the different alleyways leading back down to the main streets.  Quite challenging given all the steps.

Ardyce decided to do Marko Polo’s house which seems to be all steps!  I don’t think she knew what she was getting herself into!

Turret is part of Marko Polo’s house

The afternoon turned out to be beautiful, with clear skies and no wind which had made the morning cool.

At 4pm, Loris came to get us and we took the road above Korčula which offers a spectacular view of Korcula town (first picture of post).  Needless to say the cameras were clicking!

We then stopped in Sveti Antun (St. Anthony) to climb the 101 steps up to the small church at the top.

There is a short path around the church which offers views of Sveti Antun, Lumbarda, Badija and Korčula.

Franciscan Monastery on Island of Badija

At 6:30pm I swung by Mark and Gaye’s room and took them for a quick ride up to the main church in Lumbarda to look at prospective views for tomorrow.  We found lots of locations and decided it would work for tomorrow, should it not rain.

Grk Vineyards of Lumbarda

Today is Snjedzana’s birthday, so after she set down our bean soup, the whole table burst into song to wish her a Happy Birthday.
After soup, seafood spaghetti followed, and then a chocolate mousse type of dessert.

Happy Birthday Snjedzana!