Two Pears

Barbara's Pears  6x6"  acrylic  (SOLD)

Finally back from traveling and spending some time with my folks. The Syracuse workshop went great although we all wished it were longer. We have already begun planning a 5 day workshop in spring 2014 to cover more ground - namely color theory and color schemes.
Here is one of the demo paintings I did. I set up a simple still life and composed two value studies, using black, grey and white values to illustrate a big point about seeing values - namely that there are many ways to translate an image into a simple value structure. It's up to the artist to simplify and push the values one way or another to make the painting work. In otherwords, the artist is the designer, not the transcriber. I often push students to do more than one value study, to determine which ones work best, and to get them into the habit of doing what works - rather than copying what's there. (IMHO) designing the overall value structure is key to strong compositions!