Worked on the blossoms and shadow - needed more depth and contouring.
Many years ago, we planted an apple tree from a seed in a commercial Granny Smith apple. It was a school project for my youngest daughter, and grew to be a large tree. A few years ago it had three blossoms, the next year five, last year ten, and then this year there are thousands of blossoms.
Seems like I am drawn to reflections in spring ponds - reminds me of watercolours. After seeing the Group of Seven, it is the confident decisive strokes that impress me the most - and of course their colour sense. The minimal lush brushstrokes in gorgeous colours - what mastery!
This morning Frank reviewed his demos and showed us how he makes adjustments and finishes them. A lot of interesting topics were shared, and a lot of information gained. In the afternoon we all painted together in a small area, but we had 360 degrees of vista to choose from. I am pleased with mine, and major pleased with what I learned and practised on this workshop. I now am starting to work with one value relevant to the next. I have heard this, understood it, but couldn't quite do it before...this has shifted. It has been an amazing workshop, Frank is a phenomenal teacher and I look forward to returning.
Today Frank set us out on our own, to paint whatever and wherever we want, then to come back for critiquing. He wanted us to work through our obstacles and our vision, and that he critiques without seeing the scene that we are working from.
With these roses, my objective was to really accentuate them, and I think that happened with the darkened background. I was in the midst of posting and asked my husband what to call the painting - he was busy and said that he didn't know - but he said "je ne sais pas.....and so they are named.
