Friday, July 13, 2012

July Journaling

Painting outdoors has been a challenge, because of the extremely hot weather. On July 2nd, we met at the Art House. Students could either paint indoors, where I had still lives set up, or in the garden. The Chicago Fire day lilies were blooming by the sitting area, where Sue sat next to the small Japanese Maple tree.




July 9th, we found a lovely place to paint in the Memorial Garden at the Historic Village in Vicksburg. We sat under some beautiful old trees, which provided shade all morning.




The first rule for painting outdoors is to find a comfortable place to sit, and then to find a subject to paint.




I gave a lesson on how to draw the gazebo, and how to compose the page in a pleasing way. Everyone found an intriguing subject, whether it was the gazebo, or something else that caught their eye. After Emma painted a scene of the garden, she finished a journal entry that she began while on vacation. She is using a small moleskin watercolor book, which is a great size to keep with you all the time.



One of the challenges to working in a journal, is that you must consider the placement of the "ditch" of the book, so that it does not disrupt the composition.

The next journaling class (July 26th) will meet the same place, so that we can finish the paintings we began. Check back in a few weeks to see more of our paintings!