Day 2 at the Scottsdale Artists' School

Today is day 2 of a 5 day workshop I'm taking at the Scottsdale Artists' School. I'm studying with Hedi Moran who is known for her loose, impressionistic floral oil paintings. She's a great instructor and a lot of fun. It's a small group- maybe 10 or so, so it's a nice intimate environment for learning.

Yesterday I shared the start of a painting of roses. I worked on it a  bit more today. After looking at it last night, I decided to make the background darker to have the roses appear brighter.

Here was where I left off yesterday:

And then here's how I finished off the painting today:

It's still a very loose interpretation of the subject, but I do like the contrast of the darker background and did learn a few things on how I would do things differently the next time. I tell my students, painting is cumulative learning process. Everything you do, all your "brush mileage" contributes to your next painting. It's also a non-linear learning process- there is no formula, every painting is a new challenge and that's a fun part of the creative process.

Here's another painting I started today. First a photo of the still life set up.

And here's the painting so far - still on the easel. You can see I had to simplify a bit and added some things that weren't there for the sake of the painting. The set up is the inspiration. The painting is the creation.  And as artists we choose what to include, delete, change and emphasize.

Still some more work to do but the point of the learning exercise is to (1)learn and (2) catch the feeling of the flowers and not make a precise copy

Check back tomorrow for day 3!