Flowers : the Underpainting

One must begin somewhere and for me well I began because I had to. Our teachers asked me if I would work with our students on another canvas as I have done in the past. Its sort of a fund raiser when we sell a painting made by myself and our students. The work is completed by our students under my direction while we are in session. I will bring it home and leave it alone as best I can but I may straighten up some small matters but leave as much as possible alone. This painting I am working on came from a photo I took during the spring a few years ago while living in Belmont which is part of Charlottesville, Va. The flowers bloom plentiful in that section of town so one spring I went out with my camera and photographed a good number of them. I took those photos and selected one to work from. On Monday I will bring this under painting that I did in Burnt Umber into school for the students to complete. I will work with them in order to put in the various color tones while showing them the photo on my laptop. Some I will have to work with hand over hand but I think for the most part our students can be left to work on there own. I know the biggest obstacle for our students to overcome is timidness. I find many of them are simply not use to using a paint brush and that what they paint will stay, and perhaps there is a little the daunting task of 'doing it right' which I try to instill the knowledge that its ok, there aren't any mistakes in art. Well unless your me, crit'n my own artwork, then its all full of mistakes. Even at this age its still a job not to be self critical, yet sometimes what I do complete does give me some sense of accomplishment. Now to have my students see that, ahh that is the test.

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What Has Worked;

Poolside

Wyant's Store in Whitehall,Va.

Kidd's Store, Va. : an oil

Firecycle in Kamahura: 1954 or So