Sandi started our Nov. meeting with a reminder of the CFWS booth in the Maitland Art Festival, Nov. 9 from 2:30 – 6:00pm. If you would like to help out, please contact Pam for more information and a chance to display our artwork.

Our CFWS Annual Members show submission is coming soon. Dec. 1 – Jan. 15, 2025. Send your JPEG via the website. Jane says don’t worry about resolution; 300 dpi is OK. Make sure Jane confirms your submission!

There are 2 spots left in Janet Rogers “Expressive Loose Watercolors” workshop and then we start a waiting list. We can take photos of the ballerina for later paintings! See the registration page!

We need volunteers for the annual holiday part! Fun! Art! Food! Contact Rene T. to help out!

Marcela M. announced upcoming plein air events: 

November 162024 – Saturday, 10am to 3pm
Dickson Azalea Park – 10 Rosearden Dr, Orlando

December 72024 – Saturday 10am to 3pm
Ft Christmas Historical Park – 1300 N Ft Christmas Rd, Christmas Fl (near Chuluota / Oviedo)

SEE OUR POST ON THIS WEBSITE FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION/DIRECTIONS FOR EACH EVENT.

Demonstration by David McEown:

Canadian artist David McEown has had many journeys to far flung areas on our planet. He showed us a video of some of his travels and plein air set up and narrated as it went.  

He paints large and follows basic design principles. He painted an iceberg on 300# Arches bright white, which he uses a lot for snow and ice. He does wildlife but mostly a landscape painter.

Plein Air – He uses a quick release tripod adapter and fastens a grey corrugated plastic board on it. He controls the water and the bead and uses “Hydrodynamics” with a gravity assist. 

Starting from lower left these are the colors he used – Horizon Blue; WN French Ultramarine; a hot blueWN Winsor Violet; WN Quin. Violet; Permanent Rose; Scarlet Lake; WN Cad-free orange- red shade; WN Cad-free yellow or Aureolin or Winsor Yellow; WN Cad-free yellow; Holbein Cad lemon yellow; Holbein Cobalt turquoise blue; Holbein turquoise; and WN blue-green shade. (close to Thalo Blue)

He uses the basic 3 primary colors in his palette.   He likes to constantly move his palette to mix the paint and water – Hydrodynamics are important part of his painting technique. He uses dry brush for texture. Plastic easels will protect the painting from light rain. Emperor Penguins are Zen like and will sit and pose for hours. The critique from the babies is very cute!

The underpainting is called a ghost wash.  No masking or white paint is used in his paintings, he does negative painting.  A large 2” wash brush is used to put a wash over the whole paper. Lightly wash the violet and let it drip down. Keep the bead moving. 1” flat Kolinsky sable brush to add more violet (in high key) ghost wash gives the painting an underpainting glow. Later he adds details with a round brush. His drawing is done with an HB pencil.

Start sculpting and with most important element first.  His technique is called: “Wet on Wet on Dry” … is wet with lightest color then drop Winsor blue into it.
Then turquoise, then greenish blue  – mix it – then add Winsor violet. 

Paint from the top, pull the bead down. Hang the bead – find an edge drop in color. Vary the value. Cooler blue for the crevasse, would also work for veins in lilies too.  Break the sky into transparent layers. Sky shape against the whitest whites and let it melt in. 

Divide the sky into …1/3…1/3 …1/3 it helps in  moving the eye around.  You create depth with contrast and values.  The sky is a big shape – paint dark against light.  The pre made colors = red shade ultramarine + scarlet lake + yellow. Mix a Yellow & violet for the sky grey.      

Don’t put too much detail in the middle of the painting because it gets static. Painters can accentuate what edges can do to make things more 3 dimensional. Thalo blue deep used for the cave on right and violet plus red rose for right edge dark.

Lots of Ultramarine + Scarlet + Yellow = dark grey for the sky and the ocean water near the bottom. David likes theultramarin for the granulation, but will use it sparingly. Put the colors in with a flat brush. May take a few glazes.

Thank you David for a wonderful experience! We enjoyed your videos of your travels – as well as the demonstration of your steps to a beautiful paintig.

For more information on David and his paintings and workshops, click on the following link:

https://www.davidmceown.com

We had an attendance of 36 today! We were glad to see you all.