Clearing — shariblaukopf.com

Over the next few days I will try to scan and post all the studies I did in last week’s Tom Hoffmann workshop on Lopez Island. And the word “studies” is very appropriate because that was what we were doing. It was a learning experience and Tom encouraged us to try new things, to get out of our comfort zones, to let go of old habits. One thing that surprised me with the subjects that we painted over the four days was how little drawing we did. We painted skies, fields, trees, water and rocks but hardly anything man-made. That made things easy and difficult at the same time. Think about it. When you look at a farmer’s field as it moves into the distance there is not much to paint. And when you look into the forest there is too much to paint. Every day and every subject was a complex problem to render in paint and that’s what made it thrilling. It involved a lot of looking, thinking and analyzing about how it should be attacked, and even testing out potential problem areas. Day in and day out I paint things (buildings, boats, flowers, household objects) that I was rendered quite speechless in front of a large yellow field of barley. Or this forest clearing. But we looked. And analyzed. And then painted. And the advice from Tom’s wise and patient teaching was to think about where the lights and darks were, and to keep it abstract as long as possible. More to come tomorrow…

Read More