Camille Prezwodek

Camille in my studio

Camille's painting of Cottage street she called this the quintessential l John Clayton scene

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Camille Prezwodek, is teaching a workshop this week at the Cape School of Art. I had a wonderful afternoon showing Camille around Provincetown and then showing her the home of Henry Hensche, next to my studio.
Camille stopped over my studio and looked at my paintings and then showed me some of the scenes she has been painting  here in Provincetown.
It was a great chance to hear some of her thoughts and criticisms  about my work.
It's very difficult to grow as an artist when you are your only audience.
I found her critique very helpful and at the sometime encouraging.

Painting in Wellfleet with Mike Rooney

This week I met up with Mike Rooney and painted in Wellfleet, on Cape Cod. Wellfleet is a very beautiful town, two towns down from Provincetown. I always feel like I'm in the country when I'm there. It's known for it's oysters "the best in the country", boast the Wellfletians.

It's great to get out of the crazy congested Provincetown for the day and paint some of these beautiful marshes.
After painting a marsh scene, and taking a swim at high tied, we headed to the Wellfleet harbor. There we painted until the sunset.
Not sure if I got a good painting out but Mike was quick to point out how lucky we are to be doing what we love and giving ourselves permission to take advantage of the last stolen days of summer.

Margaret McWethy Workshop

Margaret McWethy's Sill

John Clayton's Still life

Last week I was able to attend Margaret McWethy's still life class at the Cape School in Provincetown. Margaret is a terrific still life painter and she also shows at the Egeli gallery with me.

Margaret started her painting off by painting a warm underpainting, establishing the big darks and then rubbing out the lights with terp. After a short demonstration of painting grapes and a bottle we began painting in a similar way. We painted in the big shapes with a warm underpainting and  then she had us  paint the color within the masses. It was wonderful to work with Margret again.

We painted still life or fruit  objects that we had difficulty painting. For me I wanted to learn to paint grapes. Part of the process of setting up the still life was addressed. It always amazes me how  McWethy is able to get a great composition and arrangement of the still life. She sets up such great color harmonies.

My little yorkie  Sophie also came to class and took a nap while we painted. Sophie loves Margaret and sat in her lap while Margaret gave a little critique.

Sophie waits for the class to be over

my messy pallet 

Margaret works with a student

Cloudy Day Beach Forest

Challenged by the weather and heat we had one of the most interesting worshops I ever taught. There were very accomplished artists in my workshop that challenged us all.

It was great to see everyone learn from one another and work on a few plein air ideas and principles.
These pictures are taken at Beach Forest. I did a small demo to explain the masses demystifying the  lilly pads that are part of the big masses.
The artists set up and painted this cloudy day water scene. At the end of the class, we looked at each others paintings to see what can be gained by working together and seeing how each one expressed the cloudy day.

Rooftops

People who see me painting on location always want to know how long it takes me to finish a painting. Usually the answer is "four hours and twenty years". That's not exactly the truth.
My paintings are developed by working on them at the same time of day in the same light conditions.  I always have many paintings in the works.
I return to these scenes of rooftops again and again. Not so much because I sell so many of them, (that would be nice)  I return to them so I can learn their light key. They are my haystacks.

  Another question student's always want to know is when is the painting finished.
I think finishing a painting is different for every artist. Most of my paintings develop over a number of days. I  suggest a few details at the end when all the masses of color are working.
Now a days there are so many plein air artist's working with so many ideas. Painting is a journey.
Most Plein air artist's paint their paintings in one sitting, very popular but it seems a little splash dash for me.  I like to return to my painting, and study them, I think this is the only way to learn the light key of nature.

Sarah In the Garden

Sarah Posing 

Along with painting landscape, we painted the figure in my yard in this weeks workshop. Sarah is a great model, so we took advantage of having her in our class and painted her in the garden. I set her up a little higher off the ground so we could see her better. In this lesson we used flat simple              patterns of color to lay in the painting. I didn't want students to get caught up in details of anatomy and drawing, only the essentials of the pose and masses of the figure.
Painting the figure this way is a great way to learn color and  to simplify. When you paint the landscape you tend to deal with the many elements of the landscape and have to select.  When you paint the figure you only have one element to focus on.








We had some very good painters in the workshop this week who wanted to learn more about color and the essentials of landscape.

Glenna Heartwell 

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At the end of the class I gave a finale critique, thinking about what everyone could do to push their development in painting. 

Last week I had an opportunity to take a week long workshop with Arthur Egeli, the owner of the gallery I show at.
He started the painting by painting the silhouette  of the model. He painted the whole sum of the girl playing the guitar as one color, compared to the sky. Very much like a mud head. then the colors of her clothes and hair and guitar.
This was most helpful in understanding the great mass, of the figure.

Taking a workshop is very helpful from time to time. I am teaching this coming week in Provincetown. If anyone is interested in taking the workshop their is still room. Contact the Cape School of Art. Capeschoolofart.com for more information you may also email me here directly.