Creative Turkies

Every year in my watercolor classes I show my students how to paint a turkey. Many of my students have commented about this "Turkey" art project. Some have requested to do the painting and some have pleaded not to. Here is the demo of the turkey I did in class the other day using watercolor, crayons and oil pastel crayons. Have a very happy "Turkey" day.

Travel Painting After Your Trip

When you think of travel painting, you might see yourself in front of beautiful scenery sketching and painting away to preserve your memories. However, you can do a lot of travel painting after you return home. When I am traveling I try to do some paintings on the spot, but many times I take a look at my photos or my friends photos of where we have been and work out a painting in my home studio. This is one I did from another photo by Jayne. It was from a small town called Les Arques and had lovely scenery to paint.

Nice Doorway

Here is a painting I did with my watercolor class this week using a photo taken by my friend, Jayne in S.W. France. The bricks used in the buildings in this area were a honey-golden color. It was challenging to find the right color paint. I finally ended up using Daniel Smith's color, Buff Titanium.

More French Paintings

Here is a painting I did in my travel sketchbook of the front of the restored convent where we stayed. This trip I took a 6"x9" sketchbook with a variety of paper in it. It was held together by binder rings and it worked great! I never have time when I am teaching these workshops to paint longer then an hour or so, so a 6"x9" piece of paper works great.

First Page from my Sketchbook

Here is the first quick painting I did as a demo at my workshop in France. We were in the town of Cahors (don't pronounce the h or the s). After a picnic lunch, my class and I sketched and painted this bridge. My students in this workshop were great and I will be posting some of their work here very soon. Everyone in the workshop bonded and we had great painting days out and about in S.W. France and in the classroom where we stayed. The workshop took place in the Lot and Dordogne regions of France, which have some incredible scenery.