Day 2 of Jean Warren's Workshop

Today began at the Rosecrucian Museum again as we did "walking sketches." These tiny little thumbnails were done very quickly--we did about 24 in about 45 minutes. We returned to the room, watched Jean's demo and again began to paint. We had several options to follow and different people chose different ones. Some people seem very comfortable with doing more abstract paintings but most seem uncertain of how to tackle this painting process that is new to them. They want everything to be representational and seemingly aren't happy to try something that's much more conceptual.

Today's photos are of the middle school--Herbert Hoover Middle School--where the workshop is held. It is right across the street from the Egyptian Museum.

Tonight, we had dinner with friends of Grace's--another nice evening. Grace won't be attending tomorrow due to the reception in the afternoon so we talked to Donna (who will be taking her place) about what happened on days 1 and 2.

Again, I painted in the evening on the day 1 painting and started to add some darks to the day 2 painting. Tomorrow, we are supposed to tear up an old painting and collage pieces of it onto a new paper for our day 3 work. I like the way Jean uses watercolor crayon very freely and loosely. . . . and randomly to her paintings. It adds texture and excitement and sometimes provides direction for the next step. I plan to incorporate the idea into my paintings more.

Friday, April 17th

This morning, Grace and I drove to San Jose for Jean Warren's abstract workshop. Jean is from Bodega Bay, California and there are 17 people in this class offered by the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Association. The workshop is at Herbert Hoover Middle School in San Jose and it is right across the street from the Rosecrucian Egyptian Museum.

We started the day with a short introduction by Jean and then we walked across the street to the museum grounds and sat on our stools around the obelisque in the garden. She led us through some contour drawing exercises, encouraging us to really "see" what was around us and to capture the essence of the gardens in our memories.

After about an hour, we returned to the classroom and began our day by watching her demonstrate what she wanted us to do on Day 1. I am not going to attempt to "recapture" or outline the day in much detail because that requires that you take the full workshop and it would be unfair to present too much of the information here. But suffice it to say that we worked on capturing what we had seen in the garden in a quick rhythm wash of putting down the colors and the feelings that we'd experienced and then continuing to paint on top of the color. At the end of the day, we each put our work up and talked about how we felt about the day's efforts.

When we got back to Fremont, we were treated to a wonderful dinner at Grace's neighbor's home, worked on our paintings a little, visited a lot, and went to bed early to be ready for Day 2 tomorrow.

Off to a workshop--

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning to stay with my friend Grace in Fremont and to attend an abstract workshop presented by Jean Warren. I may be "out of commission", in terms of blogging, for a few days depending upon time and circumstances. I will take my laptop but I'm not sure if I'll be online at all until I return home next Monday evening. If you don't see new posts for a few days, don't be surprised. I'll try to take photos and take good notes so I'll have a lot to report when I return. I am really looking forward to the workshop, but the timing isn't the best with my Reedley Show hanging next Wednesday. I'm just about ready for it but there is so much to do in preparation for even a relatively small show. I'm planning for about 20 paintings, just so I have a choice when it comes to actually hanging them.

More soon!