James Richards Workshop

James with his value study and completed demonstration.

 We just returned from our annual October trip to Door County.  One of my" highlights" of the trip was taking a workshop from James Richards, a very talented plein air artist.  I have been watching James  paint around Door County for 5 years during the Plein Air Festival each July.  He has been a consistent winner each year and he has a very approachable manner.  When I learned that he would be teaching a workshop at the Peninsula Art School while we were there in October,  I enrolled in his class.  I discovered he is just as good of a teacher as he is an artist.  His demonstrations were very informative and his individual critiques were invaluable!                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                         

         

Painting at Kangaroo Lake near the causeway.

    The weather was perfect and unseasonably warm. The fall color in Door County were beautiful.   The class was comprised of serious artists and one member was another well-known plein art festival participant, Tom Nachreiner.  Tom  has won several awards at the festival and yet he was a student in James' class.   It proves, no matter how accomplished an artist is, there is always room to learn new approaches to painting.   James works with a limited pallette and Tom was getting ready to teach a workshop and he wanted to learn from James how he teaches with a limited pallette.  

Here are some of the highlights, I took from the workshop.

1.  Values do all the work and color gets all the glory.
2.  Build values from greyed tones for the 4 planes, sky, ground, diagonal planes and vertical planes.
3.  Add color to the greys, warms and cools.  Build up to brilliancy!
4.  Leave things feeling unfinished.  Degas said, "if you say too much, you bore people."

Here are some of the paintings I completed at the workshop.  My approach was less controlled and more fluent.  I enjoyed working with a limited pallette, using softer edges.
Check out James website:  www.jrichardsstudio.com
   

8x10  Shoreline at Coyotte Roadhouse painted from the causeway

Small Birch painting
Sold at the art show! (Still wet)

The Causeway over Kangaroo Lake  11x14