Idyllwild Workshop

A few weeks ago, I taught a 3 day workshop, hosted by the Idyllwild Arts Academy, which is in the mountains west of Palm Springs. I had a great group of folks to work with, and we had decent weather as well. We met up Friday morning in a meadow on the campus, where I promptly stepped on a red anthill while talking to one of the participants. I can say from experience now that red ants are the "gift that keeps on giving."

My first demo piece from the meadow, mainly trying to get a sense of looking towards the sun, with a hint of atmosphere, backlighting color saturation, and some minor indication of detail in the shadows.

In order to get a bit more atmospheric depth and color we met up at another meadow in town the next morning that afforded a view of Lily Rock, a prominent local icon.


Tom and Rich in the meadow on Sunday morning. That's Julia, lurking under the umbrella on the right.


Phyllis and Jacquie find views in opposing directions.


Leanne and Jerry.

A quick study of backlit trees and some textured foliage. I would move pretty quickly on these, then pull the plug and start doing walkarounds.


Rose and Judy.

There were boulders all over the campus, completely surrounding the studio we were in, so I did a demo of one that caught my eye. This piece I managed to spend a bit more time on.

We also painted one afternoon at Lake Fulmore to get a chance to observe water, but I did no demo that day, just walk arounds.
We finished up on Sunday afternoon with a group show and tell/critique, then went our separate ways.
It was a busy 3 days, but a lot of fun and hard work. My thanks to everyone who took the class.