Fresco Workshop - First Day, Friday, 8/1/08

Detail of Fresco from Pompeii Depicting Bowl of Fruit (or Figs)

Introduction to Buon Fresco Painting
Hands-on Painting Workshop in Santa Fe New Mexico USA
Date: August 1-3
Instructor: George O'Hanlon

George O'Hanlon and his wife Tanya have a business, Natural Pigments Resources that deals in rare art materials, and when I received the e-letter regarding this Fresco workshop, I immediately felt that strong, indescribable pull - or is it really a push - to grab this opportunity. I'm so glad to be a part of this workshop - George and Tanya are professional yet personable, enthusiastic, gifted and extremely knowledgeable. We have a class of 16 - all eager to learn this ancient and fascinating art process.

Today we prepared our "cartoons" and began painting them on smooth watercolor paper, a vital part of the planning process. The planning and preparation are important because of the immediacy involved once the ground is prepared and the painting must be done while the plaster made from limestone putty and fine sand is wet and certain chemical reactions occur in which the pigment fuses to the plaster. In effect, the painting becomes one with the "ground" its painted on, or as I've heard people say, "buon fresco is not a painting on the wall - it becomes the wall."