P. Mittens in Line, Shape and Complex Surface

"From Line & Shape to Complex Surfaces"

2014 Springmaid Workshop 

with

Gerald Brommer

"P. Mittens"

Image 6x6"

Mixed Media:  Pencil, Gesso, Washi Collage, Watercolor

Collection of the Artist

Jerry (Gerald) Brommer has such a gift of teaching!  I took his "From Line & Shape to Complex Surfaces" 5-day workshop last November at Springmaid Watermedia Workshops and so enjoyed it - my good friend Caroline Williamson (from high school, no less) was in the same workshop and and we would go back to the studio and paint and talk every night until late - believe it or not, we got a lot of painting done!

I was painting landscapes all week in class, working on scenes from a different trip each day, but by Thursday I was missing my little Princess Mittens and decided to take a break from Jerusalem, Santa Fe, Tuscany and Paris and just paint my cat.  She was definitely a hit and stole the show!

I love the process we worked with - first I did a pencil sketch on the paper, then I gessoed that and then enhanced the pencil sketch (since most of it gets lost under the gesso).  Next I collaged over the entire surface with "washi" (Japanese papers), using white papers with different textures. Then I had to strengthen the lines again, actually using a sharpie marker at times.  And finally I painted in watercolor on top of everything!  The surface is rich and varied and I was pleased (almost but not quite as much as I was to see Mittens when I got home)!

In case you're interested, here's a great little nugget on YouTube - a sample of the DVD of this same workshop ("From Line & Shape to Complex Surfaces") available for purchase from Cheap Joe's Art Stuff.

It was great to be back in a workshop with Jerry - his landscape painting was the first real art workshop I ever took - probably 25 years ago... I've taken various workshops from him but I always feel I grow "light years" when I take his classes where we work with collage.