Over six weeks in June-July 2021 I attended an in-person landscape painting class at Woodmere Art Museum. We met each Friday for 3 hours and painted a scene from somewhere on the grounds.
Here’s another painting from the class for you to see.
Thank you to Marta, our instructor, and to all my classmates for a great experience.
In our fifth session I had a breakthrough – I came to the class with an idea of where and what I wanted to paint. I had been attracted to the rows of young sycamore trees in the parking lot. I liked their neat shapes and how they looked, arrayed in ranks.
Here is the result: Woodmere Landscape Five A, 18 x 24, acrylics on Masonite.
To make the mottled background areas of the parking lot I used a brayer to roll random colors on the whole surface. What you see is what’s left after I used other colors to depict the various elements of the scene.
I worked pretty quickly and finished this one early. I was tired so I sat down on my little folding stool. My eye was caught by the Victorian tower of the museum, which is housed in a former mansion made of gray stone. I quickly sketch-painted this small view. It’s 14″ x 11″, Woodmere Landscape Five B, acrylics on Masonite.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Wow!!! X 2
Thank you. Finally I felt a bit of success in squeezing out something from the scene in front of me.
Two absolute beauties. And thanks for the details on the process.
Thank you. This was a day where I felt I was able to portray things as I wanted to get them across to the viewer. Plus once again, wonderful weather to be outside in!
I really like how you shaped and colored the trees in the first one.
Thank you. It was a very sunny day and there were strong patterns of light and shadow on the trees. I also like their shape. So I tried to put these things into the painting.
You’re welcome and thanks for the deconstruction.
I especially like your Woodmere Landscape Five A! Looking at it makes me smile!
Thank you. Finally I found a corner of the grounds that appealed to me and what is it, a parking lot and car. I guess there is some lesson there to be learned for me!
Yes! This painting is definitely the most “Claudia” so far. The shapes of and arrangement of the trees in this composition is really pleasing and I like the way my eye was led from that vibrant patch of green on the left to the right through the use of that same green in the roadside foliage.
Thank you. In this image I felt I had finally gotten into my stride. No surprise the scene included a car and parking lot, I guess. I just need the manmade to spark my paintbrush, I guess…
Yes. You are definitely drawn to the way the manmade world and the natural world interact and that is something I enjoy about your work.
Thank you. I felt lost when the teacher described landscape as having no manmade things in it, and I think my earlier work reflected it. When I stepped away from that exact defininition, then I was happier inside myself as I worked. There is certainly a lesson here in that for me.