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 last session, at the end of July, I was back to having trouble choosing a location. I finally settled on a view of the side lawn, which had a large pine fighting it out with a smaller but possibly more aggressive holly tree, while another pine looked on, not to mention a few bushes.
I used the same brayer technique as I did the previous week to lay down a coating of mottled colors. Not much of it survived (you see some in the bottom of the painting and in the branches of the larger pine tree) but I like the method a lot for quick covering of a background. It is also a useful way to soften large solid blocks of color.
Here is the result: Woodmere Landscape Six, 24 x 18, acrylics on Masonite.
We had brought all our collections of work back to class in order to have a little gallery session. We set them up near the picnic tables and discussed our work and what we learned from the class. It was a nice experience to see everyone’s work arrayed together – we produced some nice things, I think, and each student had success.
Munching on crackers and cheese, just like at a real gallery reception, we made plans to meet for lunch on the grounds in a couple of weeks, just for fun.
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When I was doing collage work I did many landscapes, and I liked the process while using that medium. I’m not very fond of it for painting subjects. That is something I learned in this class.
I did, however, enjoy being outside, painting from a live scene, and being with a group of people working on art in a social way. We often took breaks from our own work to go around and see what the others were doing.
I also gained experience in the palette knife and in getting better at zeroing in on what makes a good landscape picture. I do think I will always prefer painting buildings, interiors, and people, but who knows? One day there will be a landscape that will speak to me…and I will be ready.
Once more, the set of paintings I did over the six weeks:
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
I like these- I hope you find more inspiration in landscape one day.
Thank you. I think once I regained my own sense of direction I did better work and enjoyed the class more. Next time I will remember this, and also that I like to have some manmade things in my pictures.
(Standing up an applauding). Send them to my house, I will find a wall for them 🙂
Thank you. I’m writing this down. You never know. I don’t know what I am going to do with more paintings, to be honest!
I think that brayer technique for the background is great. Even when it only just peeks through the subsequent layers, it creates a sort of visual vibration. I think all of your paintings look wonderful together. There is that bright green and the cornflower-blue and turquoise-blue that create a coherent dialogue between all the individual pieces.
Thank you. I think that emphasis on blue is because every single session was a bright sunny day. Perfect for being outside. As for the brayer, I love it. And I think the backgrounds looked good enough on their own to be a painting. Wow, if that were actually something I could wrap my head around I could make brayer paintings all day long, it is fun.
Woooohooooooo! These are all delicious!! Gorgeous colors, love how you make things seem so ALIVE! And the brayer thing? So cool! I have a cheap little one, never knew quite what to do with it. PAINT! Perfect!! Re landscapes: I tried a few, long ago, but didn’t “feel” them. Should probably try again, tho. You’ve inspired me! Wonderful post!! 👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you. The brayer, the unsung hero of my landscape sessions! I will do some outdoor painting again but I hope to include more buildings and so on in the compositions – but…I did like painting outdoors a lot.
Oh wow! Your landscapes seem to be saying that they would like to be grouped together permanently. I hope you have a big enough blank wall on which to hang them. You must be very proud of your painterly accomplishment.
What a nice thing to say. For now they are in the basement with me (where I have my art table and etc. ) standing arrayed along the wall.
Good to know they are keeping you company