Daniel Kuchenbecker did not disappoint Saturday May 17th at his workshop on painting rural landscapes! If you missed it, here are the highlights:
1. Stick with a limited palette; Daniel used prussian blue, new gamboge, yellow ochre, and undersea green consistently and showed us how to make a beautiful neutral lavender.
2. Creating a foggy effect; move through your colors wet on dry by moving the bead down and incorporate almost all of the colors you will incorporate in the painting to create unity.
3. Allowing the buildings to blend into the tree line, preserving the white roofs or using masking fluid for the fence posts and then glazing in shadows was all they needed to be the focal points.
4. Working the foreground by negatively painting the flowers, working wet into wet again repeating the palette and splattering to add texture gave a sense of detail to the whole painting.
Special thank you to award winning Daniel Kuchenbecker as he instructed on drawing tight but painting loose, warm vs. cool color mixing, and composition. Thank you for the great tips on how to use photographs as a starting point for composition; perspective, weather temperatures, and additional buildings or people for interest. To shop his art: https://www.kuchenbecker.art/
This workshop is an 8 hour crash course on watercolor landscape. The morning session, running from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon, will include a practice step-by-step landscape led by the instructor. From 1:00-4:30 p.m. the instructor will lead a quick lesson on composition using reference photos and then participants will create an original artwork guided by the instructor. Students will learn about watercolor timing, value, lost edges, composition, and more! Students should bring reference images for the afternoon, preferably sweeping rural landscapes but the instructor will have some to use as needed. This class is limited to 15 participants on a first come, first serve basis.
Priority registration for CMW members through May 1, general public access available on May 2. Official registration and payment are handled by our arts partner, The Paramount Center for the Arts. Call The Paramount Box Office at (320) 259-5463 to register and pay for your workshop. The cost of the all day, in-person workshop is $95.00. Participants are expected to supply their own 140 lb. watercolor paper, brushes and watercolor paints. Lunch is not included but time will be allotted for a bag lunch during the break. Parking is free in the Paramount ramp on Saturdays.