Painting Autumn

 

Our Autumn Sunday Workshop was a wonderful day. We’d had a lot of rain in the previous few days and I was a bit nervous about having the class on the deck. You’d think that would be fine in the rain, and it is mostly, but when it’s heavy and wild that rain finds its way in and gets all over the paper and pastels and it’s not a good mix.

We started the Workshop off inside sketching autumn leaves and talking about tone and shadow and light. By morning tea the skies were clear so we ventured out to the deck after all – it’s much nicer out there with the river views.

The first exercise after sketching was to paint an autumn leaf with pastels. Oh my goodness!  We had two beginners, Jocelyn and Alessandra, in the class that day and they both did a magnificent job! Gayle and Guinevere painted stunning autumn leaves as well. It was so much fun mixing the golds and reds to make browns and muds. After lunch we delved into the ‘big picture’  for the day, an image of leaves on a branch with a blurred background. These all turned out beautiful as well.

I am always so delighted with what my students create, from beginners to experienced and everything in between. We had a wonderful day and just quietly, I think our Autumn theme might have encouraged Autumn to actually arrive at last!