Photo of the Day and Results of Watercolor Workshop

I am back home and feel like I've been gone a long time. Today's photo is of a very different nature than what I usually have. This one is architecture and is of a lovely church building in Mason.

It is not a great photo, but is something I would like to try to draw.

The Joe Fettingis watercolor workshop was spectacular. The three days were well planned out and he has a style that I really responded to. He provided sketches for us to transfer onto our watercolor paper (this was a painting class, not a drawing class) and then he would have a demo (he called it blah, blah, blah) of the first part of the painting suggesting colors and showing techniques and sharing his brush choices and paint choices.

Then we would go back to our places and try to begin our own painting. We were not limited to his choice of colors, but most tried to mimic his to a great degree. After everyone was well into the first part (and some had gone on to do more fiddling), we would have another session to see where he was going next.

We were two to a table, 12 to a room. There were two rooms. In my room there were 3 sets of sisters and a woman and her daughter-in-law. It was a really good room with everyone focused and helpful. I met some really nice people there and hope to run into them again some time.

Here is the first painting I tried. It is an young Amish man. I really learned a lot from Joe, but see lots of problems with this painting. Still, it is much better than I could have done before the workshop.

The second painting is a ram. Mine is quite a bit more colorful than Joe's was, but he has really grown on me. I can see even more problems with this one than I could see in the Amish man, but still, I am happy with what I have learned and produced.

Besides the wonderful learning and the really nice women I met, including the lovely Rebecca who is the Education Coordinator for the Krasl Art Center, I had a really lovely time with my sister and her husband. We played lots of cribbage, Yahtzee and Scrabble. We watched several Tiger baseball games and I watched the women's final tennis match.

My sister and her husband are very good hosts and made delicious dinners each day. They eat healthy and buy lots of fresh vegetables and fruits so I am pretty sure I didn't gain any weight while I was there.

This past weekend will certainly be filed in my memory as one of my favorites. The workshop was only $165 and my lovely sister lives only 20 minutes away and was happy to have me stay. It was perfect!

If you get a chance to take a watercolor workshop with Joe Fettingis, I would highly recommend it. And if you get a chance to get to the Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph, I highly recommend that also. I know I am going to keep an eye on their offerings in the future in the hopes that I will find another wonderful workshop at a good price.

It is wonderful to be home, but I have tons of things to do to get caught up, plus I have a watercolor class this evening. I am going to ask the woman if she would consider offering a day time class as I hate to drive in the dark and it is getting dark earlier and earlier in the evening.

I sure hope you like this post and appreciate that you take the time to stop by and leave comments.

xoxo