Wrapping up my two-day workshop...

Sunday afternoon, near the end of the workshop

Just wanted to share a few pictures and a little bit about my workshop at Guy Magallanes' Studio this past weekend. I had nine students -- three from southern California (Bakersfield and Altadena) and six local artists -- including Guy and his partner in Art2Art, Joyce Faulknor. I had a great time teaching the workshop and, from the feedback I got, I think everyone attending had a fun time too!!  

My thanks to Guy for hosting my return to the workshop scene -- couldn't have asked for a better host or more congenial workspace. I greatly appreciated his support and encouragement!! Guy has also posted more pictures of the weekend with two blog entries, here and here.

Guy posts the finished paintings for review

I enjoy working at a level of detail that sometimes gives even me the heebie-jeebies, so I recognize that it can be daunting, but everybody tackled the myriad details with good cheer and determination. I also presented several options for the background.

 All our ducks in a row!!

Seeing all the finished paintings lined up together was a treat -- and I enjoyed the creativity that people took in customizing the backgrounds in their paintings. Some of the group even came prepared to do multiple paintings so they could try out several background options.

Dippy Duck #4

watercolor, 8" x 8"

Chris Beck

This is my finished demo piece, and he proudly takes his place in what is a growing line of these fun ducks with their outsized red bills. I was very excited to discover a new way of creating the background design as I experimented in preparation for the weekend. The process is fun and quite easy to do but gives a complex finished look. I'm going to be adding it to my workshop bag of tricks and look forward to sharing it with more of you as I schedule more workshops.

Playing around for my workshop...

 

Duck in progress

watercolor, 8" x 8"

Chris Beck

 Detail of background

I'm in the middle of my two-day workshop and I just wanted to share a fun idea that I came up with while I was preparing my teaching materials.  I often use fabric as a resource for background patterns for my little ceramic creatures, trying to relate the imagery in some way to the subject.  I usually do a direct painting of the patterns, but in the course of experimenting with different techniques this past week,  I stumbled on a really cool way of creating the pattern and wanted to show the results.  I demo'd this in class yesterday and got a very enthusiastic reaction from everyone in the class. Really looking forward to using this in more of my work.

I'm the Friday Feature artist today...

 Morning Glorious

watercolor, 15" x 18"

Chris Beck

I'm very honored to be the featured artist on Carrie Waller's blog this week!!  Carrie is a very talented watercolorist in her own right and a most generous friend.  I especially enjoyed doing the interview because it allowed me to share some things that are not usually included in the standard artist bio or statement.  Hope you'll take the time to pop over there and check out the feature.  While you're there, take some time to look at Carrie's work too -- she has some very cool subjects and her works are all beautifully painted!!