ARA Workshop with Colleen Barry

I have the extreme pleasure to be attending a workshop with painter Colleen Barry.  She is a superior painter, and has a wealth of knowledge about painting techniques and the history of painting.  I was extremely hesitant to participate in this workshop on account of the fact that two of my instructors from ARA are also participating in the workshop.  I am glad I did, however, even though my work isn't comparable with the work of other participants.  Colleen is helpful and clear.  She is well-organized and thorough.  Painters of all levels would greatly benefit from listening to her, watching her, and heeding her advice.  We are working in the French Academic manner of the 19th century.

The first three days were drawing days for me:

My block in was decent.  We worked using the comparative measuring manner.  I worked this way in Brain's portrait class, so I was somewhat familiar with the technique.  It is different from how we usually draw the figure at ARA.  We began with a gesture and then measured from the inside out, unlike ARA where we create a silhouette first.  Even in Brian's portrait workshops, I was careful to construct an accurate silhouette.  Colleen believes that when beginning with a gesture, there is more feeling and expression in the drawing.  In addition, it is a much faster process.  It was rather liberating, but my drawing isn't as exact as I think it would be if I had employed our usual method of obtaining the construct.

After Colleen demonstrated window method of doing a grisaille during much of day 3, I began painting during days 4 and 5.  Colleen believes David was the first to proceed using the window method for his studies.  It is a great way to acquire form.

I worked in raw umber and flake white.  The brand of raw umber I used was warmer than other brands, but I did not mind so much because our model has a reddish hue to his skin.  The problem with my raw umber, though, was that it was too oily.  I had to tone up on my values to have my oily raw bind with my flake white.  I used a 2 round for my brush to begin with, but Colleen thought my 2 was too small.  I ended up with a 6 round, and turned out to be more appealing to me.  During this process, I had to fight with the paint to achieve form.  It is OK, but not as strong as I would have hoped.  As I review my work now I can see that I need to study anatomy more thoroughly.  

The workshop is two weeks.  Next week we will pain with a limited palette, but I will work more on the model's torso, and hopefully do another run over his biceps.