Sierra Buttes, Bill Cone Workshop pt.2

Here is some of the work I did while in Sierra Buttes. I struggled the first two days. I felt self-conscious of every stroke that I would put down. Bill remarked at one point "You are being timid", a slight shy smile ran across my face and I realized he is right. So what if the painting will fail, there will be many, many more to come so why is this one special. Look, study and do it, I kept saying to myself afterwards.

The view from the Basett station. Bill called it the bear claw, since the peeks kind of resembled such shape. It was a challenging painting, light was flattening everything out giving little hints of overall mass.

SOLD

We drove down from the mountain to Sierra Valley in hopes of some atmospheric views. There was a ranch in the distance, I ended up changing the view considerably, moving the trees here and there and simplifying the hills in the BG.

Nate, Leanne and I packed up after the dinner one night and left to paint "the view" from Basett station. It was round two for us with the infamous "bear claw", again, very flat lighting since the sun was setting down behind the peaks. But it is a great exercise, painting the same view and noticing all the shifts in temperatures and values. Photo failed to capture the pastel colour of the sky, I think I should take a photography class lol.

Salmon lake was a fun place to paint. Leanne and I took a swim in, well not so warm water. The rest kind of chuckled at us. After drying off, I joined the crowded corner on the cliff with Bill and the rest. I think we all did the same view that day, and who could blame us.

First painting at the Upper Sardine lake. It was a wonderful morning, we hiked a short distance up the mountain and set up to paint. I turned around and saw this view, I did a quick thumbnail out of habit even though I know exactly how it will be framed, it was one of those moments when everything felt right. 

Talk about struggle... This one started as a much bigger composition that included reflections of the hills. Bill saw it a chastised me for trying to include too much, especially since I did not care for reflections in the first place. I re-framed the painting, and pecked at it endlessly, adding more rocks, erasing them and so on until everyone left to a different site.

This was a really quick one, everyone was packing to go and I just had to note down what I was seeing. Setting sun is to the right, spilling light and washing out the side of the peak. I'll miss the views like this.

Last day, we ventured to Love's falls. Light was hitting the bottom of this waterfall and that was what drew me to this scene and the fact that Bill did same composition couple of days earlier lol

I met a cool couple at the camp, Jordan and his wife Louise along with their two adorable kids. We would sit and talk by the fire at night, telling stories of our past often ending in a laughter. The kids built a carton box house.  I taught it would make for a good last painting at the camp. Light was raking down trough the tall redwoods that morning hitting the box, and the near-by ground. Looking at it now I see that the shadows are a bit too blue and high in value, sigh...

Thank you Bill, it was a fantastic experience, one which I will remember for a long time...

Sierra Buttes Bill Cone Workshop pt.1

Wow. I just had the most amazing 10 days of my life.

First day was in San Francisco. Great views, great neighborhoods, great food, and smelly streets :) Next day we packed up the car and headed to Sierra Butes for Bill's workshop. We arrived that evening just in time to meet the whole workshop ensemble eating dinner and sipping vine. Everyone was so pleasant, most were surprised that we are arriving from Canada since everyone else attending is pretty much from California. I never met Bill before and was unsure how he would turn out in person. The only thing I knew of him was what I have read from his blog. Bill is an awesome guy all around, very funny, helpful and super knowledgable artist. There was a palpable excitement in the air and expectations of days to come at the camp.

Day I.

Bill started the morning by demoing in front of the whole spellbound class. Afterwards we all painted our own scenes and he would periodically come check our work and offer his critique. Bill is not shy to let you know if something is not working in your painting, but never making you feel bad about it. His approach is not to make masterpieces in the field, instead to practice and study light and learn from nature. My first lesson that morning was not to leave my umbrella open while chatting with fellow painters. A gust of wind came, lifted my easel and gravity took care of the rest. Crash! Talk about starting the day off on a wrong foot.

I lost a lot of pastels, but instead of feeling upset I saw this as a challenge. That day we stayed at the camp, painting the creek that runs trough it. It was not going well for me. I could not focus, and my work was sloppy at best. We concluded the day with a great dinner prepared by the amazing staff. As a mater of fact every day we had great meals, cooked with lots of love. Latter in the evening we sat by the fire telling stories and getting to know each other.

Night sky was full of stars, something that you don't see in light polluted cities. Bill took an astronomy class here years ago and was pointing out different constellations and galaxies. Now I want to take an astronomy course lol. Breakfast was to be served early at 7am so I was of to bed hoping that next day will be more successful one.

Stay tuned.