Fellowship: day 3 & James Gurney Lecture!

It threatened to rain all day today, but not enough to slow us down. Here is the report!

Gary perched above Platte Clove

Brendan, Connor, and I took shelter under a ledge all day

Satoshi and Brian staying dry under umbrellas

workshop students and fellowship participants shared dinner together tonight before enjoying a slide show by James Gurney, who is one of the most bad-ass artists in the illustration and painting world right now. Everyone should know about his blog Gurney Journey, it is the best resource out there for anyone interested in learning how to draw and paint!

We were all thrilled to have James Gurney visit and share some of his extensive knowledge with us! He gave an hour long lecture that addressed many technical concerns of landscape painting. Our heads were spinning after so much information was unloaded, but fortunately all of it can be studied in depth with his new book Color and Light, A Guide for the Realist Painter.

Tonight was our first chance to share the work we’ve done so far and talk about our different experiences tackling the landscape

Most of us have been warming up by focusing on drawing, as advised by Asher B. Durand in his Letters on Landscape Painting: “Form is the first subject to engage your attention. Take pencil and paper, not the palette and brushes, and draw with scrupulous fidelity the outline or contour of such objects as you shall select, and so far as your judgment goes, choose the most beautiful or characteristic of it’s kind. If your subject be a tree, observe particularly wherein it differs from those of other species … by this course you will also obtain the knowledge of that natural variety of form, so essential to protect you against frequent repetition and monotony. A moment’s reflection will convince you of the vital importance of drawing, and the continual demand for it’s exercise in the practice of outline, before you begin to paint.” — Asher B. Durand, 1855

Senior fellow Erik Koeppel answering questions about his impressive one-day plein air studies. Koeppel will be teaching a workshop here during the second half of the month.