“There’s something in the water”

“There’s something in the water”

Steven Harris

June 26, 2023 at the Helotes Gallery 9:30 – 5:00

Water is a challenge for everyone. Part of the problem is figuring out how to translate what you see to the canvas, because the water and your eyes are always fooling you. You can’t paint “what you see”. In this workshop we’ll work on different techniques to portray water in lakes, rivers, oceans and puddles.

Things we will work on include:

· Not painting what you think you see, but painting something that will convey the image.

· Understanding the principles that influence images of water

o Reflection

o Refraction

o Clarity, movement and “interferences” like rocks in a rapid stream or sandbars at the beach

o Depth and seeing/painting what’s beneath the surface

o Lighting

Since this is a one-day workshop and there is too much to cover in that short a time, I will send some materials ahead of class to enrolled students including, I hope, a short video about techniques including:

o Broken color

o Glazes and use of transparent colors

o Underpainting

o Using the scenery (including skies) to define the water

o Using linear and areal perspective to extend the flat plane

o I will bring some demo boards showing ideas, a couple of unfinished demos I’ll work on to speed things up and some other written materials for you to keep. If you attended my “Sky’s the limit” workshop in October last year you will be familiar with the format.

Materials:

o You’ll need three or four small canvas panels (9 x 12 or 8 x 10) or canvas sheets on a pad to work on things we’ll try to do together.

o Several brushes (bigger the better) – I use #4 and #6 Longs (hog bristle) quite a lot.

o Your normal oil or acrylic paints, medium and solvents.

o Some water reference photos if you like; I’ll bring lots of them.

For questions please email info@helotesgallery.com .