It has been a long time since I posted in this blog. Of course I have all kinds of reasons such as one of my plein-air painting friends is away all summer, helping my father move, blah, blah, blah. My most recent excuse which is the reason for this post is that I went to a painting workshop on Madeline Island, Wisconsin. The course was entitled "From Field to Studio" with artist Marc Hanson. The medium was oil or pastel. I made the decision to work in oil but took my pastels along just in case I wanted to try using them.
I had not been to Madeline Island before but had heard good things about it. I was not disappointed. I liked everything about Madeline Island. I enjoyed the relative quiet and remoteness of the place and the small size which made it easy to get around to different places. The Madeline Island School of Art was a beautiful facility and Marc Hanson was a good instructor. My husband came with me and we chose to stay in one of the school cottages and to have the meal plan which included breakfast, lunch and snacks each day.
The objective of the course was to venture out for the first two days and paint small field studies. On the third day, we were to take the field study which interested us the most and do a larger mid-size painting. The last two studio days were to be used to work on a large painting based on our small and mid-size study/painting. The very first day we started by doing field studies using only black and white to focus on value studies.
One of the measures of how successful a course is for me is whether I was able to complete the work that the instructor requests of the group. I'm happy to say that I did complete the work required in the course and went a little beyond on the last day by painting with one of the other participants after the formal end of the course. Marc saw us painting and said he gave us A+. Yes ... who doesn't like to get A+! The other personal successes were that I did tackle a large painting, 22 x 28 inches and also did a pastel study of another compelling scene I found downtown. Besides this experience, the most fun I had painting was downtown LaPointe. While painting on the main street, I had several people drop by to see what I was doing. I particularly enjoyed a visit with Vanessa, a young girl who was spending the summer on Madeline Island.
Below are several photos of scenes from my time on Madeline Island and the paintings that I did.
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| Pastel study |
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| Old Town Park Oil Painting 22x28 - started but not finished |
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| Oil study painted in downtown LaPointe |
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| Quick oil study done in Old Town Park |
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| Oil study of Madeline Island School cottages and red umbrella |
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| Oil study of red umbrella and meadow on Madeline School property |
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| Marc Hanson doing demo in Old Town Park |
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| Madeline Island School of Art - Barn studio building |
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| Talking to Vanessa while painting downtown |
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| An afternoon of painting bliss |
