Learn to paint on location using a palette knife…

This plein air workshop, on the grounds of the beautiful Florence Griswold museum in Old Lyme with views of the Lieutenant River and the Florence Griswold house and gardens, is taught by two artists painting the same scene to give students a comprehensive understanding of palette knife techniques and guidance about how and why to choose a particular scene to paint. We will focus on highlighting the point of interest, eliminating unnecessary details, and designing an interesting composition that will keep the viewer in the painting. We hope to help students develop broken color, and an immediacy and spontaneity in their plein air paintings. 

Learning the concepts of plein air painting can help students develop paintings with greater vibrancy, atmosphere, depth and sense of light. Using the palette knife will lend an intuitive freshness to your paintings; in this workshop you can learn to create unique and stunning effects in your paintings, and to develop an impressionistic and expressionist style with paintings that convey the spirit of the scene.

Using a palette knife is a great way to build up thick texture and create broken color effects. We will teach you to make bold strokes with the palette knife, to use the edge of the knife to create sharp lines, and to use a variety of knife shapes and sizes to create lost and found edges. You will learn how to paint on top of wet layers without lifting the paint below. We will encourage you to make multicolored palette knife strokes by loading multiple colors on your knife without over blending.

This workshop will cover techniques of knife painting using knives of different sizes and shapes, how to incorporate the key elements of landscapes including sky, clouds, water, rocks and grass, and how to paint lines for fences, tree branches and sharp edges.

We will be painting on the grounds of the beautiful Florence Griswold museum in Old Lyme with views of the Lieutenant River and the Florence Griswold house and gardens. It is an inspirational place to paint, and was home to the Lyme Art Colony. There is a restaurant for lunch, and restrooms are available.

In this workshop students will work on at least one painting each day on location from start to finish with guided instruction. Painting landscapes in this way over two days can help students to produce their best work and possibly complete 2 or 3 new paintings.

Workshop schedule:
Day 1: Howard and Lisa will each paint a demo side by side in the morning so that all of you will be able to see how we individually approach laying in a landscape as well as answer questions as we paint. We have learned a lot from watching other artists work and think you will find it helpful. After the demo, we will help you set up, then each of you will work on your own paintings with instruction as you go.

Day 2: We will start with a demo for those who are interested. You can finish your painting from Day 1, paint small studies or start another painting. In the afternoon, as you continue to work on your paintings, this can be where you start to see real progress. We will give you tips and techniques to help you improve composition, value, and to create paintings that capture the atmosphere of the scene. At the end of the day we will have a critique where we look at all your work and discuss what you have accomplished.