Painting For Fun

The photos show the first ever "Painting for Fun" workshop which was Sunday, March 29th, from 1:00 - 4:00. Coffee, tea and cookies were served with the artwork and paint!

Friends, and friends of friends came to my studio for an afternoon of painting. I spent a great deal of time and energy coming up with various designs, most of which I got from some very nice coloring books published by Dover. The outline drawings were enlarged and then I transferred them to either a piece of lightweight canvas, or a painting panel. Everyone got a small colored version of the artwork and they painted it in acrylic paint. I didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be very much fun, and everyone had a good time.

I can comfortably fit in 8 people and so far I have 3 signed up for the next workshop which will be at the end of April. I am working on a website for the Painting For Fun Sundays and will have many themes and ideas that people can select to paint. We had some beautiful flower designs, some geometric abstracts, angels, and a lighthouse that will be the first of many, using my own designs that I made many years ago.

Painting with Eggs Workshop Sunday

Margret putting on the finishing touches to her landscape

Nancy working on her painting

  Nancy's finished painting 

Peggie with her finished painting

 Peggy with her Flower Painting

  Robert working on his painting

Robert's finished painting 

Yolanda with her 2nd finished painting!

This was the most successful workshop I've done! Egg Tempera is unlike any other medium and requires a lot of concentration and attention to detail. It is not for the spontaneous painter, as it is difficult to make changes once it has begun, so everyone came with a photograph or drawing sized to the panel size they chose in advance of the workshop. We used several methods to transfer our drawings to the panel and once we separated the eggs we could start to paint. I had a wide selection of both pigment dispersions and pigment pastes to choose from. 

Everyone went home with a nice painting and a new understanding of what Egg Tempera painting is all about. I hope some of them will continue to choose to paint in Egg Tempera as it is not as fussy as people believe and the results are beautiful and luminous jewel-like treasures. Thank you, everyone, for coming and I hope we can do this again soon!

Painting With Eggs Workshop Saturday

I have done a few Egg Tempera workshops but most of them have not been very well attended, and in truth the people who came didn't really like working in the medium. But this one was totally different. The participants were all current or past students, and friends of mine and so I knew what kind of group I would get. It was marvelous!! The pictures below show my studio turned into a cluttered workshop space where everyone seemed focused and relatively happy, although Egg Tempera's quirky ways didn't sit too well with a few, but we will work that out on Day 2.

I was blown away by the work everyone has produced. My photographs are at the end of the day, on Saturday, and by Sunday afternoon I suspect we will have some really splendid examples of the beautiful medium of Egg Tempera to show off here. I am so pleased with how the workshop went I am planning for the next one.

 I had planned for a maximum of 8 people and one couldn't make it so we were 7 and it looks crowded and cluttered, but it was just fine, and one more would have fit in well. Perhaps next time. Robert and Peggy are pictured on the right.

Robert's Dog

Peggy's Flower

Margret and Natalia

(the computer was handy in showing some Egg Tempera artists websites and a few suppliers of the dispersions and pigments we were using) 

Margret's Landscape

Natalia's Tree

(she seems not too pleased with her efforts, but it was really very nice, in spite of what she thinks!)

After intense concentration for hours some levity must follow! Here they are examining one of my plastic hands. 

Nancy with plastic hand. Someday that thing will make it into a painting!

Nancy's Painting

Peggie's Still Life

We have one Peggy, one Peggie, and one Margret in the workshop.

You can tell by Yolanda's big smile that she is really pleased with her avocados!