An Unexpected Workshop for a Local Watercolor Group

  

Azalea Garden 11"X 14" watercolor by April M Rimpo

A local watercolor club reached out to me about 1.5 weeks ago to see if I would be available to teach a workshop to them an upcoming Saturday. I had done one other one-day workshop for them before and I knew the talent in the group was good. Their normal instructor had a conflict, so I was happy to help out.

I know their normal instructor as I took a workshop from him many years ago and wanted to teach something they might not learn from him. Based on some questions that had come up during a class for a different group, I decided a spring scene with flowers and people that also included reflections in the water. I had a new method for teaching how to paint trees and figured trees were another good thing to include in the painting. 

Lakeside Azaleas by April M Rimpo

There is a local Azalea Garden, just a few miles from my home that typically shows off all the beautiful variety of colors of Azaleas this time of year. It's a favorite place to visit in May and leading up to Mother's Day.  I had not made it there this year, but that garden was my inspiration. I arrived with no reference material so they would also have to make up their own colors for the flowers and focus on learning techniques rather than copying a photograph.  I did locate a few images of the garden on my phone (thank you Google) to show them the overall concept, then turned it off and we started.

I love to demonstrate a step, then have the students paint, then demo the next step, etc.  This way it provides time for the painting to dry between steps, which is quite important on watercolors.  I actually worked the two demo paintings, shown above, concurrently, so I could show one step on one and the next step on the other, giving each demo a little bit more time to dry before I went back into the painting. 

Since the group had also asked me to discuss the technique I use for varnishing watercolor paintings, we didn't have time to photograph the group with their paintings. I also knew from my last time with them that they really preferred not to have them photographed.  I was happy with what they produced and a few came up at the end of class to tell me they were happy with their results. One had seemed quite concerned during the class whether she was "doing it right" so I was glad to hear she was happy.  

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Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

"Floral Wonderland" 8"X10" Fluid Acrylic

Floral Wonderland by April M Rimpo

8" X 10" Fluid Acrylic on Canvas

SOLD

This lovely garden could have been anywhere, but it happened to be located in the Buckingham Palace Gardens. I was so drawn to these flowers while photographing them, I missed the Buckingham guard riding their horses along the road in the background. I didn't notice them until I was home and started to work through the design of the painting.

Since the color combinations the gardener selected is what drew me to the scene, I decided to discard the men on their horses and focus on the color. To recreate the thrill I felt looking at this garden, I used triad leaf green, cobalt violet, and cadmium red light(hue) for the lighter shades; and a dark triad of a blend of Quinacridone Burnt Orange and Phthalo Blue for the dark green, Dioxazine Purple for the dark purple, and Permanent Alizarin Red for the dark red.  A few touches of Quinacridone gold complement the lavender and purple hues.

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Rimpo 2016 All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

Madison Square Fountain, 9.5" X 22" watercolor

Madison Square Fountain by April M. Rimpo

I always enjoy depicting scenes of everyday life.  Madison Square Fountain captures mid-day in Madison Square Park, New York, NY.  Lots of people were out walking; some were enjoying the sun, some enjoying the garden and fountain, while others gathered in the shade to talk.  My goal was to capture the essence of city life in Madison Square Fountain.  I enjoyed having spots of light hitting some of the people in the shade so I could have variations in the intensity of the shadows.  I felt this provided movement and life to the painting, truly capturing a fleeting moment in time.

Madison Square Fountain

watercolor

9.5" X 22" image

15.5" X 28" brushed silver frame

$615 when shipped within the United States*

Original painting

framed $615.00 USD

The combination of bright sunny spot and areas in the shadows of unseen trees allowed me to have the intense colors of flowers and the saturated colors of shadows.  Shadows on planters and the fountain were started with bold greens and blues to establish a base saturated with color.  I gradually added in more blue washes and lastly some dark neutral gray washes to increase the depth of the shadows.  By starting with intense colors these areas feel lively.

I used a similar approach on some of the people in the foreground.  For example, you can see red and blue glowing through the shadows on the clothes of the woman at the center..  Other foreground people toward the edges of the painting were done primarily in grays to help keep the interest toward the center of the painting.

I hope my handling of this scene captures this moment in time and makes you feel like you are there in the city.

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Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.