July 20-24 2009: Plein Air Workshop on Mount Desert Island, Acadia, Maine

There were wonderful facilities at Acadia Workshop Center, a variety of weather conditions and a group of talented and enthusiastic participants for this painting intensive. I loved the area, and it was an intensely green world due to the heavy rain fall this June and July.

Meeting this challenge head on, I devised exercises in color mixing (limited palette). The objective was to learn to love and differentiate the "greens," increasing one's color knowledge by limiting the accessible and obvious solutions. Students actually increased their color knowledge when working from a warm and cool primary triad of colors.The vast potential and fun of creating the colors seen on site, exemplified the spirit and practice of plein air.

The color palette used consisted of; Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Permanent, Ultramarine Blue, and Cobalt Blue/or Phthalo Blue, and Titanium White. The student's work in oils shows the variety of color developed over the course of the week.