Brushwork and Working with Varnish Washes...

This weekend I will be teaching a new workshop, the first of it's kind. When I decided to make the transition and move up to Truckee last October, along with that came the choice (and opportunity), to change from teaching weekly classes and move into teaching workshops.

At that time I sent out a survey to my regular students and former students. I asked them what they wanted and needed to learn the most.
The two top answers were this:
1. I want to learn more about Brushwork Technique.

2. I'd like to know more about Design and Composition. I have recently posted about the importance of composition. 

Today I'd like to address the idea of brushwork. Here are some of the responses I received regarding this topic:

"I would like my brush to be more decisive, no overworking, to be more confident and free." 

"I want to  understand color and get help finding it in my work and be comfortable with the brush so that I can find the painterly looseness and brushwork that I admire in impressionistic work." 

"To freely express how a subject affects me and to be able to capture the spirit/essence of a subject."

"To express myself creatively." 

"Staying loose and keeping away from too much detail." 

"Mixing, finishing a painting, and brushwork."

As you can see, I have a great group of artists who really want to learn this stuff. I am very excited to be offering this workshop next weekend. I will be offering it again later this year as well.

I've posted a couple of paintings below in order to help demonstrate some of the things we will be talking about this coming weekend.

This piece was really fun. I used a very large soft brush to wash in the color/value foundation. While it was still wet, I jumped right into the thick impasto paint and layered it on! I even dipped my brush into the varnish before I dipped into the paint. Then I cleaned up the edges using a wet brush as well. 

With this piece I started out the same way, thin washes of color - pure and mixed. Then I went straight for the thicker paint. I can't tell you how freeing it can be to paint this way. Let go of the outcome, and just experiment with the brush...

Go to my website to find out more on upcoming workshops....http://randyblasquez.com/workshops