Summer events!

 The spring season is in full blast, and I've been so busy traveling and teaching that my garden is looking mighty neglected. I haven't had time to shop for plants, much less actually stick them in the ground, and the deer and rabbits have already feasted on my hostas and the squirrels are busy stealing my bulbs. I'm sprinkling cayenne pepper on the garden and it seems to be helping a little bit. 

I think there are still a few spots left in my online zoom workshop for Art Guild of Louisiana in May, check out their website to sign up. Everything else is already sold out for the rest of the year, so this is probably the last chance to take one of my workshops this year! 

Last week I painted live, en plein air during the Wine thru Daffodils event at Winterthur. It was a great event  and I painted and sold two paintings. My next plein air painting event at Winterthur is May 13th, for the Bourbon and Bluegrass event -- get your tickets now and be sure to come out and see me paint live, en plein air! 

Annie Strack painting live en plein air at Winterthur

I also painted in the Quick Draw plein air contest in the Marietta Plein Air last week, I was scheduled to paint in the whole plein air event but had to drop out at the last minute because I was under the weather, so I was only able to go at the end of the event to participate in the Quick Draw. It was a good event, so I'll go back again next year. 

Annie Strack plein air painting in Marietta

I added a few new events this summer, and then I'm off to France for the month of June to paint with my old friend Yves-Marie Salanson of Sennelier. I'm taking several other artists with me on this trip and we are looking forward to visiting the Brittany coast and painting the gorgeous views. 

Mount St Michel, Brittany, France

workshop paintings

 Last weekend I taught another workshop for the Hawai'i Watercolor Society and we focused on water surfaces and reflections again. A great group of artists from all over the country joined in and we did three paintings in two days. 

Beach, 12x16 watercolor

In addition to working on techniques for depicting textures in water, I also encouraged individual creativity by asking everyone to choose colors that were not in the reference photos. For my example, I painted this seascape using shades of orange instead of blue in the sky and water. 

Lake rd, 12x16 watercolor

I always like to have everyone practice their brushwork and color mixing by having them paint a simple painting, like this one, in addition to the more complex main painting of the workshop. 

Dueling Sunfish, 12x16 watercolor

Each of these painting is painted with Sennelier watercolors using Dynasty brushes on Hahnemuehle watercolor paper. They are my favorite art supplies, and with good reason -- they are simply the best.