WHAT TO THINK ABOUT WHEN YOU ARE CHOOSING ARTWORK.

Here is a quote from me in an article on the Redfin Blog. Here is a link to the blog: https://www.redfin.com/blog/how-to-create-an-elegant-home/

“Artist Camille Przewodek shares, “When you are purchasing art to hang on your wall, or a stationary piece of sculpture, find something that speaks to you. The artwork does not have to match the furniture or the interior, but it should stand alone and must be something that inspires you.”

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On this cloudy day, we painted the wetlands in back of the Sheraton Hotel in Petaluma.

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On a gray day, the sky is usually the lightest area unless there is white object in the scene. The shadow notes on a gray day tend to be warmer than the light planes. The sun was coming from the upper left so notice how much cooler the light planes are on the trees compared to the mass of shadow notes.

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Start of my demo done on location during my Monday class.

 

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Final painting finished in the studio.

 


We didn’t meet this Monday so I am going to do a step study from my Friday morning Figure class.

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In the first lay in, I organized light and shadows. Because I was teaching, I didn’t finished my first pass during the 20 minute pose.

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Second 20 minutes, I finished laying in the first color notes.

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Next, I refined the color notes adding secondary color changes.

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Final portrait finished and refined in the studio. This included highlights and reflected light.

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It was raining outside so we did still life study inside under artificial light. Sorry, the photo of the start isn’t very good as I forgot to take one. This photo of the start was taken by one of my students. In my first lay in, I broke down the study into big shapes. The glass bottle was first seen and stated as a solid color.

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I then developed it with the second color notes, making sure that I kept what I had initially established.

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In the studio, I finished the painting.

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This Monday, I focused on big shapes. My demonstration was of reeds at Shollenberger Park in Petaluma, CA.  I didn’t start by painting the individual stalks but saw them as big masses that needed to stay in the foreground. The trees in the back were very blue because of the atmosphere in the air that day. The water on the right was darker than the sky but still needed to be warm as it was in light. You will often here me saying to students, “No dabby-cabby-doing”, which means don’t start with little pieces but start to see the big puzzle of related shapes.

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Here is a development of the start and a detail of the reeds in the middleground. I did not just copy what was in front of me but designed them.

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Finished painting. Note I have included figures scale and interest.

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Here is a picture of the scene in Petaluma at Shollenberger Park. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We are all anticipating the coming Spring.

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On Monday, our class focused on composition. I did three possible small sketches of the scene. The first drawing below is the first composition, followed by a color study.

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Here is the second compositional drawing and color sketch.

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And finally, the third compositional sketch. No sky, just the pathway and the surrounding foliage.

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These were done fast and started to give me an idea of what my final painting will look like. I also suggested that my students divide their canvases into thirds (horizontally and vertically) so they would avoid having their compositions be too symmetrical; or at least, be aware of that if they were.


We went to Shollenberger Park and the day started out gray, with a sky filled with wonderful clouds.  As I was painting the gray day, the sun came out. As I suggest to all my students in these changing situations, be prepared with two panels so you can go from gray to sunny. The top painting is the finished gray day and the bottom painting is the finished sunny day study.

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As you can see, the sky was filled with great cloud formations in the beginning!

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The following two pictures are of the scene and the start of the gray day painting.

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Second step and then the final painting, which was cleaned up and finished in my studio.

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Now my sunny start and finished painting.

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I never tire of painting this Petaluma, CA location. These are three paintings of the same view. Each painted in very different light keys.

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Light Key:  Late Afternoon The colors are oranger than the morning light.

 

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Light Key:  Gray Day  Colors are subtler.

 

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Light Key:  Early Morning Sun  Colors are softer than the late afternoon light.

 


Each month, I feature a painting at a special rate. The painting below is this month’s painting. Easton Landscape, 9″ x 12″  To find out the special price, go to my website: przewodek.com IMG_3153.jpg


In this post, I am going to describe what my 5-day workshop entails. At the end of the post, I list the dates of all this year’s 5-day workshops. Each day I will do a short demo of what I want you to work on that day. The following photos are all demonstrations done in a workshop.

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The first two days, we start by painting simple still lives. We concentrate on organizing our lights and darks, getting an accurate drawing, and painting the difference of color between all the objects. The focus of this workshop is getting a strong start. As my husband says, “If you don’t get a good start, you’re finished.” We start by using a palette knife to apply our colors.

The third day, we go on location to a neighborhood and paint houses surrounding by foliage. As you can see, the houses are just blocks on the landscape. At this point, the student can use a palette knife or a brush. As we progress through the week, we are getting more complicated and trying to apply the simple concepts introduced in the first two days.

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The fourth day, we go on location again and paint the landscape without buildings. Here we are focusing on painting the aerial perspective and the illusion of depth in a painting.

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The fifth and final day, we paint the figure outdoors. We are still painting basic shapes and not getting involved in features.

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Here are my current list of 5-day workshops scheduled for 2019:

Scottsdale Artists’ School    April 15-19.    info@ScottsdaleArtSchool.org

Petaluma, California    May 13-17    Finart@sonic.net

Petaluma, California    August 12-16.    Fineart@sonic.net