final Week 10 at Watt´s

wrapping up the Watt´s winter term

The journey at Watt´s is over and I´m wrapping up everything here, preparing to move back. It´s been a fantastic time, one that I can not regard any higher. The learning among such great teachers and fellow students has been phenomenal to say the least and many friendships have been formed. I will miss everybody and look forward to see how everyone will craft their own path towards reaching their goals as artists. There will be another term at Watt´s for me, for sure!
I´m thinking about making a more comprehensive post about the time and what it has done to my improvement personally and with a direct comparison of week 1 to 10. In hindsight, actually quiet a short period of time but the effect was great. The most important aspect to me is how it changed my way of seeing and the quality of finish I now regard as my standard, or at least what I should be striving for in my paintings. 
So, here are some portraits from the last week, I hope to finish one more during the week. Last painting until moving back and then probably for a while until I can paint again. 

Week 9

Last week of the winter term at Watts, WOW!
I made some progress during last week and experiment more with my brushwork. Especially the portrait gesture class is amazing for this kind of playful approach, the lightning fast 40 minutes you have as a corset force absolute efficiency onto you. Now the trick is to transfer this looseness into larger portraits and paintings in general. It´s so easy to tighten up and forget about juicy strokes and the big picture and the aesthetic of mark making.
This said, here are some of the paintings from last week.

9" x 12"

detail

9" x 12"

9" x 12"

5" x 7" gesture

5" x 7" gesture

5" x 7" gesture

Roadtrip Intermezzo #2

Southern California as dry as a bone

Finally, the last episode of our trip before my memory gets too fuzzy. 

We spend most of the time in the car driving through a totally serene and abandoned landscape that could easily be the set of a movie playing on the moon. Strange and alien, amazing rock formations and cacti all around. Death Valley is the most arid and hottest place on earth, next to the Atacama desert in Chile in South America. the Badwater Basin is also the point of lowest elevation, 86 meter below sea level. In the distance you could see Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the United States. They have rain, if at all, once a year.

It's fascinating to imagine the earliest settlers trying to cross the surrounding mountains and then having to pass through this unfriendly territory. Survival of the fittest at its best, but the only way to get to the coastline of California.

We didn't want to miss Las Vegas, as it was very close by, but in the end the experience there was so bad and overwhelming that we couldn't stand staying there for more than 30 minutes. It's a real freak show, a lot of half naked people dressed in shrill costumes and everything screams at you and wants to suck your money in. At least I got a tasty yet overpriced milkshake before we took flight. I guess the contrast of the quiet landscape all around and then this island of consumerism was a stark contrast which you have to mentally be prepared for.

A short section of the drive through the desert was on the historic Route 66, and it certainly didn't disappoint. It looks very haunted and lost in time, which is what you also see in the movies and documentaries about the period when new interstates were build and the people living there found themselves forgotten and without any possibility to earn a living. The world found ways to turn faster and didn't care about those outside the fast lane.

We stopped at the only gas station around for a coffee, owned by a very nice guy who, to the question how many people lived in the town, responded wholeheartedly: "7 people, 6 too many."
When you have nothing else to do, you resort to quiet particular activities, like shooting signs. As a result, every traffic sign or ad you see along the Route 66 is perforated with bullet holes.

Yoshua Tree National Park, last day in the car and I had to put on new sun blocker every 20 minutes to not get roasted. The Mojave Desert with it's characteristic trees was the most beautiful so far. Fun fact: the rock formations are actually more than 100 million years old and were formed by magma cooling off underneath the surface. 
What a trip! I hope you enjoyed the pictures (the last two in this post were shot by my dad, he has a great eye for beautiful details) and the journey, it was fun to relive the experience while writing about it.

See you next time.

 

Week 7

7th week at Watts Atelier

Small update with a couple results I´m very happy with from the last week. 3 more weeks to go and a lot of canvases to fill, let´s see how they turn out. 

This drawing was from the 20 minute lay-in class, I worked more tonal and painterly on this one and I´m very satisfied with the drawing and the process. The goal was to vary edges a lot and try to capture the general impression more than specific features.

progress

week 6

Finally I´m able to post the recent fruits of labor. I´m becoming very critical of my own work, as I have always been. When you are surrounded by great talent as you are in the atelier progress is inevitable. Everybody´s efforts in return inspire to deliver always your best, as it should be naturally. The interesting twist is, and that´s a development I´m most curious about watching myself introspectively, I´m less and less concerned with technical aspects about producing pictures and try to strive for a result that is aimed at actual picture-making. Basically, what does the picture, or canvas, need in order to be successful? Even in a small study or short session, this makes all the difference and lifts the process to a much more creative effort.

Just for this mental change I´m grateful to have taken the journey here and for all the great feedback I receive. I guess this is only a small step in a life long endeavour, there is so much more to discover.

Let´s get on with it!