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

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!

 

Portraits

New portraits for today, one 3h oil portrait of Christa and a chalk drawing. Both pieces were a great learning experience, I would do them differently right now. Oh well, that´s the way it is. See you soon!

on and on...

Continuing in now already the 4th week of Atelier training, here are some quick oil portrais in various classes plus a Sargent study of Robert Henri and a charcoal drawing. I have to find a better way to take photos of the paintings, the glare is quite disturbing and accentuates the texture of the canvas uncharmingly. But, alas, for now it has to suffice.