Preparing for Doug Braithwaite

Spent the last few days at the north end of Vancouver Island collecting reference material and doing a series of quick starts playing with the approach that Doug Braithwaite will teach in his workshop: smooth gessoed MDF boards and watercolour brushes applying thin oils and medium.  I usually try to out-guess what the instructor will present based on their supply list and images of their work and from their Blog and using that try to practice in advance in order to take full advantage during the classes.

First day I did three very bad starts and scrubbed them all. Paint was applied far too heavy and used too much medium. Next day I was ready to quit and  go back to my acrylics. But the third day was much better. I made five quick starts during the morning and could feel the control improving with each successive one. I used my Montana acrylic pens for the quick sketch then applied the oil thin with little or no medium. I feel some reason for optimism. Excuse the poor quality images.

9x12

8x10

11x14

6x8 you can see the ship in the distance 

Had a great few days.

Beautiful sands of San Jose Bay

Cathy  with one of the sea stacks 

Sea stacks of San Josef Bay 

Its heads-up driving to the west coast of the Island 

Fog lifting at Cluxewe estuary

Today we are back home in Comox. Tomorrow we head south to Utah. Expecting lots from this workshop.