Nesting Breathing Painting

SW corner of daylight basement studio at night

SW corner looking west to morning sunshine!! over Port Orchard Bay

I’m leading a workshop on Saturday at Winslow Art Center. “Gouache & Ink Resist: A Painting Technique.” I learned this technique in art school almost thirty years ago. I’ve illustrated around 10 children’s books with the technique, so it’s like breathing to me, but truth be told, I’m really nervous.

Never led a workshop before. Demos, sure, but nothing like this where you are there guiding folks through a process for six hours for which they’ve put down hard earned cash and given up half their weekend to put their trust in you, glean everything they can, be inspired and hopefully have a lot of fun involving multiple moments of success.

By Tuesday only two had signed up. Ahh, I thought, maybe it will be cancelled and I can breathe again. But then there were three – then five. This morning I got a call from the director telling me there’s 6 for sure!…and 2 maybes. Is that an elephant sitting on my chest?

When I move to a new place setting up my 40 year-old drawing table is always the grounding moment for me. It’s also nice to have the area in working order – all my supplies within arms reach – to dive right into a project then. So here in the bottom photo you’ll see Gouache (“gwosh”) on the 10-well round plastic palette (bought in 1970); tubes of gouache in the blue Tupperware box (1976); and a large painting underway – using the ink-resist technique – on Arches 180 lb. cold press watercolor paper. The 4.5 x 6 inch colored paper swatches on the left are from a box of 220 Color-aid ® to help me decide on a palette…

Okay, that’s better…and look at the day! Hope you have a great one. With light and warmth and lots of good breathing. Cheers! – Pierr (Day 38 Sugar-Free)

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