Putney Painters - March 29

I had another good day painting with Richard Schmid, Nancy Guzik and the rest of the Putney Painters last Saturday. Our time was focused on the importance of a good block-in, and how it can either be a great painting all by itself, or set the path to a more polished work.

The day before, Richard and Nancy painted our model Jake at their studio, practicing the techniques we were trying to accomplish on Saturday. Below are two of Nancy's, which were each painted in under 2 hours! (Richards was equally impressive, I just didn't have a chance to photograph it)

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Because of this stress on block-ins, we divided the day into two, 2 1/2 hour poses. Our goal was to squint down, paint the largest shapes first, avoid detail, and nail down the important stuff -- like edges, relationships & drawing. The first pose had a light positioned low on the figure which was really fun and something new for me. (a photo of the actual setup is below the images)

 Richard's Study

 Nancy's Study

My Block-In

The second pose was a more traditional set up (see the opening photo). Nancy's painting below was the best of the session, and the light, composition, & technique were working so well together -- I'll be keeping my eye out for this finished painting. Another champion of the day was Dick McNeil who had two nice block-ins. The below photo is of Dick and Richard during the second session, along with his second painting.