Is it good to struggle? I sure did!

Valentina, ink and pastel A4 30 mins

On Saturday I went down to London for a course with John Dobbs at Heatherley's`: The Reductive Figure .  I was excited but I had a few complications to contend with.  I had a drop off for something I had been preselected for that I had to fit into the day.  There were replacement buses from Witham to Newbury Park and I was meant to bring all the gear to paint with. As I was packing up I made the executive decision that I would not bring oils or even acrylics but would take a smaller kit (gouache and pastels) and paper rather than canvas.  With everything scaled down I felt I would be able to travel down without incident.

John shared a David Park quote from A Painter's life  and wanted us to paint directly, quickly and boldly. I had arrived a little late and was sandwiched in pretty tightly.  I had to keep stepping sideways to see the model which is always a disaster. My contacts and my reading glasses weren't helping me to see very well and I was some distance from the model.  Before I began I was already struggling. The first drawing (above) was the most successful as a whole.  The second pose was a seated pose and I have to admit to throwing it away. After that one, John suggested I work on a part of the figure, the head and the shoulders. The goal was to say something that I WANT TO SAY about Valentina. I always notice her neck and the way her mouth turns down. I blame sidestepping for my lack of ability to see her as carefully as I might have. By this point I was regretting my materials. I had meant to bring charcoal too and thought I had, but for some reason it never made it into my bag. Every time John came by he told me it was good to struggle. I guess it was obvious!

Valentina, ink, gouache and pastel A3 30 mins

In the final pose, which lasted all afternoon, I found myself beginning with washes of colour. Once I'd begun I couldn't stop layering these washes of Gouache over each other as if it was egg tempera. I had no white so used a white pastel to lighten the hues. Cordelia offered me some of her white gouache which I used sparingly. As I am not a watercolour painter and haven't honed my skills with this media I was struggling to make them cooperate and to say something. The something I was saying was not related to the 'assignment' but once I begin something I find I need to keep struggling to find a resolution. I'm not sure this is always the right approach. So while this is unresolved, I am interested in Valentina's skin and the way her face disolved into her chin. 

2+ hours Valentina, gouache & pastel A3

To answer my own question, struggling certainly isn't comfortable and perhaps it's not necessary to persevere all the time.  Maybe it would have been better to begin again but I 'm glad I went to the class, find John an intuitive teacher and being with other painters is always wonderful. 

Drawing to take notes for painting

Spring Weather NF, pastel on paper, 10 x 16 cm

John Dobbs gave me a challenge when I visited him in his studio earlier in the year.  And then when he led the workshop painting the Thames in the freezling snowy weather, what he said made sense.  Today was the first day I have had time to begin the challenge.  To prepare, I have been reading Mitchell Albala's Landscape painting: essential concepts and techniques for plein air and studio practice. 

It was windy today and the weather was threatening rain but I lugged my easel out in the field and began by making a few thumbnail sketches.  I had the sun to my left and the wind was blowing the clouds northwest. I thought about four values: the sky, the ground, the slopes and the verticals (from my reading) and that made sense! In terms of composition, it isn't the most enlightened subject matter but because it's close by I can visit the spot regularly, something John suggests I will need to do.

What John thinks I should do next and forever more is to use my sketches/drawings to paint from.  He tells me that as I paint I will discover what information I haven't collected and then will need to go back and get it in order to paint something meaningful. When I painted the Thames that's what I did and I discovered I do remember things and I suspect that muscle just needs conditioning in order to use it properly. We'll see.