#WorkshopWednesday

Just a short public service announcement today: Please join me (if you can, barring the weather) next week at Yosemite National Park for my annual workshop! With budget cuts and poor funding being a stark reality for our national parks, I am proud to support this beautiful California landmark and climbers’ paradise in whatever way possible. Proceeds from class fees, materials purchases from the Art Center, and sales from my paintings go to The Yosemite Conservancy. I hope to see you there!

Read my past entries on Yosemite here.

Elsewhere (click to read):

Yosemite Conservancy Blog

Yosemite Conservancy on Facebook

Yosemite Conservancy on Twitter

Frank Eber on Instagram

Now available: Museum-quality giclée reproductions

I’m very pleased and excited to announce that a selection of my original work and prints is available through CaliforniaWatercolor.com. California Watercolor is a renowned and respected Southern California gallery dealing with fine art watercolors dating from the 1850s California Watercolor movement to now. On their site you’ll find names like Emil Kosa Jr., Millard Sheets, Hardie Gramatky, and Phil Dike (just to name a few). It is an incredible honor to be part of this gallery, which is based in Fallbrook, California. I am very grateful to the wonderful Linda Gramatky for recognizing my work and for her support!

Find my work here and here.

In addition to some prints, select originals are available. California Watercolor uses 100% rag Arches paper with archival inks, each print embossed with the company’s seal of authenticity.

Please note that this is a carefully-curated selection of my work. If you are interested in other pieces, please feel free to contact me directly. Comments are always welcome!

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Here are a few more paintings from my trip to Central Texas earlier this month! For more Texas paintings, go to frankeber.com and click on the Texas, USA gallery.

Caught them just before sunset.

Fredericksburg tourists

Longhorns!

 

Workshop: Schroeder Gallery, Orange CA

now just a bit more detail..

let the first washes dry!

plein air early morning

Bank building, plein air

Last weekend I had the pleasure of teaching a two-day plein air only workshop at the Schroeder Gallery in Orange, California. Thank you, Judy, for hosting my workshop and taking great care of me!

We had fantastic weather, not too hot and not too windy, more or less perfect conditions. The group was 10 painters altogether, so no problem finding enough space for everyone to paint. Downtown Orange is a wonderful place for plein air work. There are countless subjects, all within a five minute’s walk from the gallery and we could’ve easily added another day.

Maybe next time.

Thanks to all my students for taking my class, see you all next time! Happy painting!

Florence (Firenze), Italy

‘Captivated’, watercolor, 10″x16″

detail of youth passing by

detail of youth passing by

figures suggested in background

During my recent workshop in Italy, we were able to do the three-day add-on in Florence which turned out to be our favorite time of the entire trip.

Florence (Italian: Firenze) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.

The statue of three intertwined figures that is the center of my painting is called The Rape of the Sabine Women (Latin: Sabinae raptae). It depicts an episode in the legendary history of Rome, traditionally dated to 750 BC, in which the first generation of Roman men acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families. The English word rape is a conventional translation of the Latin “raptio”, which in this context means “abduction” rather than its prevalent modern meaning in English language of sexual violation.

I was just as captivated with this beautiful sculpture as the figures I made up for my painting! This is not the original. Just like the statue of David on the Piazza della Signoria, this Rape of the Sabine Women is a replica of the real thing, the real sculpture being situated in the Galleria degli Uffizi, safely away from the elements and pollution.

Upon closer inspection, you will see that I kept the background to a minimum, really just focusing on the shape of the statue and the young men passing by. I love how they all look up while passing by! Almost like all conversation has temporary been halted while they’ve been near this magnificent sculpture. You may ask, “Did it really happen like this?” …Well, it may have happened just like that; I like to think that even young people could be captivated by the power of this eternal piece of art.

Workshop: The Watermill, Posara, Italy

Our group

Welcome dinner in Fivizzano

A beautiful morning (Posara)

Scattered around on market day (Fivizzano)

Can you spot me! (Verrucola)

Painting plein air (Convent dei Carmine)

Tuscan Landscape, 2014 (sold)

Our little painting spot (Convent dei Carmine)

Akemi painting another winner!

Me with Bill Breckon

91 Bees, 2014 (sold)

Painting from the hotel window (Piazza SS. Anunziata, Florence)

What is a Hum Burgar? (Monterosso)

Last week I taught a watercolor painting workshop The Watermill in Tuscany.

We had a wonderful week and many plein air painting excursions! A heartfelt Thank You to Lois and Bill for taking care of us and making this a memorable trip! I hope these pictures give a bit of an impression of this beautiful part of the world! Lois and Bill have a great location and provide ample Tuscan cuisine with many local specialties. They are well organized and we had the luxury of being dropped off and picked up at painting locations by the father-son duo Paolo and Lucca.

Thank you so much! We just have to do it all over again next year!