Tag Archives: painting demonstration

A ten day extravaganza in Tuscany, Italy

It was a pleasure to be back at Abbondanza, once again working with the wonderful Paula and Karolina.
We had a great group, total of 19 people with several non-painters, or ‘civilians’ as they liked to call themselves!
Paula’s is one of the best workshop venues when it comes to European painting trips. It is hard to top this experience. There is a chef on location and a driver for the daily excursions, done in a luxurious bus that can hold up to 20 people.
Some of my students who took the workshop two years ago are still raving about the culinary experience they had at Abbondanza!

One of the highlights this year was painting in the Villa Reale gardens near Lucca where John
Singer Sargent painted a long time ago. We found the exact locations he picked. Out of respect and reverence, we decided to paint a different view, from the opposite site Sargent had picked.
Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and we ended up working with umbrellas in one hand, paint brush in the other. That didn’t stop us, however. It may be a once in a lifetime opportunity so nobody was deterred from trying. Nice light would’ve been a treat but the weather is what it is!

Villa Fiori, our accommodations, were located about a 20 minute drive from the city center of Lucca, high up in the hills. The location couldn’t have been better! There was an olive garden and medieval church right outside, which we painted multiple times in different light.
My workshop was well received and I got many positive reviews. Students really like my teaching style and emphasis on sound painting principles.

As a fun side-note: the week we were there, the Rolling Stones were also scheduled to play a concert in the moat next to the city walls of Lucca. So the town of only 10000 grew to more than 60000 on the day of the concert. We made sure we stayed far away from Lucca that day!

Painting demo at the National Watercolor Society

           

I am happy to say that my demo last Sunday went very well. People were appreciative and mellow, I painted well and on top of that, I sold paintings! Even the demo painting sold!
It is always a bit tricky to paint in front of so many people (my demo sold out) and you never know how your painting will turn out. I had a great support group though and I would like to give special thanks to Debbie Abshear and Jan Godachy for their selfless help. I could not have done it without them!

Moss landing demo painting

I decided to paint a half sheet (approx. 14″x21″) The subject matter is a scene from Moss Landing in northern California taken on my most recent trip.
There is a big slough with all kinds of boats moored and an electricity plant in the background which reflects into the water. Excellent view to paint! The composition is kind of a cheap shot, with the left boats all pointing toward the little rower and his friend! Needless to say, it wasn’t like this on the photographs I took. The foreground is a patch of land covered with ice plant that grows in abandon there.

Overall, I was very happy with the turn-out and we have a big list of painters interested in taking on of my workshops.
Also big thanks to Penny Hill, the director of this year’s Annual Exhibition of NWS who made this demo possible!

Painting demo at Westlake Village Art Guild

Last week, the Westlake Village Art Guild invited me to do a painting demo at their wonderful facility in Thousand Oaks, California. I was the guest demonstrator during their monthly meeting, and did a watercolor scene with a pond and background buildings.

It was an honor and great fun to paint for more than 75 artists! My painting came out well and was raffled off. I received a warm welcome and my art was very much appreciated! I’d like to thank Juliette, Craig and Bruce for a wonderful evening that included an excellent dinner. A very well organized group, very friendly, especially Dickie, a former student of Millard Sheets and Milford Zornes, who was very effusive with her compliments!

On top of that I sold three paintings. (You can see more of my paintings here.)

I have added a new Workshops + Demos + Lectures page where I’ll publish all upcoming classes and appearances. You will find it on the upper right hand corner on the homepage. (Comments are not enabled on that page; please contact me at eber.frank@gmail.com directly.) Please check back often for a demo near where you live!