Painting Like an Artist

On Sunday I came back home from a long weekend in North Carolina. I participated in the “Paint Like An Artist” workshop at Donna Downey’s Studio in Huntersville, NC. www.donnadowney.com. I discovered Donna online about a year ago, when I was looking for inspiration for designing and decorating my new art studio.  Donna had just redone her art studio in her new home, and it was exactly like what I was looking for.  Then I started to notice her art.  She posted videos of herself making things to inspire others.  Her background is in teaching, and her passion is ART!  So I took a couple of her online classes, and I fell in love with her style . . . How she painted; the colors, the texture, the mixed-media materials, and the layering and then more layering.  I even learned to paint faces through her studio’s educational videos.  So I decided to fly out there for her 4-day workshop.  I wanted to learn how to blend colors the way she did, and I wanted to be comfortable painting on really BIG canvases.  Like everything else in my life, I like my art BIG.  Once I painted a huge canvas for my office.  I think it was 48” x 60”.  But I only managed it by dividing it up into 12 squares and painting a patchwork of 12 smaller paintings.  I wanted to fill up an entire big canvas with color and texture, just like my new idol, Donna Downey.  And I wanted to meet others with my same interests.  There were 10 of us in the class, and we all had different skill sets when it came to art.  Ladies came from all across the US.  I was surprised to find another West Coast lady, especially when I learned she was from McMinnville, Oregon, which is only about 2 hours from where I live in Olympia, Washington.

The weekend was great.  They had the studio all set up for us.  We each had a place with gifts like personalized embroidered painters’ berets and aprons, and all the paint supplies we would ever need.  You can tell Donna, and her husband Bill, had done this before.  They had thought of everything.  Together they have created a studio that is the most positive, happy, and comfortable space!  It sets the theme of creativity and fun.  Lovely teal walls with lots of sunlight shining in, and the artwork . . . ohhhh the artwork. Even the bathroom walls were covered with students’ art.  I often would just wonder the halls looking at the art.  And whenever I needed nourishment, there was always yummy snacks and drinks at hand.   There was a whole corner area with shelves full of yummy candy and treats, available 24/7.  Sometimes candy is the best source of inspiration! And all the meals were provided.  I totally blew my diet.  The food was lovingly made by Donna’s Italian mother from the Bronx, Grandma Cookie. She is amazing! She slips in while everyone’s busy painting, and before you know it, the most delicious, well-planned meals are before you, ready for you to enjoy. You can eat while you paint, or you can take a break and sit down and have a full course meal.  And she prepared it in such a way as to meet all the unique dietary requirements among us.  You basically built your meal, choosing the sauces, meats, and vegies to your own liking.

Saturday night they took us by limos to a lovely little restaurant in an old southern farm house called FORK.  It was lovely.  They served food family style, with course after course of yummy fresh foods, from side dishes to fish, steak, chicken, and various desserts. I’ve never heard salmon called sheep’s head, but that’s what it was.  And it was delicious.

So, “what about the painting?” you say.  We arrived on Thursday afternoon, and we started right in!  That big intimidating blank canvas didn’t stay blank very long.  Donna had us experiment with all the paints laid out before us, seeing what colors looked good next to others, and which ones looked horrible.   She called it “creating chaos,” but there was a definite method to the madness!   The goal was to experiment with all types of textures, mediums and colors, while building up an interesting background where things would peek out here and there and hint of lots of goodness underneath.  Donna kept reminding people not to worry about loving what was on the canvas that first day, as it would all be covered up tomorrow.  It was amazing to see the evolution behind each painting.

Our first assignment was to divide the canvas in two parts (any way we wanted of course), painting one half in cool colors (blues, greens) and the other half in warm colors (reds, oranges).  We focused on the color wheel and how these tones made us feel.  I have always preferred cool colors.  So I made it my personal challenge to do the warm colors in a way that would make me love them.  And it worked.  I loved the red/pink/purple parts best.

 

 

As I had hoped, I learned a lot about mediums I don’t usually use. I learned that retarder and high flow are my friends!  I wrote text with India inks.  I was reunited with my old friends, heavy molding paste and gesso.  The process of painting is so cathartic.  Our second day’s assignment was especially so.  Donna told us to divide our blank canvases into three sections, labeling one “past,” one “present” and one “future.”  And then fill in each section with whatever we wanted, as we thought about these words.    Again, it didn’t matter what we put on the canvas, because it was just background.  In the next couple of steps we would cover it all up, and there was something really rewarding about painting over the black text that said “Cancer Sucks” with some happy pinks and purple colors.  Then Donna told us to draw random shapes or strokes in black India ink on the canvas.  I had big swirly strokes, or course.  Then Donna had the whole class look at each canvas and tell us what they saw.  There were lots of elephants, flowers, and ladies heads to be seen.  On my canvas, people saw things I didn’t see, but when someone said “peacock,” I saw it . . . and I LOVE the colors in a peacock.  So I instantly knew that what was hiding on my canvas. 

 

 

 

 

I never expected to leave with a peacock and a bouquet of flowers.  But that’s what others saw emerging from my canvases, so that’s what I took home.  Some of the people there produced work I would be happy to purchase and display in my home.  My work was not in that category.  But I understood throughout the weekend that it was all about the PROCESS of learning, and building my skills, in order to put it together later to produce the kind of art I would want to buy myself.  These were just practice pieces.

I came home on Sunday, and Monday evening I was already working on a new big canvas in my own art studio.  I’m so inspired, and I have a new confidence that made the whole weekend trip worth the effort.

If you want to know more about Donna Downey Studios, go to her website:  www.donnadowney.com.