November 3— The Mesa (and Volcanoes)

Volcanoes, gouache, 2.5" x 3.5"

I live on the west side of Albuquerque where the mesa rises up, fronting several extinct volcano cones. The views are wide open, spectacular vistas of windswept grasslands, dark lava extrusions, and gentle slopes, or views of the city settled down into the tree-lined river valley with the giant range of the Sandias behind that. It's really quite spectacular, in a gentle, rolling way. On Thursday this week we'll look at the low growing bushes and grasses and various colors of rock surrounding the old volcanoes. 

This subject will give us a chance to discuss the basics of painting a composition that is mostly comprised of the foreground plane, including the issue of patterning, capturing aerial perspective in the horizontal plane, and how to keep the foreground interesting and supportive, but not distracting.

If you don't have any photographs of the area, let me know and I'll email a couple to you ahead of time so that you can print them out. I won't have prints on hand for this class!

As usual, the class is $25.00, payable at the door. Please RSVP  if you haven't signed up already. Because these are my last few classes (ending on November 17th) I've had a little more participation, and our space is limited. If I know you're coming we can arrange things so everyone has enough room. Thanks.

 

See you Thursday!

Deborah