"A Dozen Roses" Get Another Day

 Today was the sixth day of my Winter Term Still Life class ... and day two with the three setups. Mostly I taught today, painting only toward the end of class and then for a few hours after everyone left.  Since today's roses are "cousins" of last week's now dead version ... I adjusted those a bit.

The next session of classes start the week of April 11. I'll be teaching on Tuesdays with more details to come. Classes are taught through the Great Falls School of Art, part of the Great Falls Foundation for the Arts. I'll post information here and on my web site: www.jillbanks.com.

I also added Terra Rosa to my palette today. What a great color!!! Two reasons for the addition. I've been rereading parts of Richard Schmid's Alla Prima book (my favorite, information-packed book) and he used Terra Rosa and Venetian Red in a wash-like grisaille portrait that I loved. It reminds me of the effects I've gotten with my burnt sienna watercolor washes. Reason two is that when I peeked at fellow artist's Adrienne Kralick's palette she had a beautiful purplish fairly deep red that she mixed with Alizarin Crimson and Terra Rosa. It was just what I needed and used for the top surface of the velvet cloth (where the light shines on it). Love it!

So, today my life as an artist consisted of:
Arranging the roses "cousins" in the vase looking at photos of their predecessors on my laptop
Fixing lunch since my class runs from 11am-3pm
Teaching, critiquing, painting
Assembling easel number seven of the new, highly cherished easels for the Great Falls School of Art (purchased on sale from Plaza, Mabef lyre easels made in Italy)
Photographing this painting and the setups from today so that I can get stuff back in place next week
 (Now) blogging
(Next) marking the setups with masking tape and cleaning up
Heading home

"A Dozen Roses", oil on linen, 12"h x 9"w, copyright Jill Banks 2010.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435