Workshop Report: Foreground Studies with Emilie Lee

A few days ago we wrapped up a five day landscape painting workshop that I taught at Inwood Hill Park. We had perfect weather and the surprisingly wild nature of Inwood provided a serene retreat from city life. The park is 196 acres of varied terrain including Manhattan Island’s last untouched forest. Inwood’s northern border is the shoreline of Spuyten Duyvil Creek and on the west a steep forested ridge blocks noise from the west side highway. On top of the ridge, one can enjoy spectacular views up and down the Hudson River and of the Palisades on the opposite shore. In the forest, cliffs and large boulders form caves once inhabited by Native Americans. In this beautiful spot we were able to find a wide variety of subject matter. 

In this workshop I wanted to share some of the things I've learned as a student at the GCA and how that has applied to landscape painting in the context of the Hudson River Fellowship experience.  With this in mind, I planned the majority of our time to focus on drawing and foreground studies.  According to Asher B. Durand in his 1855 Letters on Landscape Painting, this is the best place to start when you are first beginning to work outside: 

“Form is the first subject to engage your attention. Take pencil and paper, not the palette and brushes, and draw with scrupulous fidelity the outline or contour of such objects as you shall select…”

When we set ourselves up to paint a landscape, most of us are tempted to choose a wide scene that includes a huge variety of challenges.  We are forced to abbreviate everything if we want to finish the painting in a day’s work.  While this approach is also valuable in certain circumstances, the importance of solid drawing cannot be expressed enough.  The practice of slowing down and choosing smaller, less complex subjects is a great way to gain a deeper understanding of nature and sharpen your observational skills.

As you can see from the photos, Inwwod Park is a wonderful location for a landscape painting workshop and we are excited to plan some more for next year!  Our last workshop, taught by Thomas Kegler was also a huge success and you can read more about that in these two blog posts, where you'll also find my rave reviews of the Indian Road Cafe - a conveniently located source of food, coffee, and cookies.

workshop report part II: Landscape Painting with Thomas Kegler

I asked Thomas Kegler if we could share all the class demonstrations that he did for his workshop last week so that I could explain what he was teaching.  Tom structured the workshop around the basic approach he uses to prepare for a studio painting.  He started each of the four days with a demonstration, which you can see below: 

The evening before the workshop began, Tom took a walk around the park to see what scenes inspired him.  That night at his hotel, he did this small sketch from memory.

Using this grid as a guide, Tom adjusted his compositional sketch until he arrived at a pleasing design.

This sketch is a bit larger, and he added some trees as foreground elements.

Back on site, Tom began to make careful drawings of the different elements in his composition.  First he made this drawing of the bridge with the palisade cliffs in the background.  All of his drawings and plein air paintings will be used in the studio to create a larger studio painting.

Later the same day, Tom made this sketch of a tree that he could use in the foreground of his painting.

This painting started out as a grissaille sketch that Tom did as a demonstration for the class.  Back in the studio, he continued working on it to create this evening scene.

This painting was done in about 3 hours as a demonstration for the class.

On days 3 and 4, Tom did these two paintings to demonstrate how he makes foreground studies.  This small scene will probably appear in the foreground of his studio painting.  It will also serve as a reference if he needs to create multiple plants like this in his painting.

While this tree will probably not appear in his final painting, it was very helpful to watch Tom go through the process in his demonstration. 

 Below are some more photos of students at work during Thomas Kegler's workshop last week. 

Future landscape painting workshops with the GCA: 

Foreground Studies with Emilie Lee May 30 - June 3 at Inwood Hill Park

Painting in the Tradition of the Hudson River School with Erik Koeppel and Lauren Sansaricq July 16-26, Jackson, NH

Traditional Landscape Painting with Thomas Kegler July 31 - August 3 in Jackson, NH

workshop report: Landscape Painting with Thomas Kegler

 Thomas Kegler's landscape painting workshop last week was a huge success!  We spent four days up at Inwood Hill Park, which proved to be an ideal location for our purposes.  This was the first time the GCA has held a workshop in the city, so we were thrilled with how smoothly it went.  Inwood Hill Park is 196 acres of mostly forest and a real treasure to have in New York City.  Easily accessible by the 1 and A trains, the park is home to the last untouched forest and salt marshes on Manhattan Island.  We found the park to be quiet and friendly, and we even felt comfortable leaving our easels and other equipment set up while taking turns to run into the nearby Indian Road Cafe to get warm and eat meals.  While the scenery at Inwood is perfectly inspiring, the food and hospitality at Indian Road is equally worthy of praise here.  Sourcing all their ingredients from local farms just up the Hudson, Indian Road starts serving breakfast at 7 AM.  In addition to a full menu of healthy hearty meals, they offer irresistible baked goods, superb coffee, an excellent beer list, and live music at night!  The prices are reasonable, and there is plenty of room for a large group to eat together.  With the cold weather conditions, it was just the respite we needed to keep our energy levels high for full days of painting.
         I'm looking forward to my workshop in the end of May, and after this experience, I feel quite confident that we will have an excellent time!  With the warmer weather, I plan to stay for dinner at the cafe a few of those nights and hold some optional sunset painting sessions afterwards.  With the view west across the Hudson, it's a perfect spot!

This map shows the varied topography of the park

The park is easily accessible by the A and 1 trains

the view from the water looking west under the Henry Hudson Bridge.  From on top of the hill, one can see more of the Hudson River behind the strip of trees in this photo.

the salt marsh provided some interesting foreground material

this forest interior would be another great spot to paint!

Thomas Kegler started each morning with a demo (after a delicious breakfast at Indian Road Cafe!)

following his demo, Tom worked with students on an individual basis throughout the rest of the day.

  

at the end of the day we would regroup to talk about the day's work and what to expect for tomorrow.

On Friday night, some of us had a very insightful trip to the New American Wing at the Met where we were inspired by the masters!  It was great to hear what Tom had to say about these paintings.

Future landscape painting workshops with the GCA: 

Foreground Studies with Emilie Lee May 30 - June 3 at Inwood Hill Park

Painting in the Tradition of the Hudson River School with Erik Koeppel and Lauren Sansaricq July 16-26, Jackson, NH

Traditional Landscape Painting with Thomas Kegler July 31 - August 3 in Jackson, NH

Jon deMartin solo show at John Pence

Ad Tendere Ad Astra, by Jon deMartin

Jon deMartin has a solo show opening this Friday night at the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, CA.  The show runs from April 20-May19, 2012.  deMartin studied with Jacob Collins at the Water Street Atelier and he is teaching a workshop at the Grand Central Academy on long & short pose life drawing.  The workshop is from August 20-24, 2012.  Here are a few new paintings from deMartin that will be included in his show:

Faith in the Wilderness, by Jon deMartin

Venice, by Jon deMartin

Golden Rails, by Jon deMartin

Rail Yard at Sunset, by Jon deMartin

Tank Cars, Afterglow, by Jon deMartin

Study for Ad Tendere Ad Astra, by Jon deMartin

Erik Koeppel, two shows and a DVD!

www.hudsonriverdvd.com

We have lots of exciting news from Hudson River Fellow Erik Koeppel!  He has just released an instructional DVD, and he had two shows open this week.  One at McColl Fine Art in Charlotte, NC, and the other at New Hampshire Antiques coop in Milford, NH.  He will also be present at the Plein Air Convention in Las Vegas next week, where he will be doing demos.  You can keep up with Erik on facebook and on his blog.  Erik and Lauren Sansaricq recently quit the city life and moved to Jackson, NH where they are living the dream - immersed in the inspiring scenery of the White Mountains and painting to their heart's content.  They've done a huge amount of work organizing the logistics for this summer's Hudson River Fellowship to take place in Jackson!

Erik and Lauren will be teaching a landscape painting workshop this summer at the Fellowship,  from July 16-26 in Jackson, NH.  Read all about it here.

Erik Koeppel at McColl Fine Art with some of his paintings

 

Erik Koeppel with one of his paintings at New Hampshire Antiques coop in Milford, NH

Erik Koeppel and Lauren Sansaricq on a recent painting excursion

Upcoming NYC Park Landscape Workshops!

For you city-folk interested in learning the pre-impressionist methods and ideas explored by the Hudson River Fellowship, GCA has scheduled two local workshops in late spring and early-summer. The workshops will be held in NYC's rugged Inwood Park at the northern tip of Manhattan. Instructors are Senior Fellows of the Hudson River Fellowship.

Traditional Landscape, April 11 - 14, taught by Thomas Kegler

Foreground Studies, May 30 - June 3, taught by Emilie Lee

For workshop details, click here!

To Register now, email Joy at gcaclasses@gmail.com

NYC's Inwood Park

 

Scroll down to see images of work by instructors!

Autumn Afternoon by Tom Kegler

Summer 2011 Kegler Workshop in the Catskills.

Tom Kegler at work

Kegler tools

Buttercups & Raspberries by Tom Kegler

North Lake by Tom Kegler

By Emilie Lee

By Emilie Lee

Watch out students, Emilie works rain or shine!

By Emilie Lee

Rock, Lichen Study by Emilie Lee

Forest Path Study By Emilie Lee

HRF 2010 (left to right) Travis Schlaht, Ted Minoff, Emilie Lee