Workshop with Colin Page

I took a workshop last weekend with Colin Page.  He's an artist whose work I've admired for years, seeing it in galleries in Maine, and keeping up with his website.  The weather last weekend was crazy windy and crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to get to the studio was nerve-wracking.  It was good that the focus of the weekend was painting still lifes indoors.

The setups were colorful and chaotic and intimidating.  Without the challenge, I wouldn't have even tried to tackle setting up a still life like that, much less painting it.  Doing it helped me realize that I put up a lot of barriers (takes too long, silk flowers are icky, can't get the arrangement right etc) that really fall away when I have the opportunity to focus exclusively on painting.

Here's the one of my paintings, about 90 minutes in, during the workshop (and that's Colin in the background working with another painter).  I did take it further than this in the workshop, but I think it's not ever going to be "finished."