Scottsdale Workshop Day 3- Mark Daniel Nelson

Uncharted waters and off the deep end. Pushed myself on Day 2, and felt sicker as day 3 began. Respiratory issues and all the meds are taking a toll on me.
My venture into complete abstraction with no reference was very uncomfortable. I kept scraping the paint off. All day. This is what I came up with. Now I have to begin the process of absorbing all that Mark talked about and demonstrated with his genuine and real approach to making paintings.

Big hugs to all at the end of our three day exploration of Image to Abstract with the amazing Mark Daniel Nelson! Thank you! Loved the Scottsdale Artists School- a wonderful facility for us.

Workshop Day 2- Mark Daniel Nelson

Day 2 begins with my decision to work in oils and paint a first generation painting from my reference photo. I had not printed these references out, so I had only my iphone and just brief viewings of the picture. That probably helped to keep things abstract and just looking for the big flat shapes. Mark does his critique using the ipad-  first he puts my image up on the screen in duplicate, then he makes modifications to one of the images and you can immediately see what would happen if...(fill in the blank). It's a pretty effective way of looking at images and making those virtual changes which the artist can then use- or not!

This is a detail from the painting which could then be used as a reference for a second generation painting. The idea is that each step will take you to more abstraction.

This painting was done using the first painting as reference and a jumping off point. I used oils and Arches paper for oil painting. It's a great surface for its' portability and versatility as I cut the paper down for this study.

Here's a cool shot of another abstract that came from the first painting. Upside down and rightsize up- and a great app (no longer available) that shows the colors that are used in the painting. All very harmonious so that made me happy!

What a day! We all- especially Mark- worked so hard!

Workshop in Scottsdale with Mark Daniel Nelson

Not feeling well at all as this workshop approached, the pollen count in Az is off the charts and I've got acute bronchitis. Medicated and hoping I can get through the day, our workshop began with using mutiple reference photos and doing an exercise that Mark refers to as "mapping". Get the big shapes and flatten the space which is how I've been working for awhile anyway. Not too far out of my comfort zone for the first day. Very grateful for that and really just to be here with such a group of talented and eager artists. Mark is a wonderful teacher who uses the ipad to stress all of his ideas in a fast and effective way. I don't have an ipad so I didn't go there!
My first reference image is from downtown Las Cruces and I used gouache for this small 4x4 study.
Mark is inspiring- check out his website here!

This image came from a photo of reflections along the river in Las Cruces- again I used gouache for the first day to make things easier for me.