Gold in Them Hills

My wife and I were blessed to take a trip back across the “River”, the mighty Mississippi, to visit family. Our trip really began with Memphis, (where our daughter, son-in-law and grand kids live) then through Nashville, Chattanooga, and a stop in Cleveland (Tennessee) where my son lives, along with my favorite mother-in-law :-). Fall is one of my favorite times of the year and it was a pure pleasure being able to drive through the mountains of east Tennessee and see some color. We ended out trip with a stop in Blue Ridge, Georgia to see Donna’s aunt and uncle, and then on to Dahlonega, Georgia for a three day workshop taught by Texas artist John Pototschnik.

A lot of people don’t know that Dahlonega, Georgia was actually the location of the first gold rush in the United States. Not California. The Dahlonega “gold rush” began about 1828. The Cherokees owned much of the land that was home to the gold. The sad outcome of this chapter in American history was that most of the Cherokees lost their land and were re-located to the reservations in Oklahoma. The famous “Trail of Tears” was caused by the gold in the mountains of north Georgia and Tennessee.

I discovered a bit of gold there in the mountains of north Georgia as well. The workshop referred to above was hosted by Anita Elder at the Art Loft, a beautiful and relaxing place in the woods of North Georgia. Anita has accommodations for those who attend her workshops – a bed and breakfast atmosphere rich in hospitality. When we saw that she was hosting John Pototschnik for one of his last workshops, we signed up for what turned out to be a great 3 days of painting and relaxing. Worth its weight in gold, so to speak.

John Pototschnik is an excellent artist and teacher. Since he is winding his workshops down in order to spend more time creating his work, I counted it a real blessing to participate in one of his last workshops. Workshops are an excellent way to break out of old ruts and habits. I think of an old Hebrew proverb, actually in the book of Proverbs in the Bible. It says this in chapter 27, verse 17:

Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.

With someone as accomplished as John at the helm of a workshop, there is a lot of sharpening going on. A lot of knowledge and experience compressed in a few days. The areas stressed in the workshop were Value and Color. His disciplined approach in these two areas are second to none and in my opinion, beyond price. The group of artist was small but eager to benefit from John’s many years behind the brush.

John Pototschnik demonstrating oil painting

Painting demo

The first day we took notes while John spoke of the framework for a painting, color and value. This was followed by a demo, where John worked through some of the early stages of a painting. After the demo, we squeezed out some ivory black and white on our palette. With these oils we painted a value study of a subject of our choice. As we all discovered, this exercise allowed us to working out problems with composition and values, a bit like a test drive before committing to the final color work. I found a few areas I was struggling with during this process of creating the black and white study.

Next day we cleaned palette and added Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Light and Ultra-Marine Blue to the palette. With Cad. Yellow Light and Ultra-Marine Blue we mixed a Yellow-Green and a Blue-Green. The Cadmium Yellow Light and the Ultra-Marine Blue was then scraped off the pallette, leaving only Alizarin Crimson, Yellow-Green and Blue-Green. These three colors were all that was left on palette, besides white and formed a Triad – Split Complimentary palette.

I worked through the same painting I had done the black and white value study the day before, but with those three colors, plus white mentioned above as the only oils on the palette. What begin to seem the relation of color to the colors near it. With no blue on the palette, the blue-green stepped into it’s place and looked blue where it was needed. With no yellow on the palette, the yellow-green stepped up to the place and became the “yellow”. Limiting the palette in this manner is an excellent way to see how color works together.

Workshop group at The Art Loft in Dahlonega, Georgia, hosted by Anita Elder

The last day we scrapped our palettes clean once again and this time we mixed a Quadratic Square palette, made up of Cad. Yellow Light, Blue-Green, Violet and Red-Orange. The base colors used to mix the secondary colors were Ultra-Marine Blue, Alizarin Crimson and Cad. Yellow Light, which remained on the palette as it was. (Alizarin and Ultra-Marine Blue were scrapped off after mixing). I worked through the same painting again, using the same photo reference, creating a third painting of the same subject – but with alterations and changes suggested by John’s years of experience. Without hesitation I can say the whole experience was invaluable, the hospitality and accommodations at The Art Loft were second to none and my wife and I really enjoyed the experience.

The Art Loft has on-going workshops throughout the year by some of the most accomplished artist. Check out her workshop schedule at www.AnitaElderArt.com

Also check out John Pototschnik’s web site – he has weekly blog entries with many articles on all things art, along with a monthly newsletter.

Below are the results of the three day workshop, along with the palettes used.