About the Workshop:
In this workshop Steve will give students the tools to create painterly and believable watercolors; but more importantly, he seeks to take them beyond merely “copying” their subject. Steve believes that “an artist needs to also paint from his heart and seek to communicate the emotional and spiritual beauty of God’s creation.” He paints and teaches in a very straightforward traditional manner because he believes he can most honestly say what he wants to with his brush and juicy watercolor paint. Workshop participants will learn about water and reflections, light and color and the way watercolor behaves. He will also explain how to deal with dark values. Steve’s goal of his workshop is to encourage each artist to advance his or her own vision and to improve the skills necessary to communicate that in watercolor. From Steve: “I have enjoyed teaching watercolor for over 30 years and both my students, and I have a lot of fun during the workshop.” Steve paints mini demos and full paintings and there is plenty of student painting time and personal help available every day.
About the Instructor — Steve Rogers
Statement from the Artist: My painting is grounded in realism, but it goes beyond portraying the physical reality and seeks to communicate the emotional and spiritual beauty of God’s creation. I paint in a straightforward manner in transparent watercolor on paper. The first and foremost secret is to paint with honesty. I set out to paint a truthful representation of the scene I have chosen. I want to communicate the feeling of late afternoon sunlight, or quietly disturbed water I am not trying to do the camera’s job of recording the facts of a place. I am painting the presence and sense of what I felt when I was there. While I paint and sketch on location to drink in the ambiance and become familiar with my subject, the majority of my paintings are done from the thousands of slides and digital images I take and later view while painting back at my studio. I am able to capture the first light of daybreak or some other fleeting effect. My painting is really of my memory of the place-It's color and light.
Steve Rogers AWS, NWS, TWSA - His paintings have won hundreds of awards in juried competitions including the National Watercolor Society Purchase Award -“Best of Show” in 2006 and four awards in the American Watercolor Society. Steve is a Signature Member of the American Watercolor Society and was an Ambassador/Director of AWS and is also a Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society and Transparent Watercolor Society of America. He was the National Invited Juror for the 2007 AWS Exhibition where he served on the Jury of Selection. He was the Chairman of the Jury of Awards for the 2010 AWS Exhibition and he was Juror and sole Awards Judge for TWSA . Steve’s work has been featured in the magazines Watercolor Magazine, Watercolor Magic, International Artist, l'Art de l'Aquaelle, the Art of Watercolor, Pratique des Arts and the books Expressing the Visual Language of the Landscape, Secrets from the Contemporary Watercolor Masters - vol. 1 (in Chinese), The One Hour Watercolorist, and a Gallery of Marine Art, as well as two best - selling DVD’s – 7 Secrets of Painting Reflections in Watercolor and The Secrets of Painting Light and Shadow in Watercolor.
Cost
$195 for TRA Members, $225 for Non-Members, if paid by cash or check. If paid online, a convenience change has been added to the price. If you are paying by cash or check, please mail your check to TRA and email Judy Milsaps.
The workshop is full and we are accepting waitlist registrations. When you register, please make sure that you click the cart that appears at the upper right hand corner of your screen and complete the registration process. You must complete the registration process or your registration will not be complete. If you do not receive a confirmation, you have not completed the process. If you have questions, please contact Kathy Durdin at kathydurdin@gmail.com.
Supply List:
Use your judgment - and please call Steve directly for any questions concerning anything at (386) 441-4930 (evenings are best), or email him at: steve@watercolorsbyrogers.com .
PAPERS: Arches 140 rough or 300 lb cold pressed 22"x30") or Fabriano (new )Artistico (traditional white) in both surfaces and weights.
WATER CONTAINER: Make it adequate (no little jars) -Steve uses a bucket
PAPER TOWELS: (Steve uses Bounty)
HAIR DRYER: Not essential - we can share.
DRAWING PENCIL: An office #2 is adequate – Steve uses a Berol Turquoise HB lead in a mechanical pencil.
KNEADED ERASER: This eraser will not "tear-up" the paper.
SPRAY BOTTLE: For keeping paints wet
PALETTE: Steve suggests a small Cheap Joe’s pallet, which holds much like an oil pallet; or any John Pike or Robert Wood pallet will do. The fundamentally important thing is to squeeze out plenty of fresh color.
BRUSHES: Steve generally uses the same size brush throughout the course of a painting except for very large areas where he uses the Hake’ brush. The brush he uses for the majority of a painting is either a #16 or #18 Cheap Joe’s Dragon’s Tongue or an Escoda 1210 Kolinsky Sable round. He also uses a rigger (flat end) for rigging and other linear marks and an old beat-up brush for some foliage. Escoda has developed a series of very good “Synthetic Kolinsky” brushes called “VERSATIL” which he highly recommends. They are very affordable and produce excellent results! Also, he uses a 1 ½ inch Holbein Hake' brush for large washes.
PAINTS: Primarily, Steve uses tubes of Winsor & Newton and Holbien professional grade watercolors. Colors vary a great deal between manufactures so if you have a different Cerulean Blue than W/N it may not look or behave the same as in his painting. In other cases, especially “staining colors”, like Prussian Blue, American Journey colors are a less expensive and equally high-quality alternative. Many of these colors may be substituted. If you already have Winsor Blue or American Journey Permanent Rose, for instance, you’ll be just fine. Avoid “Student Grade” or colors referred to as “tint” or “hue” which are simply a dye + white paint. These won’t perform the same as the pigment they imitate:
Manganese Blue Amer. Journey
*Burnt Sienna -W/N
*Cobalt Blue -W/N
Aureolin -W/N
*Cerulean Blue -W/N
*Yellow Ochre -W/N
*Quinacrdone Violet -Holbein
*Prussian Blue-W/N
*Raw Sienna -W/N
Cadmium Scarlet -W/N
French Ultramarine Blue -W/N
Cadmium Orange -W/N
Scarlet Lake -W/N
Permanent Rose -W/N
Cadmium Yellow Pale -W/N
Cobalt Green-Holbein
Cobalt Turquoise -W/N
*New Gamboge – W/N
* Indicates colors I think are the minimum necessary. Close colors, i.e., Thalo Blue for Prussian are acceptable. Use your judgment.
SOURCE MATERIAL: Please bring enough good quality photos (preferred) or sketches if that’s your method. Do not bring photos of paintings by other artists. Be sure subject is sufficiently large and clear. Sunlit subjects are preferable to overcast. Boats and other subjects with reflections will be covered during the workshop so try and have some of these if possible. If you’re from Kansas, Idaho, etc. or can’t find any photos which fit the above description I will have some of my photos available for you to use during class.
