Here are some snapshots of our January, 2004
trip to Playa Zancudo
Playa
Zancudo is on the southern Pacific coast below the Osa Penninsula, where the
jungle meets the sea. Located on a sand spit that separates the Coto River from
the placid bay of Golfo Dulce, Zancudo is a small Tico village, population 300,
near the Panama border, just north of the equator. There are very few tourists,
a handful of bars and restaurants, dirt streets, warm water, and dry weather in
January. We stayed at Cabinas Rio Mar, with our host Mariano Gaos. Our group
comprised the only guests, so we had a very cozy, homelike atmosphere.
Flying in on the small local
Sansa plane you get a good view of Golfo Dulce.
Our outdoor classroom on the
riverside, and the final art show for the local community.
Painting the sunset from the
“lifeguard tower.”
On the left is my
interpretation of our visit to the Wilson Botanical Gardens outside San Vito.
On the right is my simplified figure study.
A couple of my typical street
scenes—Golfito on the left and Zancudo on the right. I love painting these with
the color intensity and value contrast pumped way up to capture the brightness
of the tropical sunlight.
Two different
interpretations of foliage and flowers by Anne.
One day we took a break from
landscapes and painted local beauty Carla. Ashlie’s version is on the left and
Claudia’s on the right.
David’s rendition of our
favorite beach shack, and Joel’s sunset.
Linda’s trees and Judy’s
FaceBirdFish images were responses to lessons in painting more creatively and
with feeling.
Conga, the Rio Mar mascot,
and painters on location in the banana port of Golfito.
Retrospective:
Costa Rica, January 2003
Here are a few quick peeks at my 2003 Costa Rica workshop in the northern pacific coast town of Samara, Costa Rica. We stayed in the tropical luxury of the Las Brisas del Pacifico hotel, right on the beach. White coral sand, calm warm water—it was tempting to just kick back and relax. But we painted diligently. Below is my favorite “classroom,” a sandy path to the beach, and the demonstration painting I did there one morning.
This is what the hotel looked like. I gave this painting to the hotel
owner in gratitude for the great service we enjoyed during our stay.
There were restaurants right on the beach. Here are a couple of renditions of one of our favorites. My painting is on the left, and my friend and student Joel Beak’s is on the right.
Samara’s main street is about three blocks long, starting at the beach. Here are two views from about the same spot, the center of “downtown.”
The picture on the left is Judy Brownfield’s painting of the view from the pool outside her room. On the right is Karen Brown’s painting of the gate at Alegria, a yoga and meditation center where we spent two nights.
On our free day, three of us had a busmen’s holiday in the nearby town of Nicoya, painting street scenes and the 17th century church. Here is my reference photo and painting done on site.
On the left below is fellow teacher Ashlie Gaos’ composite vision “El-Caribe.” Next to it is Gillian Senior’s handling of the view from the hotel terrace, with lots of luscious darks.
In my fellow teacher Erin Prucha’s painting and the photo of my wife Nancy on the beach at sunset, you catch some of the spontaneous. Pura Vida spirit of Costa Rica.
This was a Crearte Retreat trip. Click here to see their website and other upcoming adventures.
Last updated 2/2/04
BELLA ITALIA
Highlights of my workshop in Italy, July 2002
The workshop was held at Villa Maria, a 1731 farmhouse where we had two weeks of plein air painting instruction at a fabulous hilltop location, with views of Lake Trasimeno, Perugia, and Assisi in the background.
The painting on the left is a detail of the east apartment. We took a three-day excursion to Florence to see Michelangelo’s David and other Renaissance masterworks. The painting on the right is a an outdoor market near the Academia Museum.
I love painting the narrow streets of Italian towns. The light bounces around and the scene calls out for vertical formats, rich color, and lots of figures on bikes and scooters.
We made several day trips to nearby medieval Umbrian hill towns such as Perugia, Chiusi, Assisi, Spello, and Civita. Here we are sketching during siesta time in Piegaro. At right our host, sculptor Vincenzo Ricci gives a demonstration of hydrocal casting. I had the privilege of working with a great group of students who worked hard and well together. Here is a small gallery of some of their work:
Jon Ford’s expressive sketch of a Piegaro side street captures the quiet charm of this tightly knit community. I love how Debra DeBrune layers warm and cool colors to achieve glowing flesh tones in this portrait of her son Carl.
Adrienne Flowers works with semi-neutral colors in a narrow value range to show the age of the 270 year old cellar door. Coleen Stevens uses high intensity colors to show how light reflects inside the leanto sheltering the wood fired pizza oven.
Vikki Anne Ford rearranges the benches and pots of geraniums outside the studio door to make the most of repeated shapes and colors in a diagonal composition. Carl Young simplifies the background and invents an complementary color scheme to heighten the emotion in this sensitive portrait of his grandmother.
Ciao from the group at Villa Maria: L to R Carl, Debra, Adrienne, Donna, Coleen, Roger, Vikki Anne, Jon, Vincenzo, & Nancy
Last updated 7/29/02