A Painting Workshop with Elio Camacho

A few weeks ago, my friends Carmen and Donna and I drove to Fernandina Beach, FL to attend a 4 day workshop with Elio Camacho.   Elio is one of my favorite painters and my very favorite instructor and I have been lucky enough to attend with workshops twice a year for the past three years.

 I started each day with this beautiful sunrise over the ocean, while eating breakfast at the hotel.

 This is one of Elio's 36x48" demos that he paints in just three hours!

Here Elio met a challenge to paint without darks.  He often states a painting should bring it's own light.  I think this one meets that requirement

 Another of his larger than life paintings.

This was a 25 minute demo he did for us on foam core.  He pushed the color even more than usual and got wild and crazy.

His brushwork is very exciting...something I am hoping to bring to my work.

Elio spent a year painting blue studies, then moved on and studied yellows and reds.  He likes to set up still life, to challenge his students, all in a single color.  He believes red is the most difficult color to paint.  If you can do a red painting, you can really see color.  This is a 20 minute demo he did for us one day.

We hated to leave the workshop after 3.5 intense and fun days.  To console ourselves, we had a final lunch of fried shrimp at our favorite eatery.

A final photo of Carmen and Donna, de-stressing with  ice cream in front of Island Art Association.  We thank the members for hosting us once again.  Then we hop into our car for the drive home.

One last classic Elio demo that he painted in about 15 minutes, out of his head.  I almost cried when he scrapped it off the next morning.

Needless to say, we are excited to return for his next Florida workshop in the spring.  You can find his workshop schedule here.

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Carol Schiff
www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

UNDER THE INFLUENCE, 8X10, OIL

A few days ago I posted  a still life painted before my workshop with Qiang-huang.  This is one of the paintings I did during the workshop.  Qiang has such a wonderful technique, one that looks so easy, but I soon found it to be very difficult.  To view his beautiful paintings, visit his blog here.

QIANG HUANG WORKSHOP

My painting friends "Pieces of Eight" and I spent a inspiring and educational weekend painting with the talented Qiang Huang.  Qiang flew in from Austin to instruct  a workshop here, and far exceeded our expectations.  I cannot say enough about this young man's skills, both with a paintbrush and as an instructor.
We finished off with a  fun morning of coffee and talk, followed by lunch and a ride to the airport.  We are all sorry to see him leave and are already planning another workshop with him.

The image above is about 5 minutes into his first demo .  To see the finished painting, go to Qiang's blog.

GAY FAULKENBERRY DEMO

I am still trying to recover from the most exhausting three day workshop I have ever encountered. All that thinking and trying to unlearn everything I know about painting only to relearn it in the manner that Gay paints! Wow, I still feel like a bus hit me! Could there be an artist out there that was more opposite of me than Gay? I think not. New pallet to learn, puzzle painting when I block in big and paint in layers, all those beautiful greys when we all know I thrive on color. And of course the biggy, plein air instead of being safe and sound in my studio, painting off my computer monitor. Makes me break out in a cold sweat again, just to think about it. Actually, I really enjoyed the experience and Gay is a fantastic artist and person. I would recommend this workshop to all.