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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

First two days of Alvaro's workshop

The first day we didn't do any painting ourselves, yet it was maybe the day when I learned the most. Watching Alvaro in action is so inspiring. He makes it all seem so simple. At times he creates something looking like a total mess and in a few minutes the mess takes a fully meaningful shape of people, cars, whatever... 
One of the demos he did was to paint the parking lot of the place, where the workshop was held. A seemingly dull and uninteresting place. But he wanted to show us that everything could become a worthy subject. That story is illustrated in the next three photos

Alavro painting the parking lot. He often has this smile while painting, like he really enjoys it. Or maybe, he's imagining us wondering "What is this mess and how will he be able to get out of it!?" , while he very well knows how he'll do it.

This is the view from where he stands. Of course, at one point a few people passed by, got in a car and drove off. That got into the painting, together with the white house and the red car.

I cannot post a proper picture of his painting, but I think it should be ok to show you the result from this angle. A typical Alvaro painting full of life and atmosphere.  He absolutely made his point.

Inspired by that demo, on the way home I observed the shapes of cars in back-light and in the evening painted this study.

Blaga's cars in motion

The second day we painted Paris from pictures. He demonstrated painting each city-scape and then we tried to imitate the master.

My version of Rainy day in Paris was all wrong. The value of the buildings was too strong and the foreground was a mess. Alvoro looked at it, grabbed some white and in a few brushstrokes fixed the buildings. Then he spattered some cerulean on the right, which made the mess much more acceptable. The painting still sucks, but I'm saving it, as it has Alvaro's touch :)

Blaga's version of Sunny Day in Paris - I'm happy with this one
Two more days to go
to be continued...

12 comments:

Gordon said...

Very cool !!!

Judy said...

Oh this is great, Blaga! I laughed at Alvaro 'making the mess acceptable'. Maybe that is it, the big secret of watercolour! Have fun, I expect a lot of beautiful paintings!

Jane said...

Wow Blaga, you really did some amazing paintings, colorful and full of life . How wonderful to be taught by such a great master !

Merce Ares said...

Blaga, que hermosa experiencia!!!Por ser los primeros trabajos estan muy buenos!!! Suerte!!!

Rita Vaselli said...

Wow!!! Beautiful works! Have nice days learning from this Special Master!!!Thanks for share!!!

Polly Birchall said...

It sounds like you are really enjoying his workshop. He is like a magician, suddenly out pops this lovely painting. Your paintings have that Alvaro touch especially the last one. Such juicy darks too. Well done go to the top of the class

Tito said...

Ciao Blaga, what a fantastic experience you are having! I would like to be there!! Congratulations for your paintings. Good continuation!

Catharina Engberg said...

You did some great paintings there. Like your cars. Specially the right one is perfectly lovely with the paint floating on the paper. Well done! Keep enjoying!

Lydie said...

I guess you dare more, after such a workshop. Thanks so much for sharing. Oh and his smile make people wonder why ? me too ;)))
Enjoy Blagga !!!

Jean Lurssen said...

I like Sunny Day In Paris very much. You captured the light beautifully. But I also like the one you say is a mess. It has an abstract quality to it.

Sonia Aguiar said...

Querida Blaga, es muy interesante el curso de pintura que estás realizando con este excelente acuarelaista. Mis felicitaciones.
Feliz domingo!

Blaga said...

Dear friends, thank you all for your comments and feedback! I really enjoyed my workshop and learned much from it.