Workshop with Dee Beard Dean

"Old Well House" 

8" x 10" oil on linen panel

For my second October workshop experience, I spent a few days in beautiful St. Simons Island, GA, with the talented and inspiring Dee Beard Dean. If you are not familiar with her work, click on the link and enjoy a feast for the eyes! She is not only a talented artist, but also a beautiful and energetic woman who shares her knowledge of painting and life with those around her. 

The workshop was sponsored by Anderson Fine Art Gallery in St. Simons. They made sure everything was perfect and accomodating for the artists in the workshop, including catered on-site lunches when we were painting outside or even in the studio space arranged for the workshop participants. This is a nice feature because I always hate taking time out during a workshop to search out something for lunch, and the catered lunches were fabulous and a real time saver. 

I painted the above painting outside on the first day of the workshop after a great demo by Dee. Each day of the workshop, we would meet in the studio space and Dee discussed different aspects of painting that she feels is important, whether painting plein air or in the studio. Then, we would venture out to painting locations and Dee would come around and help each artist at their easels. Her advice and encouragement was invaluable to me and I will treasure the time I spent with her. 

We had a rainy/windy day and decided to stay inside and paint. The painting below is done from one of my reference photos that I painted from my iPad. I LOVE using my iPad rather than my computer or photos for painting because it is small and will fit right on my easel side panels, and you get the benefit of backlighting that you don't get from a photo. STILL not at great as painting outside to see true colors and light, but second best in my opinion. 

 "Sunset Dunes"

8" x 10" oil on linen panel

 

And another great happening of this workshop is my purchase of two of Dee's beautiful paintings! I love collecting art too and these paintings are now hanging in my office at home where I can see them daily!