Experience a Francese Watercolor Workshop
The signature of a Francese watercolor is his use of big shapes, color, color and more color! No matter where a Francese watercolor is displayed, it will radiate a flash of color that literally jumps off the wall, immediately capturing the eye of the casual observer and art critic alike.
Francese brings a new style to the time tested combination of color and interesting shapes. His style employs the use of large brushes and a wet-on-wet method where in much of the color mixing is accomplished on the paper. Frank's technique often produces brilliant, at other times subtle, and always unique shades of color. The only limits are the artist’s imagination and willingness to experiment with every combination of color on his palette.
Color provides the stage for the artist’s performance; shapes provide the characters. Detail is only used after the color and big shapes, positive and negative, are in place. Francese states “One must not over do the detail in any painting. It should be using it sparingly and with great thought. I have seen many paintings where the artist used too much detail, thinking that is the key to a great painting.” The goal of a Francese workshop is to teach artists of all skill levels to combine color, shape and then detail into a unique work of art.
Workshop Structure
The Francese Watercolor Workshop consists of either three or five days of classroom instruction. That classroom may be inside of a building, at a streams edge or on a city street. Each day includes two demonstrations, the morning demonstration at 9 am and a second afternoon demonstration at 12:30pm. The demonstration will be 40-60 minutes in length, leaving the student to have ample time to work on their painting using the subject matter of that day’s demonstration.
Attendees of a five day workshop will experience the following schedule:
Day one
Nature scenes: painting the quiet beauty of the high country; using mountains, trees, streams, lakes in a winter setting. The objective of this exercise is for the student to learn to apply the paint freely on the page and to start understanding how to use the white of the paper. When using transparent watercolor there is no white paint, so one must use the white of the paper to fulfill requirement for that color.
Day two
Country scenes: painting the rustic scenes that may include old barns, farm houses, silos, small villages/towns or other structures. The students will take the previous day exercise and place man-made structures in the natural landscape. Also at this time, the concepts of a light source and shadowing will be introduced.
Day three
City Scenes: painting the colorful street scenes, that will include cars, buildings, people, buses, street signals, signs, etc. The students are advised to carefully study all of the exciting little things one finds in a city scene and use them wisely. The trick to this exercise is determining what to include in your painting and, as importantly, what to leave out.
Day four
Beach scenes: painting the beaches, boats and buildings in the tropics, the confusion of a harbor scene with fishing boats, heavy equipment and working people; or the quite sea villages in any part of the world.
Day five
Nature Moods: The morning demonstration will consist of painting clouds, heavy with moisture; using any subject matter we have explored that week. The afternoon demonstration will consist of painting nature’s extremes: stormy skies, rain, wind, and snow, etc.
With a three day workshop all of the above mentioned subjects will be covered in the shorter period of time.
Day one
Morning demonstration will cover Nature Scenes. The afternoon demonstration will cover country scenes.
Day two
Both demonstrations will consist of painting city scenes.
Day three
The morning demonstration will consist of painting beach scenes. The afternoon demonstration will consist of painting nature’s moods/storms.
Students may paint any subject matter they choose; on any size paper they desire. The most important thing a student can bring to class is a good attitude.
January
2010 WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Closed
February
Closed
March
Closed
April
Artists Association of Northern Colorado
19th Annual National Show - Fort Collins, CO
April 7-9 (Wed-Fri): Landscape Workshop
April 10 (Sat): Watercolor Demonstration (3:00 PM)
Exhibition Reception and Award Ceremony (5:30 PM)
Contact: Susan Shattuck
970-690-1607
970-223-1607
susanruthshattuck@msm.com
May
Fairborn Art Association
May 3-7: Landscape Workshop
Jane Trane
8881 Haddix road
Fairborn, OH 45324
937-878-1009
Park Hills Art Club
May 20-22: Landscape Workshop
Marcia Langmack
7763 East Maple Place
Denver, CO 80230
303-366-3233
June
Lyme Art Association
June 1-4: Landscape Workshop
Krissa Ressler
90 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371
860-434-7802 Krissa@lymeartassociation.org
TWSA
Juror for National Exhibition
June 12: Public Demonstration - Kenosha Museum
June 14-18: Landscape Workshop
Suzanne Hetzel
71 Long Grove Road
Yorkville, IL 60560
847-372-5622 dragonflys71@sbcglobal.net
July
Art in the Mountains
July 5-9: Plein-air Workshop
Tracy Culbertson
P.O. Box 311
Mehama, OR 97384
503-930-4572 info@artinthemountains.com
Cheap Joes Art Workshops
July 26-30: Landscape Workshop
Edwina May (Workshop Director)
374 Industrial Drive
Boone, NC 28607
800-227-2788 edwina@cheapjoes.com
August
Ocean Country Artist Guild
August 9-13: Landscape Workshop
Leona Lavone (Workshop Director)
306 Scarlet Court
Toms River, NJ 08753
732-914-9914 Busby67@comcast.net
September
Mid-Valley Arts League
September 16-18: Landscape Workshop
Susan Gutschow (Chariman MVAL)
1618 Laurel Street
South Pasadena, CA 91030
626-799-1595 susangatsp@aol.com
Watercolor West
2010 National Watercolor Exhibition
September 19
Lecture/Demonstration (9 AM - 1 PM)
September 20
Jury Awards (1 PM - 3 PM)
September 21-23: Landscape Workshop
Schroeder Studio Gallery
112 East Maple Ave,
Orange, CA 92866
714-633-0653 judy@schroederstudio.com
October
Image Gallery
October 4-8: Landscape Workshop
Keith Ashcraft
6700 High Drive
Mission Hills, KS 66208
913-362-8824
kashcraft@kc.rr.com
Nevada Watercolor Society
Oct 13: Public Demonstration
Oct 14-17: Landscape Workshop
Sharon Menary - Director
3047 Evening Wind Street
Henderson, NV 89052
702-463-2454
sharonmenary@yahoo.com
Judy Patti Studio
October 29-31: Landscape Workshop
Judy Patti
5849 South Broadway
Littleton, CO 80121
303-798-1345
November
San Diego Watercolor Society
November 8-12: Landscape Workshop
Sharon Feingold
2825 Dewey Road #105
San Diego, CA 92106
619-876-4550
Artisan's Studio-Gallery
November 18-20: Landscape Workshop
Pat Kochan
Artisan's Studio-Gallery
2825 Valley View #301
Farmers Branch, TX 75234
972-488-8182 PatKArt@aol.com
www.artisansstudio.com
December
closed