Watercolor workshop a relaxing exercise for couple

My husband Jerry Edwards and I recently attended the Annella Campbell’s Watercolor Workshop in Homer at Lands End Resort, sponsored by the Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society. This was our second year in a row to attend these September workshops, which are taught by nationally recognized artists. Each instructor’s background is a little different with varying approaches to teaching.

Campbell’s father was a teacher for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, thus she grew up on reservations, including Turtle Mountain, N.D., Pine Ridge, S.D., and Crow, Mont. Her artwork is heavily influenced by this upbringing. She raised six boys while in Bismarck, N.D., and has 10 great-grandchildren. She was artist-in-residence at Bismarck State College, where she taught drawing and watercolor.

Due to her late husband’s health issues, Campbell moved to Green Valley, Ariz., (about 20 miles south of Tucson) where she has lived for the last 14 years. It was 100 degrees there when she left to come to Alaska to teach a four-day workshop Sept. 18-22, which was attended by 18 eager Alaska registrants. (I could not help but notice she was still wearing her warm-weather sandals).

Artists always ask other artists, “What did you learn?” Somehow we want to vicariously have the experience another had while studying under different instructors. Often it is way too vague to describe, but Campbell was very clear on what she expected us to accomplish and gave detailed instructions on how to do it. She was specific in her morning demonstration of what procedures we were to use as we painted that day.

During the first full day of class, we studied values, a basic subject that most of the class was familiar with. The twist was that we were instructed to experiment with warm vs. cool blues when we created our puddles for the lighter to darker values.

The first drawing was of a historic Spanish mission from the early 1700s located in Tumacacori, Ariz. We painted it in the three basic values — light blue, medium blue and dark blue — to accomplish our value study. This became our “underpainting” to be further developed with other transparent colors.

When the paper was dry, we were instructed on how to add color over the values without disturbing the paint. Not an easy task, but the challenge proved rewarding since it eliminated the need for lots of layering to create dark areas. I am very eager to try this technique on a villa I visited earlier this summer. This approach excites me and I want to incorporate it into my own painting style.

The second full day we were asked to set up a still life of our choosing. Campbell painted a half sheet of beautiful flowers that grow on cacti in Arizona. My husband and I decided to draw and paint our “retirement hats” to express the enjoyment of the leisure time we now share. Jerry’s painting, by that title, will be displayed at the “First Friday Opening” at Picture Alaska Art Gallery in Homer for the month of October, along with other artwork from the workshop. Mine is from the viewpoint of the other side of the table, and isn’t quite finished.

Note: While stopping in Soldotna to visit friends on our way home from Homer, we were given the suggestion of hanging our two paintings on opposite sides of the same wall so you could see the retirement hats coming and going. We will give that some very deep thought.

The project for the third day was a combination of powdered charcoal sprinkled over partially wet hot press paper. The instructor performed the demo on the balcony of the Chart Room at Land’s End with high winds blowing off Kachemak Bay. She used a berry bucket filled with water to immediately pour over the charcoal-spattered paper. She then proceeded indoors where, with her paintbrush, she orchestrated the gray obscure shapes into a soothing euphoric waterfall.

Then it was our turn to give it a try. Campbell provided the dry prepared paper that already had charcoal and spilled water images on it. All we had to do was find inspiration and paint what we could see. Much harder than it sounds! There were some very exciting and creative results by some of the students, but for me the biggest challenge was keeping the charcoal from looking muddy under the transparent watercolor washes. My painted birch trees lacked luster, in my opinion.

Closing remarks from Campbell included that she “often gets as much out of the class as her students.” Campbell also said that her brother Michael Murray, and family who live in Homer, “Make me feel very special.”

As for my husband and I, we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and feel the instructor did what she told us that she wanted to do, and that was “stimulate creativity and do something a little different.” Now where is that painting I need to finish?

Guest writer for the Frontiersman, Wasilla resident Suzanne Bach Edwards is a visual artist, a retired college professor and a play producer.