Wednesday, November 10, 2021  Demonstration by Laurin McCracken

Our November meeting featured realist painter Laurin McCracken.  He is best known for his still-lifes with crystal, silver, fruit, and fabrics on black backgrounds, full of sparkles and reflections, inspired by 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish painters. He emphasized that although his paintings exhibit a high degree of realism, he is not a photo-realist. Since he may spend a minimum of 120 hours on such a painting, he opted instead to share technique tips with us, learned over years of experience. The nearly 80 members in attendance were highly appreciative!

Wednesday, October 13, 2021  Demonstration by Michael Holter

A native of North Dakota, currently living in Plano, Texas, Michael Holter chose a view looking north from our own Eastport bridge for his demonstration.  Although the light was very diffused, he stressed the need to show where the light is coming from.  He showed us how to build a sense of depth by pushing the values beyond what they are in the reference photo. Don't just copy the photo, but enhance it, he told us; adding more sense of depth makes it more interesting.  By the end of his demonstration, he had us all mesmerized!

Wednesday,  September 8, 2021  Demonstration by Soon Y. Warren

As we rejoined for our first meeting of the fall, our demonstrator was acclaimed realist painter, Soon Y. Warren.  For her demonstration, she chose a pond surface with floating leaves, ripples and reflections.  Her studio paintings may take eight hours or more to complete, so for the demo she showed us her techniques using several partially-completed paintings.  We learned how she applies frisket, her use of plates rather than a traditional palette for red, blue, yellow, and black pigments, how she mixes her own blacks, and how she applies broad washes and fine lines.  She reminded us to paint what we see, not what we think.