What makes a good plein air workshop?

Roger Dale Brown workshop demonstration

ü  An instructor who is a skilled and talented painter. 
ü  The gift of time to visually explore inspiring locations. 
ü  Demonstrations that break down the painting process into its simplest form and build it back up into a finished artwork.
ü  Individualized instruction that makes the topics understandable for each student.

The Roger Dale Brown Plein Air Workshop hosted by the Gadsden Museum of Art, April 6-9, ticks all the boxes when it comes to a hands-on painting experience.  And, each student has the option of sending one workshop artwork to the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational Exhibition—an event that follows the workshop! 

Expert instruction, on-location painting, and the chance to exhibit in the Gadsden Museum of Art galleries—the ideal workshop experience for the plein air artist.  Here are some of the things artists in the workshop will explore:

·        Seeing different types of light.
·        Using atmospheric perspective to capture a feeling of space.
·        Representing the essence of a scene through the “art of comparison”.
·        Using hard and soft edges to draw attention to the focal point.
·        Mixing an infinite palette of greens.

“I try to explain things from a student’s perspective, at each student’s individual level.  I put myself in their shoes remembering when I was at their stage. That makes it easier to explain situations at each unique stage.”         ~Roger Dale Brown

About the workshop: Roger Dale Brown’s paintings have won first place and best of show awards, been juried into national exhibitions, published in Artist Magazine and American Art Collector, displayed in galleries throughout the United States, and collected by celebrities and corporations. He is dedicated to painting from life, on location, as the best way to enhance the ability to see the nuances of a scene. His goal is to capture the emotion what he sees and distill that into his paintings. Roger Dale Brown believes in passing along what he has learned through teaching. To learn more, visit Roger Dale Brown's website at www.rogerdalebrown.com

Workshop tuition: $425 (supplies not included).  A 50% deposit is required to reserve a space, $100 of which is not refundable.  Don’t delay, Mr. Brown’s classes fill quickly and space is strictly limited!  

To register for the workshop or request more information about the workshop or the SPAI, contact Elaine at the Gadsden Museum of Art (256-546-7365 or ecampbell@cityofgadsden.com).   

Abstract Design and Plein Air Painting

What makes one painting grab your attention from across the room while other paintings don’t?  You don’t have to know anything about design to react to the composition of a painting—your eyes and brain respond to the abstract arrangement of light and dark, warm and cool, harmony and contrast. The result is a feeling of attraction that doesn’t have to be explained in any words beyond, “I like it.”

It is different for the artist who must create that response through a series of decisions. As master plein air painter Roger Dale Brown explains,

“I always bring the landscape to its abstract and work with simple shapes and their value. I break the scene into a dominate color and its complement.” 

Roger Dale Brown demonstrates breaking down a scene into its abstract forms.

Beginning with an appealing scene, the artist must decide:

What part of the scene to include in the painting?

What will be the focal point (the part viewers will notice first)?

What range of colors best represent not just the scene but the artist’s emotional response to the scene?

Artists taking the Roger Dale Brown Plein Air Workshop hosted by the Gadsden Museum of Art, April 6-9, will see that decision process demonstrated over three days in three very different landscapes—on a working farm, in a wildlife park, and beside a waterfall.

About the workshop: Roger Dale Brown’s paintings have won first place and best of show awards, been juried into national exhibitions, published in Artist Magazine and American Art Collector, displayed in galleries throughout the United States, and collected by celebrities and corporations. He is dedicated to painting from life, on location, as the best way to enhance the ability to see the nuances of a scene. His goal is to capture the emotion what he sees and distill that into his paintings. Roger Dale Brown believes in passing along what he has learned through teaching. To learn more, visit Roger Dale Brown's website at www.rogerdalebrown.com

Workshop tuition: $425 (supplies not included).  A 50% deposit is required to reserve a space, $100 of which is not refundable.  Don’t delay, Mr. Brown’s classes fill quickly and space is strictly limited!  

To register for the workshop or request more information about the workshop or the SPAI, contact Elaine at the Gadsden Museum of Art (256-546-7365 or ecampbell@cityofgadsden.com).   

Green Banned from the Plein Air Painters Palette!

For the plein air painter, green is the most difficult color.  So much of what one sees in a landscape is green. But which green? Yellowish sap green? Blue-green viridian? Earthy oxide green? Brilliant phthalo green?  According to Roger Dale Brown, master plein air painter, begin with no tube green on your palette!

“I do not use a green because when I do, it becomes the dominant color in all the greens in the painting.  I mix the green for the specific area I’m focused on.  This insures a variety of greens—the key to successful painting.”                  ~Roger Dale Brown

The green that the eye sees depends on the season, time of the day, light conditions, and the subject matter—a meadow of wildflowers in full sun will appear a very different green than a shady pine tree thicket. Artists taking the Roger Dale Brown Plein Air Workshop hosted by the Gadsden Museum of Art, April 6-9, will learn how to mix the best green, one that is specific to the time and the situation, using a primary palette of red, blue, and yellow.  But which reds, blues, and yellows?  Mr. Brown shifts colors in and out of his palette but there are favorites that can always be found in his combination of warm and cool primaries and a few earth tones. 

As every elementary school child knows, mixing yellow and blue makes green. But there are an many greens in every landscape. Light or dark, bright or muted, warm or cool—in this workshop artists will learn to see green, mix green, and paint green in all its infinite variety! Sign up for the workshop and discover the secrets of mixing greens to capture a moment in time.  

About the workshop: Roger Dale Brown’s paintings have won first place and best of show awards, been juried into national exhibitions, published in Artist Magazine and American Art Collector, displayed in galleries throughout the United States, and collected by celebrities and corporations. He is dedicated to painting from life, on location, as the best way to enhance the ability to see the nuances of a scene. His goal is to capture the emotion what he sees and distill that into his paintings. Roger Dale Brown believes in passing along what he has learned through teaching. To learn more, visit Roger Dale Brown's website at www.rogerdalebrown.com

Workshop tuition: $425 (supplies not included).  A 50% deposit is required to reserve a space, $100 of which is not refundable.  Don’t delay, Mr. Brown’s classes fill quickly and space is strictly limited!  

To register for the workshop or request more information about the workshop (April 6-9) or the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational (April  9-13), contact Elaine at the Gadsden Museum of Art (256-546-7365 or ecampbell@cityofgadsden.com).   

Locations for Roger Dale Brown Plein Air Workshop

Three days on location.

Three completely different landscapes.

Three chances to learn from a master painter.

 

"To me there are two ways to see. One is literal which includes the basic fundamentals and the other is something more intuitive that brings the emotion to the painting. It makes the painting unique to your personality." 

                                    ~Roger Dale Brown

Artists taking the Roger Dale Brown Plein Air Workshop hosted by the Gadsden Museum of Art, April 6-9, will experience locations that challenge and inspire. 

DAY ONE: The group will be guests on a working farm with fields, barns and farm buildings against a background of distant mountains.

DAY TWO: Artists will set up in a wildlife park featuring water views, an arched footbridge, native plants, and herons, Canadian geese, and ducks. 

DAY THREE:  Paint next to a 90-foot waterfall on top of Lookout Mountain!  Walking trails, landscaped gardens, and a rocky stream bed offer many options for plein air studies.

 

All locations offer convenient access, parking, and nearby restaurants.

“I look at the whole of a scene that intrigues me. I lock in on something—a focal point. It can be something as simple as the light hitting a tree or colors that complement each other.  Then, I work what’s around the focal point into a design of darks, lights and color.”     

                                           ~Roger Dale Brown

About the workshop: Roger Dale Brown’s paintings have won first place and best of show awards, been juried into national exhibitions, published in Artist Magazine and American Art Collector, displayed in galleries throughout the United States, and collected by celebrities and corporations. He is dedicated to painting from life, on location, as the best way to enhance the ability to see the nuances of a scene. His goal is to capture the emotion what he sees and distill that into his paintings. Roger Dale Brown believes in passing along what he has learned through teaching. To learn more, visit Roger Dale Brown's website at www.rogerdalebrown.com

Workshop tuition: $425 (supplies not included).  A 50% deposit is required to reserve a space, $100 of which is not refundable.  Don’t delay, Mr. Brown’s classes fill quickly and space is strictly limited!  

To register for the workshop or request more information about the workshop or the SPAI, contact Elaine at the Gadsden Museum of Art (256-546-7365 or ecampbell@cityofgadsden.com).