Only a Few Workshop Spots Open!

The Roger Dale Brown Plein Air Workshop hosted by the Gadsden Museum of Art has only a few openings left! Here is an opportunity for intermediate and advanced artists to raise their paintings to a new level using the experiences and insights of master plein air painter Roger Dale Brown as a springboard.  Events include:


Sunday, April 6 at 2: Mr. Brown’s keynote presentation for the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational—a public lecture on the practice of plein air painting and its relevance to artists and collectors.

Sunday, April 6, 6-8: Orientation for workshop participants

On Location--

Day 1: Hokes Bluff

Monday, April 7, 9 to 5: Painting at a working farm in the Hokes Bluff with the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains as background.



Day 2: James Martin Wildlife Park

Tuesday, April 8, 9 to 5: Painting in the James Martin Wildlife Park in Gadsden offers water views, native plants, herons and other waterfowl.

Day 3: Noccalula Falls

Wednesday, April 9, 9 to 5: Painting at Noccalula Falls, a location that offers wrap-around views of a dramatic 90-foot waterfall, the rocky stream that feeds it and the deep gorge below the falls.  

Bonus: Artists have the option of sending one of their workshop paintings to be exhibited in the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational in the galleries of the Gadsden Museum of Art from April 13 (opening reception 2-4) through May 2.

More 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).   

New @ Plein Air! Workshop, Nocturnes, Classic Cars, Contest

Jill Berry painting in 2012 SPAI

The Southeastern Plein Air Invitational (SPAI) lights up early April with new events and locations. The week begins with a Roger Dale Brown Workshop (details below) with three days of on-location painting, demos, and individualized instruction (April 6-9). Then, over a dozen experienced plein air painters will converge to paint locations in Gadsden/Etowah County (April 9-13). The opening reception on Sunday, April 13, 2-4, will launch the exhibition of their work in the galleries of the Gadsden Museum of Art through May 2.

New this year--

Downtown: Dusk to Dark  The latest trend in plein air painting is the nocturne—atmospheric works of the night often featuring the artificial lights of storefronts, neon, and street lights.  Gadsden’s Broad Street offers the ideal location with a vintage movie theater, period storefronts, and a bustling retail, restaurant, and bar scene.  

Classic Cars on the Coosa  Gleaming chrome, racy styling, and brilliant color combinations make classic cars an appealing and nostalgic subject for plein air painters. Gadsden’s car club members bring their best to the necklace of city parks along the Coosa River for a day that combines natural and automotive beauty.

Dueling Brushes  Prizes, a two-hour time limit, and a picturesque setting make for an exciting contest. In Gadsden’s Historic District, a Victorian house with landscaped garden, a white picket fence, gracious columned porch, and water feature offers the artists many options but they must be quick! Only two hours from start to finish with first, second, third prizes to be awarded and potential sales to me made while the paint is still wet!

The Southeastern Plein Air Invitational for 2014 offers artists, photographers, spectators, and collectors a diverse experience of on-location painting from workshop to exhibition!

About the workshop: Orientation on Sunday, April 6. Painting on location at a working farm, a wildlife park, and a waterfall, April 7-9.  Participants have the option of sending one of their workshop paintings to be exhibited in the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational in the galleries of the Gadsden Museum of Art.

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).

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).   

2014 Southeastern Plein Air Invitational: New Format

Instead of a weeklong painting event for 15 advanced plein air artists, the 2014 week has two parts:

·        A Roger Dale Brown workshop for intermediate and advanced painters--Sunday, April 6 for orientation, and Monday-Wednesday, April 7-9, for painting on location.

·        An invitational for 15 artists painting on locations around Gadsden, Alabama—Wednesday, April 9, 6-8 p.m. for orientation; painting sessions Thursday-Sunday, April 10-13.

Students have the option of exhibiting one painting created during the workshop at the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational (SPAI) show and sale.  The SPAI artists will be creating two or more paintings each day and will have the option of participating in Dueling Brushes, a 2-hour paint-out. 

The public is invited to view the show beginning with the opening reception, Sunday, April 13, 2-4 p.m.  Awards will be presented for “Best in Show” and “The People’s Choice” along with awards for winners in the Dueling Brushes competition.  The SPAI show and sale will be on exhibit at the Gadsden Museum of Art, April 13-May 2.  

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).   

Roger Dale Brown Plein Air Workshop, Gadsden, Alabama

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. But best of all, he is one of the few successful artists who is also a talented teacher.  As he says,

“I try to explain things from a student’s perspective…put myself in their shoes. That makes it easier to explain situations at each stage. I figure out the best way to teach each student...the best way to impart a sense of accomplishment.”

Roger Dale Brown will present a plein air workshop hosted by the Gadsden Museum of Art beginning with orientation on Sunday, April 6 (6- 8 p.m.) and followed by three days of on-location demonstrations and painting (April 7-9, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.). Each participant will have the option to display one paintings created during the workshop at the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational which commences immediately following the workshop (more information about the SPAI in future blogs).

What can students expect in the workshop? Roger Dale Brown explains,

“I have good success by coupling verbal and visual teaching and then giving students the chance to implement it themselves. Different types of light, drawing simple shapes, understanding the values of those shapes, and atmospheric perspective can be shown in a class with significant success…success which in turn creates a passion and passion goes a long way in the learning process.”

Roger Dale Brown has studied with nationally recognized artists Evert Raymond Kinstler, Quang Ho, C.W. Mundy, and landscape artist Scott Christensen. He has studied the writings and works of Edgar Payne, John Carlson, and Andrew Wyeth and claims them as an influence on his own work. 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.

“By studying the facets of a location, I get the knowledge and inspiration to create my paintings.”

Roger Dale Brown believes in passing along what he has learned through teaching. His workshop is designed for the intermediate to advanced painter.

“When I lecture or give a demonstration, I don’t hold back information. All students may not understand all the theory or logic presented but the will grasp what they need at the time. Understanding individual needs, I can work within the capabilities of each person.”

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, contact Elaine at the Gadsden Museum of Art (256-546-7365 or ecampbell@cityofgadsden.com).