Lake Tahoe Workshop Recap

Friday's Demo, 9 x 12 inches, oil on linen

Just got back from my three-day plein air workshop at South Lake Tahoe, where twelve students and I painted the beautiful lake, despite the challenging weather. Yes, Mother Nature was cranky the first two days (she's been cranky all week. Remember the lightning storm we had a few days ago? All night long? Never seen anything like it here in Northern California) but we persevered and had a very productive weekend anyway.

I drove up the mountain after doing some last minute shopping for supplies, and arrived in South Lake Tahoe around 11 a.m. I drove around a few of the spots that I had picked out two weeks ago to see which spot would be best for my afternoon demo, under current climate conditions, which I might best describe as "occasioanl drizzle with icy, whipping winds". Needless to say, it didn't look good. I thought may be I would have to do a demo indoors (even though it was a plein air workshop).


I arrived at our "headquarters" –a big house that Barbara, my partner in crime, had rented for us– at around noon. I was the last to arrive, and after saying our hellos and having a cup of hot coffee, our workshop officially began.

My hand-outs for this workshop included a new 20 page full color demo booklet which I mentioned in an earlier post, my "All the stuff about plein air painting I wish I had learned in school but I didn't because I didn't pay attention to what Dan McCaw was teaching us" text, an 18 page document full of hard-earned information and wisdom. I wrote this paper as an accompaniment to my first landscape demo which I did a few years back. Since then, every time I conducted a workshop, I added more information and tips. Now it's twice as hefty as its original version, and someday I hope I can publish it as a book.

I also included a map indicating some great painting spots in the area, complete with photos and short descriptions – what kind of views, whether there were easy parking, rest rooms, etc.

Anyway, it looked as though the rain had stopped for the time being, but there was slim chance that it would stay that way . Fortunately, the house was in a really pretty meadow area right next to the beach, so I was able to quickly find a location just yards from the house. I would like to have done a beach scene, but it was just too cold and windy. This view (the painting above) was cold too, but at least it wasn't windy.

I did my demo as best I could, and everyone was a trooper and stuck around even though we froze our asses off. My fingers were numb after about an hour, and we finally had to stop half an hour after that. The sun light on the red doors in the painting is something I invented at the end of the demo. I think I might just title this painting Wishful Thinking.

After the demo, we tried to get warmed up in the house, and a few of us braved the cold and went outside to paint. The rest had had enough, and decided to stay warm, and study the hand-outs and rest up for the next day's adventure.

Rain started up again, and that was the end of our painting day. Later, we headed out to a little Mexican restaurant where we took over the back room and had ourselves a little party. Mmmm margaritas...

Day 2. We headed out to the west side, to D.L. Bliss State Park. Lester Beach at the park is one of my favorite locations around Lake Tahoe, what with beautiful boulders jutting out to the water, easy parking, and access to the facilities. It's also sheltered from the winds and the sun (not that it mattered this day) It was drizzly from the get-go, and we found shelter for our easels under big trees on the beach, and painted the boulders.

The light was challenging –no direct sunlight to define the forms for us– we had to use local values to compose, and that isn't always easy when the rocks have variegated surfaces. But everyone took on the challenge with enthusiasm, and came away with good studies.

I... didn't paint the rocks.



...because they were too hard. No, just kidding. I decided I would sketch the cars in the lot. Something different just for kicks. I was mostly going from easel to easel helping the students and offering instruction, so I just painted a few strokes on my own panel in between rounds. I knew it wasn't going to be a finished anything, so I just wanted a little study of black and white cars in diffused light.

D.L. Bliss is an awesome spot. But one thing lacking is a place to get lunch. Not a problem if I were just painting on my own, but something of an obstacle for a workshop. So we packed a cooler full of picnic lunch, and had a spread on a picnic table, sheltered (sort of) from the rain under a big tree. It worked out ok (whew..) but the cold finally got to us. We decided to return to the house, and work indoors for the afternoon.

As a last resort, I brought a stack of reference photos from home, and had the students pick ones they liked and paint from them, if they wanted. Others worked on the paintings they started that morning. The light in the house was not great for painting, but at least it was warm and cozy. I felt a little bad that we couldn't paint outside, but I tried my best to make this inside session worthwhile.

Later, we ordered in pizza and opened a bunch of wine, and had an informal critique session, which went on well into the night. Very productive.

Hoping for a little sun the next day, we turned in.





And get some sun, we did! It was absolutely glorious. 61 F degrees, a slight breeze and spectacular cloudscapes. It was perfect for painting outside! We headed out to Zephyr, and set ourselves up on the beach, and painted the cove, boats, the sky... I was very relieved that we didn't have to paint in the cold and the rain all three days.




I set up and did a quickie of the big clouds.



After lunch it warmed up a bit, and beachgoers started to arrive. I thought, hey! free models! and did another quick sketch in between my rounds. Everyone was a lot more relaxed today, and I saw some big improvements from the day before. That's always a good feeling for me.

Back at the house, we had a quick crit, and that concluded our workshop. The weather was the only regretable thing, but if anything differentiated plein air painting from any other form of painting (or visual arts in general), it is the fact that you have to contend with the elements. We may have harsh sun, winds, rain, mosquitos, spectators, ticks, dogs, snow.... You just never know. I hope that the bad weather doesn't discourage first-timers from keep painting outdoors!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Tahoe workshop, and a special thanks to Barbara for doing a fantastic job organizing this event, making it really easy for me to just do the parts I'm good at. Couldn't have done it without you!

Back at home, I'm decompressing, trying to switch mental gears so that I can tackle and finish my big Olive Grove painting.