Maine watercolor workshop with Frank Eber

I spent a week in Rockland Maine for a watercolor workshop with Frank Eber, http://www.frankeber.com.

Coastal Maine Art Workshops hosted and provided an indoor studio space for the 17 artists who participated.
Several days were dry enough to paint outdoors in Rockland, Owl’s Head and South Thomaston.

Frank started each day with a lesson in principles of design followed by a demo. We then worked from photos or outdoors. It was an excellent, well organized workshop and Frank was continuously teaching and working one on one with students.

I came away with some fresh perspectives on composition, choosing a painting location; and  with some new palette colors- greenish raw umber (DS), cobalt turquoise, Indian yellow, and Verona ochre.

Frank does a careful, but not overly detailed pencil sketch to start. He is able to keep a strong design the focus throughout the painting which is often done in three stages, drying between. He expertly edited elements from the scene that did not serve the design. He begins by mixing the primary colors into a warm or cool gray. That mix is added to other colors to create unity. It also serves to tone down the many greens in the landscape. My week in Rockland was enhanced by staying at the beautiful Talbot House and gluten-free meals from Cafe Miranda.

Coastal Maine Art staff was very organized, taking lunch orders in the morning, providing water. snacks and coffee in the studio and helping with anything we needed.

Here are some of the paintings I did over the course of the week.