July 11, 2008

Alvaro Castagnet was back at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops teaching the Mastery of Tonal Values. When a student asked if the color red was his “signature”, he replied No, I just like the color red. Red is the color of passion and you must have passion about your art!

There is always a passionate group of painters here during Alvaro’s workshops.

These photos were taken while the group was in one of our nearby Hudson river towns, Athens. Athens is just 20 minutes away from the inn and has a nice little park right on the river’s edge, with a view of the Athens’ lighthouse.

The week passed too quickly! It was over before I realized I hadn’t taken enough photos. So if anyone in the workshop took some nice shots, I’d love to included them on this blog. Just send them my way.

For those who missed this great workshop, Alvaro will be back again in 2010. The dates will be May 2 – 8, 2010. So mark your calendars now.

Today is the final day of the workshop with Susan Sarback, a wonderful instructor from Fairfield, California. She taught a very interesting technique that she called “Four Stages to Radiant Color.”

I’ll be posting pictures from this lively class in a couple of days.

We had another nest of robins on the front porch in the holiday wreath that I was late to take down! Just as I was going to remove it and replace with a different seasonal wreath, I noticed the robin’s nest. There were three babies and they have all left the nest at this point. But I see them hopping around on the lawn outside my office window, with the mom still bringing them tidbits to eat.

I guess I now have no excuse for leaving the wreath still hanging!