Charles Reid workshop—Manchester Vermont

Yesterday I drove to Vermont in the pouring rain for a 5 day watercolor workshop with Charles Reid. It is not easy to get to Vermont from Maine because there are no roads that go east/west. So 4 1/2 hours after leaving Portland I was in beautiful bucolic Manchester, Vermont. Bing Crosby was right when  he said in the movie "White Christmas" "Vermont is so Vermonty".

Day 1—Charles spent the morning demonstrating his amazing drawing techniques by sketching the model's head in profile, 3/4 view and front view so we can understand proportion. He then went over his palette, brushes and color blending technique. He was trained as an oil painter so his watercolor style is based on oil painting techniques. 

Charles finished the morning by painting the model (above). 

I painted the same model in the afternoon and managed to paint two other versions by the time we wrapped up for the day.  

Before class started we were all milling around and woman came up to me and asked if I was Jennifer and I fessed up that yes I was. She introduced herself as Annelien Beukenkamp. I was so taken back and then completely thrilled to meet another blogger, fellow New Englander and great watercolorist whose blog I like to visit—she does great flowers and roosters! She had read that I was  taking this workshop from a comment I left on Drawing Tel Aviv. How cool is that!

This is Annelien's painting of the model from today.

I'm tired from my first workshop day and jet-lag that is still an issue. I am still waking up at 2 am and tending to have trouble getting back to sleep. Good thing there is Red Bull!