Workshop with Laurie Wonfor Nolan

To die for, right? This was Laurie's demo.

Today I had my spark renewed. I signed up for a one-day workshop with Laurie Wonfor Nolan, an extraordinary painter (and I don't throw that word around lightly). She brought a joyful feeling out in me and all I want to do is hole up in a studio and paint for days on end!! New stuff! Fresh! The workshop was titled: taking the "still" out of still life. And she does : ) A key thing that jumped out at me was how she handled her initial sketch - treating it more as a quick gesture drawing as you would for life drawing. And she kept that loose flow throughout her whole painting, from beginning to end.

Laurie works in acrylic. I use acrylic for my larger plein air work but have worked in oils for my still life since fall. After doing a still life in acrylic today I really want to jump back to it and experiment with it for a while. I may not have what I need for Monday yet, but I will take a few shopping trips and hopefully be up and running for the end of the week. And perhaps I can work how I'm visualizing in oils as well - I'm going to have to play around and see. I really want to play with colour and pattern and planes. And paint with joy. Do I sound trite? Not my intention. Just excited and feeling like a new door has been unlocked.

p.s. If you have an opportunity to take a workshop from Laurie, DO IT! On top of all the stuff I learned, she serves REALLY good coffee and snacks. Like - the *good* stuff. And she's got one hell of a studio. Thanks Laurie : )