Sunday, April 22, 2007

Sterling Edwards Watercolor Workshop


Last week I traveled to Fort Worth, Texas to attend a 3-day watercolor workshop given by Sterling Edwards under the auspices of the Society of Watercolor Artists (SWA). It was an excellent workshop with about 20 mostly local artists. Sterling is one of the best teachers I have experienced.

In addition to a birch forest scene demo at the SWA meeting the evening before, Sterling did many demonstrations at the workshop: a barn scene, a monochromatic value study, tree demos, flowers, a waterfall, examples of three different dramatic skies, a European street scene, several demos of negative painting, and an abstract. He was willing to demonstrate anything people asked about. Sterling teaches a “4-step process” that describes the sequence that he works in. He also demonstrated a unique method of using bristle brushes for watercolor paintings, and an interesting physical palette design that I’ll be trying out. He provided individual help, a critique on the final day, and lots of philosophy and jokes along the way. I painted two half-sheets and two quarter-sheets during the “free time”. I’m holding one of these with Sterling in the accompanying image.

Sterling also paints in acrylics and oils, and is a founding member and teacher of Art Academy Live. He would be an excellent teacher for one of our arts organizations to host in central Arkansas.

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