Alvaro Castagnet Workshop

From Sunday Nov 9 through Thursday Nov 13 I attended a watercolor workshop in Columbus, Ohio by Alvaro Castagnet.  He is a fantastic artist, and quite a character.  Alvaro believes the primary goal of an artist is to interpret the world around him.  He paints with subdued, or grayed, hues, with some bright color as accents.  He uses squirrel mops almost exclusively.  He enjoys painting plein air, but the Columbus weather did not cooperate, so we painted inside all five days.  He basically did paint-alongs, where he repainted a painting he had done previously, and we followed along in two or three steps.  I don't normally like paint-alongs, but because of his unique style and approach, it was a very valuable exercise.  Using the mop brushes, and concentrating on soft and dry brush strokes and deep darks, I finally painted loose paintings, and paintings of city scenes - both of which I have been working to accomplish.  I was exhausted by the end of the week.  It will be exciting to work to incorporate Alvaro's approaches into my own paintings during the coming months.  I've included images of alvaro and of two of the eight paintings I completed during the workshop.