Over a bridge out on the barrier islands but not very far from me, is the Longboat Key Center for the Arts - a division of the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota. When I discovered that exhibitions and classes were held there, I jumped at the chance to view and participate. I attended an exhibit of paintings and collage in October that I enjoyed very much and yesterday I went to my first class with Bill Buchman. I was very attracted by the title of his workshop ...Creative Breakout: Release the Power of Your Creative Imagination and the description: This course is a journey of self discovery through art – a complete hands-on exploration of what creativity is and how it works.

Sounds good, does it not? Below are sections of one of the exercises I did yesterday in class using a new tool for me, Cretacolor AquaBriques. These are artist quality water soluble bricks of color that you can purchase in a set, or I found the single blocks at Jerry's Artarama. Like watercolor crayons, but better! Bill said this quality of artist grade tools would serve me, or any artist well. Bill wanted us to make a simple composition with rectangles and circles, thinking about color: opposites, similar colors and warm/cool colors.

The whole piece when it was dry this morning - click twice for detail.

After a brief lecture, Bill had us start working in class doing a warm up exercise with paint. He mixed tube watercolor with water in a small plastic shot glass and showed us how to get the right consistency for what we were doing. He lay down a drop cloth on the new studio floor so we would not get paint on the new floor and then he demonstrated pouring & splashing on a piece of watercolor paper followed by making a gesture in the air with your paint brush filled with paint. We are going to add to these paintings each week with a new exercise each time over the next 3 weeks. The idea is that besides the techniques we'll learn, there will be time to think and rediscover our pieces when we work on them again, looking at them with fresh eyes. Here is Bill in action:

He's picking up excess paint with a brush for faster drying

 Another student Elmer, is trying out the exercise

 his result 

 One of my favorites is below - by Barbara, I believe.

 Bill's example for us for our second exercise using shapes and color . . .

students working during class -so much fun to see the variations.

Bill's second piece he worked on while we worked on our shapes and colors - I love it!

I am very happy I registered for this workshop! Visit Bill's website where there is lots to see in the Galleries, plus instructional Art DVDs and even a book!