It's Plein Air Season!!

And to celebrate, I have put my "Watercolour on Location" DVD on SALE for 50% off. Back by popular demand! From altering the scene to tell YOUR story, choosing a palette, materials, techniques, all the way to the finished painting, this professionally filmed video has it all.There are only 20 copies left, so get one while they are available. After they are gone, there will NOT be any more. To purchase one, simply go HERE  and follow the prompts.

You might notice that this email looks a bit different than in the past. Blogger has discontinued using Feedburner for their subscription service, so I have moved to Follow.It. Hope this service works even better than before. If you have any trouble, please let me know!!

Blessings

Sharon

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NEW PLEIN AIR WATERCOLOUR DVD RELEASED!!!

"Marsh Light", 12 x 16" plein air watercolour
SOLD

I am thrilled to announce the release of my new instructional DVD, "Watercolour On Location", produced by Whitepine Productions here in Calgary. It is for sale for the great price of $35 plus shipping and handling. You can see a preview of the DVD here.

I have sold several so far and comments coming back to me include:
"Sharon, actually watched it through twice - I think it's great! - 'plein air' painting has always been a mystery to me. Now I see how you can take a seemingly uninteresting scene and really paint your own interpretation of it. (I guess that's where the term 'artistic licence' comes in.) Really though, I can't imagine painting all those colors for those reeds wet-on-wet without making the dreaded 'mud'. I suppose they could be painted in layers, but much more laborious and not as exciting...! The negative painting was great to watch as well. I do recommend your DVD as it demonstrates how the experience of painting 'at the scene' can be very exciting and uplifting... And especially for anyone needing direction on 'plein air' composition. Also, to use your quote, "just having fun with all those colors" -Outside!"

"Great DVD, makes me want to do a watercolor."

With Christmas coming (sooner than most of us are prepared for!), why not make it easy for those looking to buy you a special gift and forward this post to them :) Or if you are one who likes to buy your own gifts, please email me and I will send you a copy which will arrive before the 25th!

You can pay via PayPal right on my blog -look at the upper right corner of the blog and you will see a Paypal box. Simply enter the Item as "Watercolour On Location", amount is $35 plus $3 for shipping and handling in Canada, $8 for US. In the delivery notes box write your address and phone number and hit Buy Now. This will take you to the Paypal site where you can pay with your Paypal account or with your credit card. PayPal will send me the notice of your purchase and I will get out your dvd right away. Easy-peasy!

Enjoy


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"Marsh Light", plein air watercolour painting in new DVD by Sharon Lynn Williams

 

 "Marsh Light" plein air watercolour, 12 x 16"

SOLD

This is the second demonstration for my new plein air DVD. You saw the scene done in oil in my last post, and from that experience, I decided on the value pattern for this watercolour. Unfortunately, much more pre-planning has to go into a watercolour if one doesn't want it to turn to mud. It was fun doing it in oil first, making all the changes that I wanted to on the fly. Then I made a value study from the oil painting to use the next day.

 

This is the scene as it appeared in the early morning. I definitely had to use a different colour palette than I used the previous day in the oil painting (the oil had a cool dominance, the watercolour has a warm dominance). The lighting was also much less dramatic in the morning as it was front lit. To get some excitement into the painting, what I could no longer do with value, I had fun doing with colour.

This was the camera set-up for the watercolour demo. I used my old full french easel lying flat with the drawer extended as a shelf for my palette. I also put a plexiglass book-holder under the watercolour block so that I had a bit of an angle to work with. There were 3 cameras used throughout the demo so that the viewer could see what was happening in the palette as well as on the paper. The stool was so that Susan could see looking down on my work (she is a shorty like me!)

 Rex and Susan enjoying a final toast at the end of the second day of location filming. We still had to do another session in the studio to introduce the topic with discussion of my materials and plein air philosophy to go at the beginning of the DVD. Then another concluding session to discuss the changes made to the paintings after I had a chance to live with them for a while. I think it will be an excellent instructional video and I can't wait to see the first edits.

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.

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"Marsh Light" -new plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Marsh Light #1", plein air oil painting, 9x12"
$595 beautifully framed, free shipping and handling

I did this plein air oil painting at the end of my first day of filming my new DVD as this is the scene that I wanted to paint the next day in filming the watercolour portion of the video. It is just down from the location in my last post, on a quiet gravel road in the foothills. With all the rain we had in June, lots of lovely marshes have sprung up, and I love to paint them. The various birds and ducks that inhabit them, as well as the frogs, make for a wonderful musical score to paint to.

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.

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New Plein Air DVD filming -Day 1 Oil Demo

"What Could Be", plein air oil, 9 x 12"

SOLD

This is the first demonstration in my NEW PLEIN AIR DVD!! I have finally been persuaded to film another video, this time on the plein air experience and how I handle it. It has a full demo in oil and one in watercolour, (which I will share with you tomorrow). This was a very interesting experience as I ended up changing the colouration and the composition in the actual scene to be more dramatic and inviting, hence the title. Below you can see the photo that I took when I began painting. The DVD talks about the changes I made and why, while I am making them, and gives you a front seat to some pretty major artistic decisions. A very big 'permission slip' for those of you tentative about venturing out to do some plein air painting of your own!

original scene

 This is the WhitePine Productions film crew (friends Rex and Susan Beanland) getting all set up to film my day of oil painting. WhitePine are the videographers who filmed my "Watercolour Workshop" DVD, and I must say, they do an AWESOME job! There were 3 cameras filming my demo, so the audience won't miss anything. I hope that the DVD will be ready in November in time for Christmas gift giving. I will post a preview of the video as soon as it is ready.

Enjoy!

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FREE GIVEAWAY and new plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Rushes and Reflections", 12 x 12", plein air oil on gallery canvas
$625 beautifully framed in a deep shadowbox frame, free shipping and handling

This is a new place close to my home that I just discovered, and I am in love with it! I know it will be the scene for many paintings to follow as there is just so much to play with. As a matter of fact, I am going to film a new plein air DVD on the long weekend, and I have chosen this location to paint. More to follow on that big news, so stay tuned!

I am off to Benalto (near Red Deer) to take my second workshop from Carol Marine. I will not have access to the internet where I am staying (camping actually) so I will have lots to share with you when I return. I may just repeat my "Workshop Lessons Learned" from the end of August into September 2009. If you are new to my blog, you might want to check them out. You can get there easily by selecting "Carol Marine" from the categories list on the side of my blog.

This is the LAST WEEK - If you 'share' my blog on your Facebook page (or 'like' it -always confusing what FB is doing with these things!), send me an email to let me know and I will include your name in a draw for a FREE PAINTING!!! Make sure you hit the 'share' button AT THE END of a post in order for the post to be shared properly. I will be making the draw when I get back on July 2nd, so don't delay!!

Have a great week of painting and I will talk to you next week.
Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, or commission your own painting, please email me.

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One students interpretation of my DVD painting

This lovely painting was done by one of myadvanced students, Janice Kestle, after watching my instructional watercolour DVD. She cleverly reversed the composition and gave it her own colour twist. I really like what she has done with the painting to make it her own. You can see a preview of my DVD by clicking on the link at the right and you can order it by emailing me.
Enjoy!