“Which gown should I wear today?”, 19″ X 15″ acrylic on paper

It took me til the last hour of the “Contemporary Abstract Figurative Painting” workshop I took this weekend to finally squeeze my paint directly onto the plastic covered table in lovely, inviting, creamy blobs. And then I painted this in the last half hour model session. . . up to my elbows in paint, bone weary, and deeply satisfied. You have to sign up for Bob Burridge’s workshops weeks or months in advance to get in, and you better get a good night’s sleep the night before. We had live models non-stop for two days and no pose longer than 25-30 minutes. Bob went around coaching us to get out of our comfort zone. “You’ve got to have fire in the belly! Fire in the belly!” he’d shout and my fingers would twitch in excitement and dip into the paint and go for it. No erasers, no pencils for these 2 minute gesture poses. Sticks and fingers dipped in ink and only big scruffy brushes to get it down.

walnut ink and Higgins black ink

Of course I’m not showing you the really wild and truly ugly work – piles of it – that I produced. Nothing was criticised. We were only applauded for our wild, free, courageous hearts. Now THAT’s how art should be taught.

When I had a moment to look up I noticed that the folks who had probably studied with Bob before were the ones who had special painting clothes on – top to bottom and paint on every inch of it. And I always thought I was a messy painter. Oh pah! Every inch of me was screaming no! at the sheer messiness of it all.

I stuck with the watered down walnut ink and black ink drawn on with a bamboo stick pen and then dipped my finger in the gesso. The one on the left was a positive/negative play that was fun.

Bob has his own color wheel based on the Munsell color system, a bit different from the three primary color wheel most people know. It’s always fun to play with color and I’m going to do lots more of it when I have more than25 minutes to complete a painting! In this one you can see some fun we had with alcohol for texture.

So thank you Bob Burridge for a fabulous workshop, for your generosity of spirit, numerous painting tips, useful feedback and professional inspiration.

To conclude – here’s one of many “Creative Bobisms”:

“Talent is only ONE ingredient in painting. Love of painting, insatiable curiosity, plus not striving for perfection are a few more ingredients.” by Bob Burridge

If you have time now, go check out Bob’s own abstract figurative paintings.