I had fun painting color and value studies during a recent workshop with Maggie Siner, one of my favorite artists.  None is a finished work but each represents a lesson learned or knowledge deepened — the whole point of workshops.

Red Kettle. oil. 2014.

The first exercise, above, demonstrated that an effective image can be made with a few simple shapes, painted in colors and values that show how the planes change within the composition.  We also practiced how to mix yummy, true colors, testing their accuracy with a palette knife extended toward the target area of the still life set-up.  And then, most fun of all, we got to slather our thick, juicy, correctly mixed paint all over our simple shapes with our palette knives, as if we were icing a cake.  Yum.