A workshop with Donna Zagotta….ZaGoddess of painting!

I had an incredible time in Donna Zagotta’s workshop last month! Kudos to the Northwest Watercolor Society for bringing her to Seattle as juror for their 74^th Annual International Open Exhibition, and as a workshop instructor. I’d admired Donna’s work before, but what convinced me to sign up for the workshop was it’s title – “Adding the You Factor to Paintings” – which perfectly summarizes how I hope to approach my work. I want to do more than paint a rendition, even a lovely rendition, of something – I want the subjects of my paintings, and the WAY I paint, to say something. As it turns out, that’s kind of scary. It means changing certain habits, risking “failure”, stepping outside my comfort zone. Though I know that’s the only way to grow, it’s hard to purposefully take on something that makes you insecure.  Nonetheless, I jumped in, and learned so much during the week!

Explaining color

Donna’s at work with her travel palette

We began  by focusing on painting composition, working to find the shapes in our reference materials rather than the “things”.  After creating compositions of shapes, we turned our attention to value by doing a series of value sketches. These were drawn in in black, representing middle and dark values, and white, for light values. I found this a mesmerizing exercise, partly because of the realization that I could go beyond what I saw in a photo or scene, and actually create something. And, one photo or reference can produce many paintings, each with a different value pattern – a revelation! Here is the value study for the piece I ended up completing:

Value sketch , Amelia Island Sunset

After working with shape and value (the “bones” of the painting), we moved on to the elements of color, line and texture, what Donna calls “the decoration”. Here are the results of my efforts, painted on hot press watercolor board using watercolor mixed with white gouache:

Amelia Island Sunset

Using new materials (gouache and hot press watercolor board) was exciting, and though it took some getting used to, I felt like the gouache gave “heft” to the painting, and because it is opaque, it can be applied more in the manner of oil paint.

I was definitely inspired. Here are value sketches and a painting I did at home the week following the workshop:

Girl on the Brink, value sketches

Girl on the Brink

I’m sure I’ll ponder all I learned in Donna’s workshop for quite a while, as I keep working to find “me” in my paintings!