Birgit O'Connor Floral workshop with Lady Slipper Studios a Huge Success

Lady Slipper Studios hosted a 3-day workshop with Birgit O'Connor; what a huge talent this woman is...we did a painting a day... her instruction is so organized and well thought out, she breaks everything down into steps and she gets the message across very effectively. The time went so fast, and before we knew it we were critiquing and packing up...in the snow...yes believe it or not it snowed. 
The workshop was sold out, and from the emails and kudos I'm getting, everyone had a good time, learned a lot, and is coming back next year...Yes it's true...Birgit has agreed to come back again.  We are looking at April, 2013... so stay tuned for actual dates.
Check out Birgit's Facebook page for images of the group, the paintings and the fun we had.

After the storm

Still wet and just off the easel...I have been demonstrating waves recently and when I found this old photo of the Ucluelet area, on the West Coast of the Island;  I wanted to try and capture  the energy of the waves... I  thought I may need to mask out the whites, but chose not to use frisket.  I wanted to try to paint around the the whites... I am pleased with the result, but in the end I did add a bit of gouache...but only a bit...

let me know your thoughts on the piece...any and all comments are appreciated...be ruthless!  I need to know if this piece is worthy of putting in a show?

Birgit O'Connor in Victoria BC in early Spring 2012?

OMGoodness...really?...wouldn't that be just amazing.  I've wanted to take a workshop with this woman for years...ever since my mentor Leslie Redhead introduced me to her work.   I've added a couple of images of her work...take a peek.

Birgit O'Connor is an internationally recognized artist, published in many watercolour and artist magazines, she has a DVD collection of demonstrations of her work.
If you are interested in coming to Victoria to participate in this workshop please email me for details...sam@samboehner.com

Sweet Magnolia

My newest paintings are a snow scene, and 2 florals...

the snow scene shown to the left, was quick and easy and really fun to paint.  It was loose and I used only 3 colours.  Blue, Rose and Pthalo or some combination of the three. Salt was used to create the texture in the foreground.

Rememberence 13 x 19

The next one was the completion of the demonstration piece that the Monterey class is finishing as homework as we speak...or at least they should be...(that's me cracking the whip lol)
This was a fun piece, that I experimented with a few times at home using different techniques.  I ran a few ideas past my mentor Leslie Redhead and she suggested completing the whole painting wet-in wet.  Well, that was a bit scary for the class, so we did the first two layers wet on dry and the last 2 layers wet-in-wet.  We again used a limited pallet, and the results well you tell me...What do you think?

Sweet Magnolia 11 x 15

lastly, is "Sweet Magnolia"  I thoughly enjoyed this process.  I took several images at Butchart gardens last spring, and the magnolia tree that this picture was taken from was huge...I think they call it a Plate Magnolia.  Regardless, it had to be painted. So when the Monterey Class said they wanted to paint a white flower...I immediately thought of these images.  Again a very limited pallet, and ...Voila..."Sweet magnolia"