Sep 22 2015
Islesford Painting Workshops 2015
For the last three years I’ve attended the Islesford Painting Workshop, led by my friends and amazing painters Henry Isaacs and Ashley Bryan, up in the gorgeous environs of Little Cranberry Island, off the coast of Mt. Desert Island, Maine. It’s a wonderful workshop, with first class food and accommodations and very non-formulaic instruction. This year they asked me to help them teach both 3-day sessions.
It was an honor to be asked, a joy to work with them for a whole week, a sacrifice to spend less time painting, an intimidating challenge to try to contribute something meaningful to what these two great men are doing, and to continuously find useful things to say to painters who range from absolute beginner to highly experienced. I am happy to say that, based on lots of great feedback, I do feel I contributed significantly in a number of ways, and found the experience very rewarding and instructive (in relation to both teaching and painting).
On one of the sketches I wrote “wrap the space around the viewer”, which was my biggest painting takeaway from the week — I think I understand more now about why that’s important and how to accomplish it.
I found a little time to paint each day, and here are the pieces I did, as well as sketches I snuck in when I only had a moment to jot something down. The paint is gouache (opaque watercolor). Some got a little additional work/color added when I got home.
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- First quick painting, trying to capture dappled light on the mountains
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- colorful wet-on-wet treatment of Hadlock Park and some of the painters.
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- Low horizon view from Hadlock
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- sketch from the Maypole (I think) with paint added at home
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- Flowers in the garden.
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- Painters on the beach. Maybe my favorite this year.
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- View from the Dock
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- Another Dock view, with Dan’s boat
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- Pier pilings – drawn *last* year with watercolor pencil, painted at home with acrylic
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- Presentations by Melissa Sweet and Ashley Bryan, introduced by art historian/curator Nick Clark
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- Ashley’s hands
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- The crowd waiting for lobster rolls at Red’s in Wiscassett
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- Sand Beach in Acadia Nat’l Park
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- Views from the mail boat heading to Islesford
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- More views from the boat
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- More views from the boat
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- Kayakers near the Maypole house on Little Cranberry
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- Another presentation by Ashley (one in each painting session)
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- The quintessential Maine painting
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- Painters on the foggy beach, seen from the pier
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- The seagulls’ favorite pier
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- The most awesome tree
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- Driving down to Portland, the clouds were AMAZING
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- Clouds continued to amaze as we drove South.
It’s a pretty amazing workshop, and I highly recommend it. I’m already looking forward to next year!
6 Responses to “Islesford Painting Workshops 2015”
That looks like an awesome workshop!!!
Hi Gareth,
Thanks for sending pix from the workshop, around Little Cranberry and your own work.
It brings great memories of a packed 3 days and the time to do nothing much but paint.
Wonderful to meet you, Henry and Ashley and hope to be there next year if possible.
Best regards,
Mary
Hey there: I really appreciate you sharing your sketches and the wonderful photo of you and Ashley and Henry. This was my third year attending the workshop and I’m planning on renting a house for a couple of weeks next year. There is something about the island and the good vibes of Henry, you and Ashley that make want to paint like mad. I was ill all last winter and had not painted much since January, so it was great to come home with so much work. I really feel energized to keep working on the book I’m going to call “Solomon & Blue: the Great Crab Family Reunion.” What a treat to get some alone time to work out my ideas and sketches of some of the characters.
It was wonderful to see you and Allison again and a pleasure to see how your work is progressing. I’m looking forward to your book on Poe.
Cheers, Susan
Great blog. Sorry to have missed you at Gaithersburg today. Would have liked to have talked, esp about graphic novels.
Your favorite sketch above, painters on the beach, reminded me a bit (esp. the thumbnail) of Feininger, who I love.
Best,
Steve Berer
I’m in California
I was in islesboro for 1 day
Discovered Ashley
Will there be a workshop next year 2018
Need to start plan now so
I DONT WANT TO MISS
Thank you robin sanford
Thanks for your interest, Robin. The workshops ended in 2016, sadly, due to a combination of factors, and at the moment there are no plans to bring it back next year. You might drop Henry Isaacs a note expressing your interest, in case we were to do something in the future.