Charrette

"Apple Pair"

© Nancy Laliberte

6" x 8" oil on canvas panel

$95

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to partake in a painting charrette with my good friend and fellow artist Val Berkely. A charrette is often referred to an intense period of work by one person or a group of people prior to a deadline. Val has a cabin on the south shore of Lake Superior near Ironwood, MI. In her cabin is a 12 foot long table which makes a great space for a temporary studio. While we didn't have any specific deadlines, we did have a focus and an intense period of work. Our focus was to experiment with water-soluable oil paints, specifically the Cobra brand and its mediums. It took a little getting use to, but we liked the paints; I loved being able to blend and work alla prima. We did not care for the mediums made by Cobra---too smelly and gave me a headache and Val itchy eyes. The apple painting was a piece I did with the Cobra paints, minimal water and no mediums.

While we waited for the in-floor heating to get up to temp, I successfully started a fire in the stove--on the first try. Might have to audition for Survivor or something.

A whole new spin to "painting warm-ups."