Summary of the Scott Powers Workshop given at the Zoll Studio in Lutherville, Maryland from June 20-23, 2008.

These are the paintings that Scott completed during the workshop, in front of the group.

They were all sold immediately. In fact, as the workshop went on, people pre-purchased his work.

Day 1:

The workshop began Friday at 9:30am with a portrait demo. Scott arranged the background with tapestries, and painted with commentary.

Matt Zoll, owner and founder of the Zoll studio, accomplished artist, and punk-rocker, projected the painting onto a large screen for the audience of 54 people.

Scott’s emphasis was on the importance of the background for the piece, as well as the importance of creating a “mood”. He creates mood by massing in fast with color, later fine-tuning with careful drawing. He revealed that he cannot stand inaccurate drawing when he wiped out a beautifully painted nose to move it up half and inch. He deliberately left mystery in the beard. He also explained that part of establishing the painting is immediately placing a lightest light, darkest dark, and brightest color, all relative to the background values.

After a lunch break, Scott continued with the portrait, adding details. The portrait had already been purchased by a local gallery owner and portrait artist.

Then, it was our turn. We were instructed to use black and white and create a value study and composition of the model on our 8x10 surface. Initially, my mass of the man was too small, relative to the negative space around him, so Scott told me to wipe it out and try again. He then pointed out that I’d made the man’s face too dark, that certain things could be altered to be more helpful to the composition, and so on. The time went quickly. Scott went around the room, helping everyone. At 4:30pm, we stopped.

Then, it was time for the evening session! We drove out to a farm and followed Scott to a spot near a barn.

Scott painted for an hour and a half, with the setting sun directly in his eyes, inventing a figure. We were very impressed.

Day 2:

The day began at 9:30am. The model was a very large man. Scott created a scene with tapestries, a wooden box, a metal can, and sundry objects.

This day he gave a drawing demonstration with charcoal on 18x24 white paper.

He established the angle of the head, found the halfway point, then the quarterway point, then a plumb line, etc…

Then, we used color to create a composition of the scene.

At 4:30pm, we stopped, and then went to Fells Point to paint. Scott painted this scene:

Day 3:

Scott set up this scene:

He lit the model dramatically from below, and lashed together a number of maulsticks with rope to create a “staff” with a piece of orange cloth attached to the end.

He painted a demo, focusing on the warmth of the light, the background, the drawing, etc…

After lunch, we began our paintings of the model. This was to be our last exercise.

We painted on portrait-grade linen, 16x20”. We were instructed to measure very carefully, and focus on the entire scene. Then, we were to spend the remaining time painting one area, the center of interest.

The day ended, and a model arrived at 6pm for Scott to paint.

He draped a tapestry over her shoulders,

arranged her hair, and put a pale cloth over her legs. Then he had her tilt her head. It was almost a magical transformation into a Russian Princess. We were frankly in awe.

One of the organizers brought out a bottle of wine, and we all partook, including Scott. Despite two cups of wine, or perhaps aided by it, his portrait was spectacular.

Day 4:

The last day.

We worked all day on our portraits.

During lunch, Scott showed us slides of his work and explained some of his thinking about composition and concept.

At 4:30pm, we went to Carol Thompson’s house to eat crabs, celebrate, and receive an unexpected critique from Scott Powers of our final piece.

We lined our paintings up outside Carol’s house, under the fir trees and it began to rain. The rain did not touch the paintings because of the thick canopy of needles above. The sun shone to one side, through streaks of rain, and Scott stood with Dr. McGibbon’s cane to add some age to himself, and gently critiqued our work. Later the workshop ended, and we all went home.

General reaction to the workshop:

People were really impressed with the workshop and Scott Powers. Each day was exhausting, and very inspiring. His creativity was refreshing, and his extreme level of skill obvious. He is already invited back for 2009. We hope that he will come.

Tips he gave:

Measure, copy the Charles Bargue book every day ($115 from the Dahesh Museum), learn to think abstractly by drawing shapes in relation to one another, paint from life, and cultivate imagination, use Langnickel brushes, and Utrecht Kolinsky sables, do value studies, visualize the painting, work haaaard!