Art Camp in Mikulov

25 – 30 JUL 2020

Thanks to COVID19 my vacation options were very limited this year and when my friend forwarded me an invitation for a 6-day art camp I didn’t need much persuasion. I packed my paint box, few clothes and something to eat, my little uke and took a drive to Mikulov – Gorgeous little historical town in a picturesque Moravian wine region in Czech Republic.

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Our tutor Katerina Rutherford from the School of Seeing was all about Cézanne and Kutra… and we were taught “to see”. See the colors and shapes as famous painters. How to create impression of space using color rather than perspective. And how to mix and combine the colors properly, which was very resourceful for me.

I have learned that I can mix basic cold gray using Cobalt and Raw Sienna and warm gray using Ultramarine Blue and Ocher. And then I can add them to other colors to darken them depending on what feel I need to achieve. Or just dilute them with white to lighten the gray.

I have also learned the very basic painting depth… to use the warm Ocher in the foreground, Raw Sienna in the middle of the scene, cold Naples Yellow Light in the background and then Cobalt at the bottom of the sky and Ultramarines to the top of the sky. To reach the depth and natural temperature in the picture.

First day I jumped straight into painting… well after spending couple of hours setting up my palette and tools and looking for the right place and subject. Painting fast and acting on a whim, guessing what color to mix with what and where to put it. Trying to capture the light and shadow, which outside as I found out were changing incredibly fast. I made two paintings in our first 8-hour session… and even had time to practice my uke with a friend for a while and perform for half of the courtyard gallery 🙂

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Sunday was a day out in a gorgeous vineyard… now can somebody tell me how do you paint all those leaves and grass without painting each and every single one of them??? Ok, I didn’t figure out that yet, but still it was an amazing day, including wine tasting, drink tasting and food tasting… one mobile coffee cart was offering still quite rare coffe mixed drinks like Espresso Tonic and others. Though I still got my usual Latte. Our day was cut short with an incredibly strong and sudden windstorm that tore through the wineries and brought the end of the world sky.

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Monday I had to take a quick round trip to Ceske Budejovice, which was a bit hectic but that is also a beautiful town, I recommend visiting.

Tuesday started with the morning demo on painting knife speed painting and building up the color… where you start with a pink tablecloth and finish with the right tone of blue one…it was a day in the studio again, an amazing old building decorated with old frescoes with a courtyard gallery right on the main square next to the castle… and my today’s subject was the building itself. It was fun to capture the romantic feel of the place, but yet again the light changed completely during the day so capturing the shadow I wanted was very tricky.

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Wednesday looking for a subject I took a morning stroll through the little town and the castle gardens… and I fell in love with it! I brought my supplies and tools, little portable easel (Italian Tiziano Rondo seems to be a good choice – small yet stable) and light and durable folding fishing stool Quechua and set up in the shade of a tree… since the temperature was up in the 80’s. And I started this time more thoughtfully… focusing on the relations of colors, the right temperatures of the tones and focusing on the shadows… I was already planning on coming here the next morning so I could tune up just the light and shadows that I wanted. That was stretching my patience 🙂 working on a painting for more than a day! Oh no.

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I really went back the next day and finished the details on my castle wall painting. It didn’t take long so after the lunch I was thinking what to do before our evening gallery show… walking through the studio I found an old warped mirror in the back room… low light…privacy…perfect conditions for an autoportrait. I brought my stuf and in 2 hours I was “done” not entirely happy but it was a good speedpaint exercise. The mirror was a challenge and relief at the same time… the ever changing reflection was an excuse for any imperfections and mistakes 😉 And what is interesting the painting itself seems to be changing depending on what angle you are looking at it too.

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I didn’t have such a great and absolutely relaxing time in ages. Those 6 days seemed to last forever and I hope I can repeat that sometime again…. soon