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My first workshop for 2011 is scheduled in June at Le Petit Rousset, near Bordeaux, France. I’ll be looking forward to sharing with students my process of integrating the figure into landscape settings. In this workshop, I will be emphasizing what, for me, is most important about painting: Seeing more deeply, becoming more aware and present to our visual experience. The practice of seeing with intention is not only fundamental to better paintings, it is the primary reason to paint: Painting from life facilitates entering into a state of awareness where we see the world anew. In the painting-from-life sessions during this week, I’ll be giving instruction on opening to a more concentrated attention to what it is we are seeing that can bring us to a more enhanced view of the world. I’ll also be presenting how to translate this deeper looking into basic elements that can be expressed on the canvas. A tendency in figure painting is to become drawn into and often overwhelmed by the subject, completely neglecting the setting. Moving further into an attentive view of the figure and setting, offers the possibility of painting in a new way: Boundaries are shifted, foreground, background, and objects edges become just shapes of value and color. Focusing on the scene in this manner, offers new possibilities to a more painterly and integrated composition. The figure and setting are one whole, expressed as such. Playing with vision and paint like this is challenging, expansive and a lot of fun! I’ve found that unfamiliar surroundings can help facilitate seeing in a new way. And what better place to investigate these ideas than in southern France? Here is how Beverly Held, director of Le Petit Rousset, describes the setting: We invite you to be creative while you enjoy the delights of the Perigord with Petit Rousset as your home. Paint and relax on the terraces, in the garden, by the swimming pool and in the Studio while absorbing Seamus Berkeley’s instruction. Our setting at Petit Rousset is the bucolic French countryside, which offers a range of possible settings, from ancient stone arches to fields of wild poppies and from majestic walnut trees to freshly rolled fields of hay. Your stay at Petit Rousset includes: Spacious guest-rooms with private baths, buffet breakfasts, dinners (with regional wines), excursions. The workshop includes: demonstrations, instruction, life painting, group and individual critiques. I’m certain that this will be a most memorable workshop and one that will leave you with new insights and means of expression for your paintings. Details for the workshop and an application form are available here. For photos of Le Petit Rousset, please visit: www.rousset-perigord.org For more information on Le Petit Rousset, please visit www.rousset-perigord.org 
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