Joseph Zbukvic, day 2

Today we took a bus to Besalú, half an hour’s drive from Girona. We were actually going to the beach for a seascape, but there would be thunder and rain today according to the weather forecast. Besalú is a small town, with walls for protection and a stone bridge with gates over a small river.

Joseph started painting down by the water. He sketched the tower and some off
the bridge that led into the city. He emphasized not trying to include too much, draw what you see without moving your gaze. He sketched quickly, without lifting the pen too much. First put on a light layer over almost the entire image which was allowed to dry. Then he completed everything from left to right. It is important not to jump here and there when painting. The whole picture was almost complete when he finally painted the green water. Fluid and fast, and everything had to flow together. It turned out very well.

We then got to choose our own motif and we started painting nearby. A man came up to me and spoke Spanish. I didn’t understand a word of what he said but nodded pleasantly as he spoke and gestured. After a while I got his card and he went on his way. One of the participants in the course knew Spanish and had heard what the man said. She later told me that the Spaniard had wanted to buy my painting.

We had lunch with Joseph and Angela Barbi, who organized the workshop. She has started and runs EPC Art Courses which organizes workshops in Girona and Catalonia. Here you get the opportunity to paint with the world’s best artists in a fantastically beautiful environment. https://epc-artcourses.com

Joseph then chose to paint in the square of Besalú. He chose to remove the trees, he thought they were ugly. At first it looked bad, but after a while the picture grew on itself. He emphasized the importance of keeping track of the humidity on the paper and on the brush. The paper can be dry, moist, wet and wet from sea. That combined with how much pigment you have on the brush is very important. When you can handle it, you can paint.

Joseph “fixed” a lot at the end to make the picture really good. Us mere mortals would have been satisfied a long time ago 🙂

We had very little time to paint ourselves. My advice to those of you who are at a workshop like this is to paint small pictures, sheets of quartz, or smaller. Then you might have time to complete them.

Fish was served as the main course.