After my retirement in 2015, my wife and I would live in Arizona and southern California from January to mid-April. I had been painting recreationally in a variety of styles as I had been through out my business career. I had noticed that for one of our upcoming stays in Tucson in March 2018 that there was going to be an abstract painting workshop sponsored by the the Contemporary Artists of Southern Arizona (CASA). The instructor was going to be David M. Kessler, one of the top workshop instructors in the US. CASA allowed me to join them, (thank you CASA). What an amazing experience.
I had plotted out some objectives and read David’s book, “Bigger, Faster, Fresher, Looser”, in advance of the workshop. Even that was not enough for how David stretched us over the three days. David’s painting style was significantly different than my style, and by gosh I really felt uncomfortable at times. But then, I realized that the fundamentals of composition and colour that he was promoting would fit with other painting styles. At that point, it did not matter what paintings I was producing during the workshop. Rather it was more important to understand the underlying fundamentals and to have some fun learning new ways of expressing myself.
Since then, I have continued to paint in my hard edge style, but I always think about the colour schemes and the composition principles that I learned at David”s workshop. I would definitely attend another of David’s workshops if we can make the logistics works.
As an important note, I have subscribed to David’s video blasts that come out every Tuesday. In addition to the youtube that demonstrate his painting principles, his videos on the business side of being an artist are very imformative. As well, I have contacted David directly with questions about his website and what was important to his business as he developed it. His response was immediate and very helpful.
If you are considering attending a workshop to improve or expand your painting skills I would highly recommend that you consider attending one of David’s workshops. Please visit his website, davidmkessler.com for more information.
Thank you David for leading a workshop that expanded my artistic thinking and the fun that we had.
