So tired after three days of painting all day and family parties every night I drove home two and a half hours and crashed. Vlads luminous painting of Strancone Umbria Italy Class yesterday was again wonderful. He stayed til the bitter end far longer than he was required. I think he left at 6 not long after I did.

Mine at the end of class. NOT finished. I got into trouble AGAIN. Groan. I did my shadow wash to the wrong line on the drawing. I thought the wire line was where it was supposed to stop. I was painting so fast doing the wash I didn’t notice. I was going to flip it over and start again or paint white gouache over the left side when Vlad said no. Got a sea sponge and taped off the left section and the arch and blotted off the errant wash. Now I have to go back and repaint the windows.

At least my first wash went well. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Vlads soupy washes

Finished day 2 painting. A little dark. I wish I had lifted it with a sponge. And I may redo or look try my paintings for one to do in similar style. Everybody loves it but it looks dark in comparison to yesterday.

Will post yesterday’s when I finish it – hopefully tomorrow.

Perhaps the most exciting sharing watercolor teacher I have had. Always on, always instructing. Goes the extra mile. When not demoing hes walking the room helping students several times a day. Shares EVERYTHING he knows. Only John Salimen can compare as a teacher. Then dear Charles who also shares everything he knows as does John.

Tells funny stories and his Russian accent is icing on the cake.

Vlad’s Strancone Italy on his website for sale. I do like his sunflooded version better than the one we painted in class.

One of his funniest told with his Russian accent is we Russians line up for everything. We don’t know what line is for but we get in line anyway.

A fog it up example from his website.

Another funny story. He was telling us how to a paint a landscape similar to this one. He said with his Russian accent u need to fogk it up. We were all dead silent eyes large thinking he said THAT word. He said you know Fogk it up. Aka FOG to up. We burst out laughing after that. Watercolor teachers do NOT run to cussing let alone that word.

Vlads palette and brushes

Two of Vlads paintings that will be for sale at Olmsted Plein Air this weekend.

HIS Plein Air painting in Havana. Said it was full of wonderful crumbly buildings and old cars. But take plenty of paper towels. They don’t have them. 😳 And he ran out when he was there. Oppss.

A lot of these are for sale on his website. Wishing I could afford one or two.

Margaret resting up after her travails. Xoxoxox