Ron Stocke is one of the premier watercolor artists I admire, so when I got a chance to register for his two day workshop at Cole Gallery in Edmonds, I signed right up. Ron’s style is loose and impressionistic, with glowing colors and beautifully blended washes.
Ron, who is in his fifties, has painted since childhood. He has an architectural background and loves to paint buildings and cityscapes. He paints with layers of washes. In the first wash he paints in the background sky, distant objects, and foreground. He lets this dry, then he paints the middle ground with its darker values. Then he paints the area of dominance with the dark details, and lastly adds the finishing touches.
He connects the objects of the painting so that there are many soft edges , and he uses light and shadow with dramatic effects. I especially like the way he combines colors on the paper and often adds water to make the pigments flow and blend.
On the first day, about twelve students and Ron met in the basement of Cole Gallery, a rather cozy space. Ron painted a demo of a campfire in the forest at night (below). He painted the first wash, then he let us try it. Then he painted the second wash, explaining as he painted, and we went back to our easels to copy him. Same with the third wash and the details.
I was pretty pleased with my effort. It’s pretty easy when everything has been decided for you and you have a finished painting to copy. All you have to do is replicate what the teacher has painted. I learned a lot watching Ron at the easel as he mixed his washes in the palette and loaded his brush with paint. I was impressed with Ron’s brushes, especially the DaVinci Maestro #12 and #14 brushes. They hold a lot of water and have a beautifully pointed tip (they’re also very expensive!).
Later in the afternoon, he painted the first two washes of a pond with ducks on it. I think we were all getting tired, so he wrapped it up before we got a chance to paint.
The second day of the workshop was a Sunday, and I felt strange not preaching a sermon in church. My agreement with the church is that I have four Sundays a year off, but still it felt odd. We started earlier so that we could leave in time to watch the Super Bowl. Frankly, I don’t care whose billionaire owner with a bunch of high-paid gladiators beats the other owners’ high-paid gladiators, so it was all the same to me.
Ron painted a beautiful scene of a plaza somewhere in Europe. He painted the first two washes, explaining as he painted, and then we tried it. I wasn’t as able to replicate his washes, probably because I was tired from the first day, but I learned a lot. Here is my effort, with his beautiful painting below mine.
Near the end of the workshop, Ron showed us how he paints human figures and cars. He showed us his sketchbook, in which he works out the composition of his paintings. Some of his sketches are worthy of being framed.
I feel I learned a lot from Ron’s workshop. He’s very encouraging, going from person to person to offer suggestions on their level. He’s very positive and an enthusiastic champion of watercolor painting. I think my personal style of painting is a little looser and more colorful, but I appreciated learning from Ron.
You “keep on keeping on”. That makes you score above the crowd. You never stop learning. You are a model for the rest of us. By the way, Ron’s Plaza painting looks exactly like a scene in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Thanks, Warren! I really enjoy taking workshops because there’s a teacher to guide you. But in the long run, you really need to just paint, paint, paint. I’m getting there!