Weekend with the Masters '11: Before the Event

Last month, I had the privilege of working at the 3rd annual Weekend with the Masters conference, held this year in beautiful Monterey, California. The event is sponsored by American Artist and offers workshops, demos and lectures from some of the art world's leading representational painters. Aside from getting to meet many artists whom I've long-admired, I was in good company--joining me on the WWM work force were three friends who attended my college, Ryan Mellody, Taaron Parsons and Jon Stasko.

For a few days before the conference, we joined our friend Daniel Keys for some painting fun in the Monterey area. Our first stop was the beautiful Carmel River State Beach.

L to R: Ryan, Lauren (our new young, aspiring artist friend),
Jon, Daniel. Taaron is at the distant far right, wearing blue

I worked quickly in an attempt to capture the low cloud-covering
before it lifted. Alas, the clouds rose, and I had to paint them from memory,
but it was still an amazing time at a beautiful location.

The next day, Jon and I got to be the "lucky" models for two head study sessions.

After a long painting session, nothing satisfies quite like pizza!

The following day's destination: Big Sur. The grandeur of the landscape is stunning. It was a bit windy, but the surroundings could not have been more inspiring.

L to R: Ryan, Jon, Taaron

After we spent most of the next day prepping for the event, we retired to the studio for an evening of still life painting.

Ryan achieves perfect form on his
patented Master's Soft-Pass Upstroke®

It was a great time of painting, fun and friendship!

Be sure to check back periodically--coverage of this year's Weekend with the Masters event will be coming soon! For more on our adventures at the event, be sure to check out Ryan's blog here.