Stanka Kordic Workshop or, Do Things You Don't Usually Do

I did a two day workshop with Stanka Kordic at our local art center. My way of working is pretty far away from the way Stanka paints, which is why I chose to do it.

I had been feeling like my paintings needed an infusion of something different. I like a lot of different representational painters. Some of the ones I like make great use of the textural qualities of paint. Nicolai Fechin comes to mind. Stanka's work is in this vein as well and I've greatly appreciated it for a few years now. She's a great experimenter, which is one reason why her paintings are so interesting. There is a real sense of depth and mystery in them, I think, because of her willingness to cast aside fear and just go for it. This is what I was hoping to get just a little bit of into my paintings. I'm never going to be a Stanka clone, which is good news for everyone, right? But if something of that fearlessness works its way into future paintings, I think that will be a good thing.

Here is the practice painting I did from the workshop.