Workshop Excursion

The Saturday sketch group made a special trip to Winterset, Iowa last Saturday. Winterset is forever known as the setting of The Bridges of Madison County, both in the book and the movie. The film was not only set but made here, too. One of our group invited us to come to a watercolor workshop she was holding there, and four of us showed up. 

The day began threatening rain but by the time we got to the town park the sky was clearing. We arrived and set up in a shady spot not far from a covered wooden bridge, the Cutler-Donahoe Bridge, built in 1870 and moved to the park just over a century later. Winterset is something of a tourist town because of the covered bridges (there are a half dozen), but also because John Wayne was born here in a small bungalow a handful of blocks from the park. The town is picturesque too, and was the setting for another movie back in the 1970s. So the park sees many visitors. 

Photo credit: Kristine Price

The workshop was for people interested in beginning to paint outdoors with watercolors, and several of the attendees had art experience in other mediums like acrylics and printing. We grouped on a grassy slope under some giant old trees. The bridge seemed an obvious subject and I eventually chose a spot about thirty yards from one end, originally in some nice shade. As it happened, the majority of the group chose the bridge as well. 

The day was fine, low humidity and a fresh breeze now and then. We worked about two hours altogether, taking time now and then to get up and walk around. Visitors to the park stopped to talk from time to time, many from out of state. There were families out for a Saturday picnic, or simply visiting the park.

Using an about 11x14 watercolor pad, I sketched in the bridge and surrounding trees plus the near approach to its entrance. Using washy watercolors I laid in the sky color and a mid-range of greens, reserving the lights. The red of the bridge provided a punchy counterpoint to the darker greens of the evergreen on the right and the more yellow-greens of the grasses and shrubbery. I worked from big shapes to smaller ones, spending a lot of time trying to be accurate. When I was working, a woman stopped to talk and offered to buy the painting, before it was finished. We dickered a bit and in the end I added the last touches and she took the painting below home. She is an art teacher in northwest Missouri who just happened to be visiting that day and enjoyed the work. Thank you, Kristine Price. 

"The Cutler-Donahoe Bridge," watercolor on paper, 11x14