Since I started painting almost 4 years ago, I have wanted to take classes from Joe Lombardo. I love his landscape paintings which are beautifully constructed and warmly-colored. He has a reputation as a great teacher. I was particularly interested in his use of color and looked forward to hearing his ideas. How lucky I was to have a week watching him paint and getting his landscape painting instruction and guidance in the beautiful Mexican City of San Miguel where there is something beautiful to paint in every direction. It is an art lover’s city with many art galleries, majestic churches, noisy festivals, rooftop bars (saw a few) and colorful old buildings.
Truthfully, I am not fond of painting outdoors which requires schlepping a lot of equipment; where it is usually too hot or too cold, or even worse…windy, with paints and canvasses ending up on the ground and my sun hat sailing off in the distance. The panels are small – like 8×10”. I paint on as big a canvas as will fit in my car. I had only done landscape painting twice before and gave away my equipment. It wasn’t any easier in San Miguel. Real landscape painters know how to position themselves so they are always in the shade. Not I. I ended up in the sun every time. While it was cold at night in this mountain desert climate, the noon sun was hot. The last few warm drops of water in my water bottle were not satisfying. Real landscape painters have lightweight equipment. Not I. I hoisted almost 20 pounds of my new foolishly bought equipment to walk up and down narrow hilly cobblestone streets. I sometimes took a cab. At 2-3$ a ride, I didn’t feel guilty.
Joe Lombardo talks as he paints. I loved to hear him think through his painting. His explanations of color harmony and working with a limited palette are helpful. I finally understood working with a limited tetrad palette. We did our own paintings using that palette. He talked about value studies, perspective, and painting architecture. He gave us a variety of environments besides the city to paint like a cactus park, El Charco, and La Gruta Hot Springs. This past year I changed from painting exclusively in acrylics to painting in oils. Still learning. I struggled to paint without medium, using quick strokes and leaving spaces rather than my usual process of drawing, value study, toning, underpainting and blending paint. I came to struggle and I did. But it was a useful and enlightening struggle. I told Joe, “You can teach an old dog new tricks. It takes a little longer.”
