Robert Masla January 4 – 11, 2025

Drawing for the Painter – To Paint with Passion
-with Casa Founder Robert Masla

Thumbnail sketch with graphite wash pencil and 
gouache on toned Rembrandt paper, 
(Adirondack Plein Air Festival).

If you’re a painter looking to improve your understanding and skills, or just want to learn to draw and explore the painting process, this workshop is a great opportunity to do so. In this workshop we will cover many aspects of drawing, (as well as painting), and distill what is most important and needed to advance our drawing and painting with our chosen intention.

There will be demos and exercises each day to develop each individuals creative signature and abilities to See and move towards developing your personal “shorthand”. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced artist, incorporating drawing into your practice can be an integral part of taking your work to the next level. This workshop is unlike any you have taken – Most materials will be supplied.

“I love what Bob teaches. It is meaningful and illuminating! Thank you!”

Morning on Buck Pond,(Adirondack Plein Air Festival),
6" x 8" watercolor on Fabriano cold press private collection, 
Saranac Lake

This workshop is an expanded version of what I touched upon when teaching this past May (2024) in the Smokey Mountains  at the Plein Air Convention and Expo as part of the Plein Air Fundamentals workshop series. I will be will be teaching again, in May of 2025, for the third year in a row, at the Plein Air Convention and Expo at Lake Tahoe. 2023 saw me on the Demo Stage in Colorado doing an oil painting demo and delivering a lecture on Beginning with the Importance of Intention: Improvisation and other Key Principles and Techniques.  I will be offering a version of this  lecture  at  the  Springfield  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  October  10,  at  12:15 – 1:15pm

Watch the video below that Eric Rhoads, Founder and Publisher of Plein Air Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Watercolor Weekly, Plein Air Today OutdoorPainter, Plein Air Convention and Expo and on line and instructional videos, and more, said: “This is a huge eye opening lesson! – A total game changer!”.
In this video you will see a couple of the many principles and exercises  that will be covered in this workshop.

“This is the most practical explanation I have ever seen!”…”I had stopped sketching because I was so frustrated. Bob has truly inspired me.”…”I love how Bob helps it all make sense”
– participant

The importance of learning to draw is, aside from training us in eye hand coordination, basic principles and a host of technical skills, is that it can teach us how to see, and most importantly to see as an artist. Equally important to me, is that drawing, like painting is a practice. I don’t just mean this in the sense of my often used phrase of the 5 P’s needed to develop ones craft and produce art, Patience, Practice, Persistence, Permission and Passion. I mean Practice in a spiritual sense, like meditation, a process that can center us, move us beyond thought, into entering the creative “flow”, and the present moment. This is particularly powerful when drawing or painting in plein air. We have the opportunity to make the reconnection between Nature and our Self, the opportunity to dissolve the boundaries through the Eye – the I of Awareness.

As color is so “sexy”, drawing for the painter is sometimes skipped over, not practiced, neglected or misunderstood. Of course, one’s intention is always the first consideration. If one’s intention is to paint as a Photo Realist, that is a whole different set of criteria, (such as mastering the skills of what is often referred to as a “rendering”,  a literal interpretation of ones observations), as opposed to the criteria for painting expressively or impressionistically, etc.. Both intentions share many skills and formula, but they also diverge in critical ways. In this workshop we will cover the basics of both approaches to drawing and distill what is most important and needed to advance our painting with any chosen intention.

Through various exercises using both drawing and painting media, we will explore and practice the various foundational principles of drawing and painting that teach us to see. You will leave with a set of exercises and skills to enhance your practice and continued artistic growth.

Painting on Brown Road, (plein air, Ashfield) oil on 8" x 16" 
canvas on boardSalt in the Air, (plein air San Pancho), oil on 8" x 16"
canvas on board

Masla, The Yellow Barn,(plein air Ashfield) 
oil on 11"x 14" canvas, private collection, N.Y.

From My Patio, (plein air at the Casa, Boca), 
watercolor 1/4 sheetcold press paper, 
private collection, Atlanta

Sunset from the Spanish Mosque, Chefouen, Morocco, 
watercolor in sketchbook

Thumbnail, Farm on 112, graphite wash and gouache on 
Rembrandt toned paper

Study for Famers, watercolor on 12"x 24" cold press paper

Masla, From the Unrecognized Essential Workers Series: 
Farmers, oil on canvas, 24" x 72"

Masla, A Distant View, (Mt. Manadnock from Brown Rd, 
plein air), oil on canvas on board, 24" x 36"

Morning Mist, Cobra oil on 10" x 8" canvas on board, 
plein air and studio

On the Path, oil on 48" x 60" linen