When master watercolorist Zhang Xiaochang and his wife Shirley sent out invitations to join them for a week of painting, fine dining, and stellar company in Lake Tahoe, these nine artists happily accepted — Andy Evansen, Ratindra Das, Stephen Quiller, Barbara Nechis, Jean Pederson, John Salminen, Kathleen Conover, Mary Whyte, and Mark Mehaffey. Here’s another story in our series about the trip.
“I’m fortunate to live in the middle of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in beautiful Northwest Michigan,” says Mark Mehaffey. “The 77 thousand acre national park is home to giant sand dunes, tall pine trees, mixed hardwood forests, gorgeous streams and rivers, and countless lakes, including one of the largest freshwater lakes on the planet, Lake Michigan. It’s very similar to some of the topography surrounding Lake Tahoe. The main difference was the rocks — rocks in the mountains, rocks on the hill sides, rocks next to the shoreline. As shapes, they can be simply defined or dramatically detailed. The more I painted the rock shapes, the less information I included. I especially had fun bouncing light into the simple planes that faced away from the light. If I’d left out the rocks of Lake Tahoe in my compositions, they very well could have been paintings of Northern Michigan.
“But the purpose of the trip wasn’t just the landscape; it was about getting together with old friends. Years ago, I had traveled to China with Xiaochang and Shirley, and we had a super time. We all love painting (and eating and drinking!) together, and we were happy to be back together. Most of our group have been exhibiting and painting together for pushing 40 years.
“Most of my friends brought watercolor or gouache to paint with, but I brought acrylics. I use watercolor extensively in the studio where I can control most of the environmental variables, and I have access to all my materials. En plein air, I much prefer using acrylics. They dry fast, so if I need to adjust my values, hues, or temperatures I merely wait a couple minutes for that passage to dry and paint over it. Of course, the fact that it dries fast can also be a problem. Wet blending needs to be done as soon as the paint is applied. If it’s a complex blend then I need to use more paint. The dryness of of the higher elevation around Lake Tahoe meant that my acrylics dried even faster than usual. I adjusted by painting faster. It was fun and forced me to keep the shapes big and negate some of the fussy details.”
Want to learn more about acrylics? Join top artists from around the world, including Kevin Machperson, Jed Dorsey, and Patricia Guzman, for Acrylic Live, March 26-28, 2025, with an optional Essential Techniques Day on March 25.
