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Abstraction
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Oil/Acrylic Painting: Abstracting the Real (In-Person)
with Frederic Kaplan
Fridays, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Instructor: Frederic Kaplan
Credit: Non-credit or 1.0 undergraduate credit (see description)
Using oil or acrylic paints, exploit a wide range of techniques and artistic languages to transform everyday reality into expressive, symbolic, or personal statements. Base your paintings on unique studio still-life arrangements or use your own photographs as a starting point, and progress to working from a life model during the final weeks of the course. Topics discussed and demonstrated include using color as an emotive element, designing compositions to convey mood and movement, and employing energetic mark-making. For less experienced students, materials, color mixing, and basic techniques are also reviewed.
Course Objectives
The student will learn…
- Selection and use basic materials, including the characteristics of various commonly used colors, solvents, and mediums
- Execution of a variety of direct and indirect painting methods.
- Approaches to interpreting and modifying observed reality to achieve emotive, symbolic, and compositional goals
- Descriptive, emotive, and symbolic use of color, shape, and mark
- Basic color theory and color mixing
This course does not meet during Thanksgiving Break, November 23 - 26.
Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $695. Select credit option when registering.
Image: Fred Kaplan, A Curious Place, 2001, Oil on canvas, 32 x 48 in.
Register by: September 8
Fall 2023 CE Policy Guide, including updated Withdrawal/Refund Policies
Painting from Dreams and the Imagination (Online)
with Susan Sullivan
Tuesdays, 6 – 8 p.m. (Zoom, with posted Canvas content)
Instructor: Susan Sullivan
Credit: Non-credit only
Painting from source material within your own mind offers a fertile ground for personal, surreal, abstract, and whimsical work without being tied to observable subject matter. Develop your painting practice using your imagination as your subject and make your dreams into tangible artworks. Prompts will encourage you to play on your canvas, opening the door from the unknown to visually compelling compositions. Subject cues will include painting from poems or song lyrics, generating images from memories, documenting your dreams, and creating imagery from classmates’ combined sketches. Instruction is geared toward oil or acrylic painting, but drawing, collage, and students’ other preferred media is welcome and encouraged. Zoom meetings include prompts and discussion, live painting time together in a classroom-like atmosphere, and critiques and one-on-one guidance from the instructor. This class is great for artists wanting to incorporate a freeing sense of playfulness and abstraction into their work, those seeking a creative outlet for their thoughts and emotions, and anyone who loves making paintings that are weird, witty, and wonder-inspiring.
Image: Susan Sullivan, Dream, Oil on panel, 16 x 16 in.
Register by: September 15
Fall 2023 CE Policy Guide, including updated Withdrawal/Refund Policies
Painting over the Line (Online)
with Kassem Amoudi
Wednesdays, 1 – 4 p.m. (Zoom only)
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Credit: Non-credit or 1.0 undergraduate credit (see description)
Take your work to the next level under the guidance of artist/critic/mentor Kassem Amoudi in this live Zoom class. Expert instruction and advice will push you to explore new possibilities and work more intuitively, allowing unplanned marks and passages to become artistic breakthroughs. Paint from personal subject matter to find your own visual language, informed by examples from contemporary and modern art. Classes will include presentations/lectures focusing on how master artists through history have addressed color, harmony, focal points, space, mark making, paint application, and more, and how to apply these concepts to your own work. Weekly sessions focus heavily on live painting time in a classroom-like online environment, with critiques and advice from the instructor as he works one-on-one with each student to guide them in their personal style and goals. This course is excellent for students working with abstract or nonobjective imagery, seeking feedback from a critic/mentor and a focused community painting atmosphere. Painting experience recommended. Note: Due to the emphasis on live instructor feedback and in-class painting, this Zoom class is not recorded.
Image: Kassem Amoudi
Register by: September 22
Fall 2023 CE Policy Guide, including updated Withdrawal/Refund Policies
Abstract Drawing/Mixed Media: Color Harmony and Interaction (In-Person)
with Keith Leitner
Thursdays, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Instructor: Keith Leitner
Credit: Non-credit only
Explore the vital and vibrant role of color in art making. More than a supporting member, color can be the lead actor in a drawing or painting. Instruction will examine the work of artists who relied heavily on color for their creative processes, including Helen Frankenthaler, Cy Twombly, and many more. Color theory will be explored as a means of understanding color’s application and meaning through exercises in drawing, watercolor painting, collage, and students’ choice of media. Internalize and personalize concepts to make color a subtle, surprising, or dazzling part of your own work.
This course does not meet during Thanksgiving Break, November 23 - 26.
Image: Keith Leitner, Saturation Dawn.
Register by: October 20
Fall 2023 CE Policy Guide, including updated Withdrawal/Refund Policies
Spontaneous Abstraction Workshop (In-Person)
with Kassem Amoudi
Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Credit: Non-Credit Only
Many artists can feel frustrated in front of a blank canvas, unsure of how to start and what to paint. This workshop offers a step-by-step technique which will enable you to paint with confidence by tapping into your intuitive process and finding inspiration more easily. Expert instruction and advice from the instructor will push students to explore new possibilities and work more intuitively, allowing unplanned marks and passages to become artistic breakthroughs. Demonstration of different drawing and painting techniques will enhance your knowledge of the process of painting. Students will utilize line, color and space, as well as the possibilities of editing, to create busy/calm areas and focal points in their paintings.
Image: Kassem Amoudi
Register by: November 10
Fall 2023 CE Policy Guide, including updated Withdrawal/Refund Policies
The Figure as a Point of Departure (Online)
with Kassem Amoudi
Friday - Sunday, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Credit: Non-Credit Only
This workshop is not about the traditional way of painting the figure. If you are tired of getting lost in the details and traditional modes of representational painting, and you want to take a risk by exploring new ways of expressing the human form, this class is for you. Paint and draw the human figure in a looser and more expressionistic contemporary manner. Refine your painting skills to create a lively surface which will be considered a playground for intuitive creativity, technique, and skill. Expert instruction and advice from the instructor will push students to explore new possibilities and work more intuitively, allowing unplanned marks and passages to become artistic breakthroughs. Establish pictorial unity through visual metaphor and focal points and explore the power of using “active” and “quiet” areas. PowerPoint presentations and examples of contemporary ways of using the figure will enhance your understanding of the abstract qualities of space, line and color. Sessions will include live painting time, with critiques and advice from the instructor as he works one-on-one with each student. Open to all levels: You do not have to have extensive experience with painting the figure to make successful paintings. Note: Due to the emphasis on live instructor feedback and in-class painting, this Zoom class is not recorded.
Image: Kassem Amoudi.
Register by: December 1
Fall 2023 CE Policy Guide, including updated Withdrawal/Refund Policies