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Color
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In-Depth Watercolor, Summer 1 (In-Person)
with James Toogood
Fridays, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Enrich your knowledge of painting with an in-depth look at watercolor. Thoroughly investigate a wide range of watercolor materials and techniques from your choice of landscape, still life, portrait, and figure subjects. Open to watercolorists of all levels and to acrylic/oil painters looking to broaden their skills.
Learning Objectives
- Students will learn about color theory as applied to watercolor.
- Students will receive a comprehensive explanation of watercolor materials and tools, with particular focus will be paid to the properties of paint and pigments as they interact with the paintbrushes and paper.
- Through both discussions and demonstrations, first time participants and beginners will learn a variety of techniques that are fundamental to watercolor, presented in a systematic step by step method. Participants can expect to have regular individual instruction, given at their current skill level.
- Focus also will be paid on acquiring the skills needed to achieve a richness of color and a feeling of light.
- Participants will work from direct observations from the still life and model, as well as from one’s own source materials.
- Those not taking the class for credit will have the option to work on landscape, still life, portrait and figure or abstraction, as they wish.
- Participants will be exposed to a variety of watercolor styles and encouraged to discover one’s own personal aesthetic.
- The course is ultimately designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to make accomplished, personally rewarding watercolor paintings.
Optional: This course is available for 1.5 undergraduate credits for $995. Select credit option when registering.
Image: James Toogood, Bermuda.
Register by: May 12
Figure Painting: Alla Prima and the Limited Palette (In-Person)
with David Wilson
Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.*
Painting the human form from observation is one of the cornerstones of PAFA's long tradition of rigorous instruction. Working from the nude model in poses of varying lengths, investigate color mixing, proportion, and composition using oil paint as a medium. Focusing on alla prima painting techniques and a limited flesh-tone palette, learn to model the human form through gesture, shape, volume, and temperature – excellent for painted sketches and preparatory studies, foundations for extended work, or an introduction/refresher to figure painting. Intended for all skill levels, this course also offers the valuable opportunity for more advanced students to continue to hone their skills to deepen their understanding of the language of painting. Instruction will be geared toward oil, but students may draw-only, or use other appropriate media, in this class, if they wish. Note: Tuition includes a $35 models fee.
* No class on May 27 for Memorial Day Weekend.
Image: David Wilson, 2016.
Register by: May 12
Color for Painters (Online)
with Al Gury
Sundays, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.*
An in-depth approach to understanding and using color in art from Al Gury, Professor of Painting and Drawing at PAFA and noted author of Alla Prima, Color for Painters, and Foundations of Drawing. Explore color’s history, palettes, mixing processes, and techniques for still life, portrait, interior spaces,and landscape through weekly lectures, video demos, discussions and assignments with a goal of improving the student’s use of color in their work. Regular feedback and critiques from the instructor will be provided each week. Class meetings will be held on Zoom, and the online learning platform Canvas will be used for assignments and class content. Oil paint will be a primary topic, but all media are welcome and will be discussed. Open to all levels of experience.
Optional: This is a Condensed Course, available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $595. Select credit option when registering.
* No class on May 28 for Memorial Day Weekend.
Image: Al Gury, Still Life with Crazy Quilt, 2022, 20 x 16 in.
Register by: Registration Still Open! Recordings are available for online courses.
Confident Acrylics (Online)
with Charles Muldowney
Tuesdays, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Discover and explore the characteristics of acrylics so that you can paint with confidence! Acrylic paint can imitate oil paint and watercolor paint, yet it has its own exceptional assets and characteristics not available with these other media. Its vibrant color, versatility, and layering capabilities make it the preferred medium of artists like David Hockney, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Bridget Riley, Helen Frankenthaler and Murray Dessner. Work from still life, self-portrait, window-view, and photographic subjects to practice a variety of application techniques, use of materials, and color mixing principles. Presentations, demonstrations, exercises, and projects will promote familiarity and experimentation with this accessible medium. Learn:
- Acrylic painting with traditional application methods, such as direct and indirect painting, wet-on-wet, grisaille, camaieu, glazing, velatura, dry brush, and stipple approaches
- Impasto techniques of working with thick paint using a pallet knife and other tools
- How to use oil over acrylic paint
- Use of the historic Zorn and Apelles palettes
- Essential color and design principles
- Experimental practices, including alcohol resist, wax resist, rollers, spreaders, scrapers, mixed media, and spattering
Image: Charles Muldowney.
Register by: Registration Still Open! Recordings are available for online courses.
Painting Over the Line, Summer 1 (Online)
with Kassem Amoudi
Wednesdays, 1 – 4 p.m.
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. Painting experience recommended. Kassem will begin each class with a slide presentation/lecture 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.
Image: Kassem Amoudi.
Register by: Registration Still Open!
Cut-Paper Still Life Painting Workshop (In-Person)
with Meghan Cox
Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Abstraction meets representation in this creative take on still life painting.Students will assemble their own still-life set-ups from folded and cut colored paper and then translate these arrangements through observational oil painting on paper.Working from colored planar structures allows the opportunity to explore all the essential aspects of representational still life painting – form, space, value, color relationships, and composition – while experiencing the inherent abstraction of simple shapes and planes of color.Printed papers may additionally allow the introduction of compositional concepts of harmony, pattern, and repetition.Discover the unexpectedly beautiful results of working from the most unassuming of subjects.This class serves both as an engaging exercise in color and abstraction to inspire one’s painting practice and as an excellent introduction to painting concepts through humble, easy-to-draw subject matter.
Image: Meghan Cox, that early evening and orange (detail), oil on paper over birch panel, 14 x 12 in.
Register by: June 16
In-Depth Watercolor, Summer 2 (In-Person)
with James Toogood
Wednesdays, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Enrich your knowledge of painting with an in-depth look at watercolor. Thoroughly investigate a wide range of watercolor materials and techniques from your choice of landscape, still life, portrait, and figure subjects. Open to watercolorists of all levels and to acrylic/oil painters looking to broaden their skills.
Learning Objectives
- Students will learn about color theory as applied to watercolor.
- Students will receive a comprehensive explanation of watercolor materials and tools, with particular focus will be paid to the properties of paint and pigments as they interact with the paintbrushes and paper.
- Through both discussions and demonstrations, first time participants and beginners will learn a variety of techniques that are fundamental to watercolor, presented in a systematic step by step method. Participants can expect to have regular individual instruction, given at their current skill level.
- Focus also will be paid on acquiring the skills needed to achieve a richness of color and a feeling of light.
- Participants will work from direct observations from the still life and model, as well as from one’s own source materials.
- Those not taking the class for credit will have the option to work on landscape, still life, portrait and figure or abstraction, as they wish.
- Participants will be exposed to a variety of watercolor styles and encouraged to discover one’s own personal aesthetic.
- The course is ultimately designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to make accomplished, personally rewarding watercolor paintings.
Optional: This course is available for 1.5 undergraduate credits for $995. Select credit option when registering.
Image: James Toogood, Venice.
Register by: June 23
Comprehending Color for Oil Painters (In-Person)
with Roger Chavez
Thursdays, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Without question, every oil painter benefits from color mixing instruction: Understanding how to accurately see, mix, and adjust color not only allows you to achieve the results you want in your work but also enables you to avoid the pitfalls of wasting paint though inaccurate and poorly understood pigment mixing. Explore key methods and principles for effective color mixing, using a limited palette to create prismatic hues and earth tone colors. Instruction will address the role of light in the visual perception of color, as well as subtractive and additive color systems. Work from varied still life arrangements to put your color comprehension into practice, and advance your painting skills for all subject matter.
Image: Roger Chavez.
Register by: June 23