WITH ERIN RAEDEKE
TUESDAYS
March 12
March 19
March 26
April 2
April 9
2024
1 p.m.-4:30 p.m. eastern time US and Canada
In this ONLINE painting workshop, we will work from a common object, but the way each of us interprets this object will be anything but common. Each participant will include a balloon as part of a still life. Inflated or deflated, in the air or laying on a table, a remnant from a party that tells a narrative or a stand-in for a sphere in a formal investigation — these are just a few ways this ordinary object can be used and interpreted. Along with working from a common object, we will also share the same palette of colors, further exploring how sharing something in common can lead to individual expression and interpretation. Meetings will be held on Zoom and work will be shared on Padlet. Oil paint is the recommended medium.
WITH ELIZABETH REAGH
TUESDAYS
January 30-February 27, 2024
11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. eastern time
ONLINE WORKSHOP. We will approach still life painting as a pictorial journey, destination unknown, the only dead ends being cliché, sentimentality and timidity. Through a series of short and more sustained exercises we will focus on balancing intuitive and analytical powers to make compelling paintings. Some of the concepts we will explore to achieve this end will be observation, memory, and invention. Students may use oil or acrylic paints. Class sessions will include slide shows, demos, and in depth discussion about students’ work. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on Padlet, an online platform.
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
February 17-19, 2024
Saturday, Sunday, Monday
Two meetings per day:
10:30 a.m.
and
3 p.m.
eastern time
In this intensive ONLINE painting class, we'll create our own oil paint from Italian pigments. Once we've created our full earth color palette, we'll do gradient studies in order to understand the colors we are working with. Next we'll sketch a composition of lemons in our respective studios. Finally we'll create a still life of lemons. Each of the three days will include group discussions based on the images uploaded by the participants, guided by Lucy MacGillis. Lectures on the color yellow in painting, the lemon in the history of painting and demos from MacGillis' studio in Italy will also be included. We will discuss our paintings of lemons in group discussions/critiques over zoom.
Prior to the class, participants will receive the kit from Zecchi in Florence containing Fabriano oil painting paper, the pigments, linseed oil, and a palette knife.
The cost of materials from Zecchi is included in the workshop fee.
WITH NANCY GRUSKIN
WEDNESDAYS
January 24
January 31
February 7
February 14
2024
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. eastern time
ONLINE WORKSHOP. The genre of still life need not be still. We can record our observations of objects and then alter, transform, and activate these recordings. For example, a still life painting can be cut up; the pieces rearranged; and the composition changed to suit the needs of a new picture. Artists in this online workshop will explore the visual arrangement and rearrangement of their own still life objects through drawing, painting, and collage exercises. We will work on our observational skills, but also strengthen our intuition as artists and push our work to be greater than the sum of its parts. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on Padlet, an online platform.
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
THURSDAYS
January 11-February 8, 2024
10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Eastern time
In this online class, we'll focus on the masterpieces of four female Italian painters, investigating just what it is about them that is so timelessly captivating. Using the method of transcription, we will draw from these paintings without copying them, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of these compositions. We'll begin by looking at ancient Roman paintings, into the Renaissance to Sofonisba Anguissola, and towards the baroque Diana di Rosa, Elisabetta Sirani and Artemisia Gentileschi. In each session we will explore a specific painting at length in a group discussion over Zoom. After the introduction to each painting, participants will have a week to prepare a drawing transcription, as well as a chromatic study created with oil paints, to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece. MacGillis will present demos from her studio in Italy to show how she goes about mixing the colors in the paintings using a limited earth palette and palette knife.
Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the four paintings we will transcribe as well as paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be primed Fabriano paper provided for the color oil painting studies.
Lucy MacGillis has been living and painting in Umbria, Italy for over twenty years. She enjoys interpreting Italian art history from the perspective of a painter rather than that of an art historian.
WITH NANCY McCARTHY
Eight meetings
Tuesdays 6:30 -10 p.m.
eastern time
September 12 and 26
October 10 and 24
November 7 and 21
December 5 and 19
2023
There are 3 main objectives in this ONLINE class:
• To identify aspects of your work that are distinct and personal to your painting, and to explore ways of developing and fortifying those aspects.
• To determine areas of your work that are weak and/or diminish your work and (using a variety of exercises), work to improve those areas.
• To establish a consistent, disciplined painting practice.
The goal of creating more personal and powerful paintings will be addressed by considering the following issues: content, composition/format, color, surface as well as materials and craft. We will explore the aspects of painting that interest each student most, including experimentation with materials and conceptual and technical approaches to painting or more traditional work from observation. Classes consist of discussion, image presentations and critique. Each student will develop a set of written goals as well as a painting schedule. Students must be present and are encouraged to participate in all discussion and critiques. Students will post new work, preliminary drawings, and work in progress on the Padlet each week for discussion. Additionally, students are required to research and identify their relatives, 3 artists whose work shares common elements with their own work or the work they aspire to do.
Those who want more structure and/or direction will be given assignments tailored to their particular needs. Group discussion of student work along with looking at contemporary and historical painting will enhance the class.
Meetings will be held on Zoom and work will be shared on Padlet, the online platform.
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
Fridays
November 3
November 10
November 17
November 24 (skip this week due to Thanksgiving holiday)
December 1
December 8
2023
In this intensive five-week online workshop, we will transcribe from paintings of Giorgio Morandi, Rosso Fiorentino, and Mantegna, and discuss how they are intrinsically connected to the cinema of Pasolini and Fellini. There will be a small reading list to accompany this class as well as films to watch.
The process of transcribing involves studying a painting to better grasp how it was created, looking for what it is that makes it a masterpiece. Rather than copy the paintings, we study the underlying abstract composition, searching for rhythm, repetition and duality. Participants receive a small kit from Italy in the mail containing prints of the images we will be working from as well as Fabriano painting and drawing paper.
WITH PETER VAN DYCK
TEN SESSIONS
Tuesdays
October 3
October 10
October 17
October 24
October 31
November 7
November 14
November 21
November 28
December 5
2023
10:30-2:30 eastern time
ONLINE WORKSHOP. This 10-week workshop will focus on creating still-life paintings that incorporate the larger spatial context in which the still life is set. Participants will make paintings from observation with an emphasis on light, color, structure and pictorial design. We will start by finding a subject and looking at the practical and formal aspects of setting up a still life. We will discuss how to organize and simplify complex information, how to create a unified sense of light throughout a picture, and how to interpret color and tone relationships. We will also cover aspects of drawing that will help in the creation of a convincing sense of space.
WITH MAUREEN NATHAN
WEDNESDAYS
OCTOBER 11
OCTOBER 18
OCTOBER 25
2023
11 a.m.-2 p.m. eastern time, US and Canada
ONLINE. This workshop will introduce intaglio and relief printmaking, together with collage. You will learn to print a drypoint edition, as well as create unique layered monoprints. Work will be shared on the online platform Padlet, which will make it easy to discuss our experience and knowledge throughout the workshop. We will use non-toxic water-based inks and, where possible, recycled/found materials.
PLEASE NOTE: You will need to use a press. If you do not have access to a print studio, there are many craft presses suitable for these methods; they are available at relatively low cost.
WITH NANCY GRUSKIN
WEDNESDAYS
September 6
September 13
September 20
September 27
2023
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. eastern time
ONLINE WORKSHOP. The genre of still life need not be still. We can record our observations of objects and then alter, transform, and activate these recordings. For example, a still life painting can be cut up; the pieces rearranged; and the composition changed to suit the needs of a new picture. Artists in this online workshop will explore the visual arrangement and rearrangement of their own still life objects through drawing, painting, and collage exercises. We will work on our observational skills, but also strengthen our intuition as artists and push our work to be greater than the sum of its parts. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on Padlet, an online platform.
WITH ERIN RAEDEKE
SEPTEMBER 7 - 11, 2023
Thursday - Monday
10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Eastern time (US and Canada)
Three meetings per day on Zoom:
10 a.m.
2 p.m. (optional meeting)
4:30 p.m.
In this five-day online workshop, we will explore the self portrait using a chromatic palette. Using no earth colors and mixing optical blues and yellows we will get to know a palette that is full of possibilities. We will tame and harness potent colors, yet also learn to embrace their strength. As we discover more about each color's inherent qualities and potential, we will carefully observe the structure of the head, focusing on color, temperature and value.
Palette:
Cadmium Orange (Gamblin Artist Brand)
Cadmium Red Medium
Alizarin Crimson
Quinacridone Red
Dioxazine Purple
Chromium Oxide
Phthalo Green
Titanium White
WITH NICOLE SANTIAGO
August 9 - 13, 2023
Wednesday - Sunday
Two meetings per day:
11 a.m. eastern time
4 p.m. eastern time
ONLINE WORKSHOP. The interior is an ideal subject to examine the complexities of light, space, composition, and content. In this five-day workshop, I will share my process of creating interior paintings from direct observation through demonstrations, discussions, work sessions, and critiques. The depiction of the interior throughout art history will be presented. The Padlet platform will be used to share images; workshop meetings will be held on Zoom. All exercises will be completed using oil paint; other acceptable mediums include acrylic, gouache, and casein.
WITH MEGAN MARDEN
Mondays
July 31
August 7
August 14
August 21
August 28, 2023
11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. eastern time
ONLINE. Artists build a greater sense of connection to the world by making daily sketches. After several days of 'artist walks,' we might find ourselves looking at everything as if it were a painting. Participants will keep small, daily sketchbooks using portable media like pencil and watercolor. We will review the sketches in class each week and select one or more to use as the point of departure for a new painting. Working from these quick, observational studies allows the opportunity to revisit and reconsider formal issues in the new painting, while embracing the fluidity and immediacy of the original sketch. Some areas will need to be resolved through invention and interpretation. Others will require the artist to access their memory of the experience. Equal weight will be given to sketches and building a painting. Meetings will be held on Zoom and work will be shared on the Padlet platform.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
July 9-13,2023
Sunday-Thursday
ONLINE WORKSHOP
The focus of the workshop will be working from photo references. Since the mid 1800s, working from photographic sources has been a common practice in painting. We will explore ways to sharpen our personal language when painting from mediated imagery, as well as ways to add more adventure. Participants will meet in the morning to watch a presentation of ideas and exercises. They will work on their own and then meet again each morning for group discussion and more presentations. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on the Padlet platform.
This is a hands-on workshop. Participants must be present.
Sunday, July 9
Intros and presentation of concepts and the exercise and discussion
Meeting time: 10 a.m.-noon eastern time
Monday, July 10
Presentation of concepts and the exercise and discussion
Meeting time: 10 a.m.-noon eastern time
Tuesday, July 11
Critique/feedback
Meeting time: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. eastern time
Wednesday, July 12
Final presentations and discussions
Meeting time: 10 a.m.-noon eastern time
Thursday, July 13
Final Critique/feedback
Meeting time: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. eastern time
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
June 27-29, 2023
Tuesday - Thursday
10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
IN PERSON AT BLACK POND! In this intensive three-day workshop we will work from a still life setup, with handmade Italian earth paints. Lucy will share her joy of 'la materia', the material of paint itself, and the grinding process of oil paint. The limited earth palette and use of palette knives will help participants improve their mixing of tones, and consider more carefully the relationships of colors. We will make several quick studies and a longer one; daily critiques will include art historical references. Some pigment will be supplied, and lunch will be provided each day
WITH ELIZABETH REAGH
WEDNESDAYS
May 31-June 21, 2023
11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. eastern time
ONLINE. Through a series of short and sustained exercises, we will incorporate invention into representational work. An example: shapes that can be read as light or shadow that have no basis in objective reality, but somehow enhance and become integral to the composition and overall painting, and importantly, make sense in the world of the painting. Working from photo references and life, we will alter what we see in order to make a more compelling image. Analysis and intuitive leaps will play equal parts in arriving at unexpected outcomes. We will prioritize “right” over “correct”. There will be demos, slide shows, and discussions about the resulting work. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on the Padlet platform.
WITH NANCY McCARTHY
June 9 - 11, 2023
Friday - Sunday
10 a.m. — 5 p.m.
IN PERSON AT BLACK POND. The spring greens and chromatic grays of trees, field, and pond are a potent source of visual content. Using watercolor, participants will respond to landscape by looking deeply and translating what is observed into shape, value, and hue. A series of exercises will enhance fluency with the medium and deepen understanding of color mixing and compositional strategies. Each day multiple studies will be completed. This course is ideal for those people new to watercolor and those with some experience. Lunches are included in the cost of the workshop.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
May 17-21, 2023
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
“Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks.” – Mark Rothko
IN PERSON AT BLACK POND! The workshop will center around painting from life. We will start with objects/still life and move to the figure and self portraits. There will be many short exercises throughout the 5 days. Basic materials needed: oil paint or acrylic . No specific palette required. Support includes mostly paper and some canvas or panels. There will be a slide presentation and plenty of discussion. Lunch will be provided each day.
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE
MONDAYS
April 3 - May 1, 2023
11 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Eastern time, US and Canada
ONLINE COURSE: Portraits from art history will be the point of departure for study of pictorial structure and invention, with a focus on the head. You may work from postcards, photocopies from books, or images on your devices (tablet or laptop). We will touch upon the universal proportions of the head. Mediums will include graphite, charcoal, collage, gouache, acrylic and/or oil paint or materials you have on hand. Each participant will look deeply at one or two images and generate permutations through exercises that lead to simplification and abstraction. This rigorous and wide-ranging analysis of images from our painting ancestors will feed our own work and imaginations as we engage with images that speak to us still.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
One of the pleasant things those of us who write or paint do is to have the daily miracle. It does come. ~ Gertrude Stein
April 19 - 23, 2023
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
IN PERSON AT BLACK POND. The workshop will center around painting from life. We will start with objects/still life and move to the figure and self portraits. The workshop will be made of many short exercises throughout the 5 days. Basic materials needed: oil paint or acrylic. No specific palette required. Supports include paper and canvas or panels. There will be a slide presentation and plenty of discussion. Lunches are included in the workshop fee.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
THURSDAY, MARCH 23
FRIDAY, MARCH 24
FRIDAY, MARCH 31
11 a.m.-2 p.m. eastern time
The key is what is within the artist. The artist can only paint what she or he is about.
— Lee Krasner
This online workshop is a three day course that focuses on the freedom of invention and how it may inform perceptual and observational painting. The first day will be a presentation of ideas that relate to the project. The second day will be a working day. The meeting will open and participants will be presented with an image. The image will be taken away and the participants will then work in their studios for about 2 hours. They will have the freedom to remember/imagine and invent what they saw.
The Zoom meeting will resume and participants will post their work and there will be a general discussion. At the end of that second day, the participants will then be given the image and they will be able to refer to it as they paint it again and post it in time for the third meeting.
On the third day, a week later, an in depth discussion/critique of the work will take place.
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE
WEDNESDAYS
March 1-29, 2023
1-4:30 p.m.
eastern time
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photos of ancestors — those we have known in life and those we can know only from the images — will be the sources for this workshop. These photos might trigger a narrative, imaginary or real. We might begin with an impulse for detail and description, a desire to imagine those we can know in no other way. The ultimate goal will be reduction and a search for how much is enough. By analyzing the images as designs in a rectangle, breaking down the pictorial elements through simplification and abstraction, we will build drawings and paintings that stand on their own. Mediums will include graphite, collage, acrylic and/or oil paint.
We will meet on Zoom and share the work in an online platform.
WITH MAUREEN NATHAN
March 3 - 5, 2023
Friday - Sunday
Hours: 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. eastern time
Two meetings per day:
11 a.m.
3 p.m.
ONLINE WORKSHOP. This drawing workshop is about freeing up expectations and engaging in the process of discovery. Participants will undertake various exercises with the aim of generating unexpected and compelling outcomes, as well as finding the drawing vocabulary unique to each artist. This workshop is especially helpful to artists who feel they are becoming stylized in their approach and is equally suitable for those new to drawing.
WITH ERIN RAEDEKE
February 16 - 20, 2023
Thursday - Monday
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
eastern time, US and Canada
Three meetings per day on Zoom:
10 a.m.
2 p.m.
5 p.m.
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Still-life painting gained prominence in the 16th century, but it dates back to ancient times. Today, the possibilities of this genre are unlimited. In this workshop we will begin by reflecting on our assumptions about what makes an interesting still life, and what we “bring to the table.” From there we will expand our ideas of what a still life can be. Composition, point of view, space, and color relationships are just some of the ideas that we will focus on.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
February 7-11, 2023
Tuesday-Saturday
All painters are interested in photography to a certain extent.
— David Hockney
ONLINE WORKSHOP
The focus of the workshop will be working from photo references. Since the mid 1800s, working from photographic sources has been a common practice in painting. We will explore ways to sharpen our personal language when painting from mediated imagery, as well as ways to add more adventure. This intensive five-day course is geared toward people who have a robust painting practice. Participants will meet in the morning to watch a presentation of ideas and exercises. They will work on their own and then meet again each morning for group discussion and more presentations.
Schedule:
Tuesday Feb 7
Intros and presentation of concepts and the exercise and discussion
Meeting time: 10 am EST (lasting 1 1/2 --2 hours)
Wednesday Feb 8
Presentation of concepts and the exercise and discussion
Meeting time: 10 am EST. (lasting 1 1/2 -- 2 hours)
Thursday Feb 9
Critique/feedback
Meeting time (lasts 2 1/2 hours):
GROUP A 10 am EST
GROUP B 12:30 pm EST
Friday Feb 10
Final presentations and discussions
Meeting time 10 am EST (lasting 1 1/2 -- 2 hours)
Saturday Feb 11
Final Critique/feedback
Meeting time (lasts 2 1/2 hours):
GROUP A 10 am EST
GROUP B 12:30 pm EST
WITH ROTEM AMIZUR
Sundays
January 8
January 15
January 22
January 29
February 5
2023
ONLINE WORKSHOP We will begin by painting papers with colors that excite us. Then, looking at old masters’ paintings, we will choose hues that create a sensation equivalent to what is evoked by them. Working only with our pre-painted papers helps us find unexpected color combinations. We look for relationships that feel good as opposed to "mixing the colors out there." Once colors are chosen and satisfying to us, we can dive into the continuous cycle of building, overlapping, changing and moving the cutout shapes — thus experiencing painting, drawing, observation, and invention as inseparable.
We will work small, with foam board and pins, pinning the cut-out shapes as we go along. Pinning as opposed to immediately gluing gives us a chance to constantly move shapes around. Making a variation, then another and another... Each new combination of colors leads us to see the reproduction in a new way — memory and familiarity making the game even more exciting and giving us the courage to make decisions we wouldn’t have dreamed of in the beginning. We are using the masters as our source but creating something distinctly personal and our own.
We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, and discuss work shared on Padlet.
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
TUESDAYS
January 3
January 10
January 17
January 24
January 31
2023
In this ONLINE class, we'll focus on the masterpieces of four female Italian painters, investigating what makes them so timelessly captivating. Using the method of transcription, we will draw from these paintings without copying them, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of these compositions. We'll begin by looking at ancient Roman paintings, into the Renaissance to Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Fede Galizia, and then towards the baroque with Artemisia Gentileschi. In each session we will explore a specific painting at length in a group discussion over Zoom. After the introduction to each painting, participants will have a week to prepare a drawing transcription as well as a chromatic study created with oil paints, to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece. MacGillis will present demos from her studio in Italy to show how she goes about mixing the colors in the paintings using a limited earth palette and palette knife.
Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the five paintings we will transcribe as well as paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be primed Fabriano paper provided for the color painting studies.
Work will be shared on an online platform.
THE COST OF THE KITS IS INCLUDED IN THE WORKSHOP PRICE.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
It’s easy to create art. What’s difficult is creating the new conditions in which art can arise.
— Brancusi
5 Weekly meetings on Wednesday:
NOVEMBER 2
NOVEMBER 9
NOVEMBER 16
Break for Thanksgiving
NOVEMBER 30
DECEMBER 7
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Going back to basics. During the first two weeks we will work on short, repetitive exercises, designed to develop muscle memory. We will push to those outer limits that we don't always access when painting. Two still-life assignments will follow — these will encourage working in an open-ended manner. Investigation and discovery are the goals in working from observation, whether objects or self-portraits. Most work will be carried out on paper or on top of old paintings. Participants may work on any scale. There will be slide presentations and demos that illustrate the focus for the week. Exercises will be introduced at each meeting. Participants will post their work on Padlet for group feedback on Zoom. Enrollment is limited to 16 participants.
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
December 2-4, 2022
Friday-Sunday
In this intensive ONLINE painting class, we'll create our own oil paint from Italian pigments. Once we've created our full earth color palette, we'll do gradient studies in order to understand the colors we are working with. Next we'll sketch a composition of lemons in our respective studios. Finally we'll create a still life of lemons. Each of the three days will include group discussions based on the images uploaded by the participants, guided by Lucy MacGillis. Lectures on the color yellow in painting, the lemon in the history of painting and demos from MacGillis' studio in Italy will also be included.
Prior to the class, participants will receive the kit from Zecchi in Florence containing Fabriano oil painting paper, the pigments, linseed oil, and a palette knife.
The cost of materials from Zecchi is included in the workshop fee.
WITH PETER VAN DYCK
ONLINE WORKSHOP
MONDAYS
October 31
November 7
November 14
November 21
November 28
2022
10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Eastern time, US and Canada
Using pencil sketches, color studies, larger drawings and painting on location, we will build paintings of interior spaces from direct observation. Our goal will be to merge two different ways of organizing and depicting space in a painting: one will be through drawing the 3-dimensional, volumetric quality of the space; the other will be through finding large color relationships to express the movement of light through space. Experience in basic observational drawing as well as with oil and/or acrylic paint will be helpful.
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
NOVEMBER 11-13, 2022
Friday-Sunday
In this three-day ONLINE course via Zoom with Italy-based Lucy MacGillis, painters will look closely at three 500-year-old Italian Renaissance and early Baroque masterpieces investigating what makes them so powerful. Each day will begin with an introduction to the painter whose work we are studying that day and the context in which the painting in question was created. Using transcription, we will draw from these paintings, not copying, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality, and repetition within the geometry of each. From Giorgione to the Baroque Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi we will explore a specific painting on paper and in a discussion. In the later part of each day, participants will create a painting sketch to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece. We will conclude with a group critique of the studies and a discussion about the colors which were used to create the original paintings.
Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the three paintings we will transcribe, as well as Fabriano drawing and primed paper measured in proportion to the works. Throughout the class there will be several demos from Lucy MacGillis' studio. THE COST OF THE KITS IS INCLUDED IN THE WORKSHOP PRICE.
WITH NANCY GRUSKIN
TUESDAYS
October 11
October 18
October 25
November 1
November 8
2022
11 a.m.-1 p.m. Eastern Time
ONLINE WORKSHOP Searching in the late 1970s for a subject matter that was neither representational nor wholly abstract, American painter Robert Zakanitch embraced ornamentation as an alternative entry into painting, a so-called “third door.” This online workshop will explore pattern and decoration through painting, printmaking, collage, and cardboard and papier-mâché constructions. Slide presentations and demos will introduce the exercises each week. As the workshop progresses, each participant will work toward creating their own installation that includes hand-made wallpaper, paintings and/or collages, and sculptures. Participants will post images of their work on Padlet for written feedback during the first four weeks of the workshop. We will look at Padlet together during our final Zoom meeting, for a group discussion of participants’ completed installations.
WITH MAUREEN NATHAN
WEDNESDAYS
October 12
October 19
October 26, 2022
11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Eastern time
ONLINE. This workshop will introduce printmaking techniques that do not require a printing press. Methods will include intaglio and relief printing, together with collage; each process will be introduced by video demonstrations and slideshows. You will learn to print an edition, as well as create unique layered monoprints. Work will be shared on an online platform called Padlet, which will make it easy to discuss our experience and knowledge throughout the workshop. We will use non-toxic water-based inks and, where possible, recycled materials.
WITH ELIZABETH O'REILLY
IN PERSON AT BLACK POND
September 16-18, 2022
Friday-Sunday
Painting on location is challenging and exciting, but choosing a motif from the complexity of what’s out there can be intimidating. Working from locations in the vicinity of Black Pond Studio, we will work quickly from observation, translating that complexity into a manageable motif. Redefining what we see into light and dark, warm and cool, and understanding spatial cues will help students to find structure in the outdoors and create space on the rectangle.
Finding a motif is an important element of working en plein air, but the nuts and bolts of painting outside of the studio are also an integral part of this workshop. Students will learn how to set up an easel and lay out a palette in order to work on one-shot paintings. Demonstrations and critique will be included. If there is rain, we will work from the windows of Black Pond’s spacious barn. Working indoors on a still life will also be an option.
Participants are free to work in oils or watercolor, and all levels are welcome.
Lunches are included in the cost of the workshop.
WITH NANCY McCARTHY
IN PERSON AT BLACK POND STUDIO
In our air-conditioned studio
August 25-28, 2022
Thursday-Sunday
10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Color Rules! It does, absolutely, but there are NO rules, no formulas, no tricks. There is intention, getting color to say what you want it to say. In this intensive workshop we consider basic color concepts such as value, hue, and saturation, and learn how to manipulate them to energize our work. Building color relationships with acrylic gouache on paper helps us understand how color functions and increase our personal color vocabulary. This workshop is meant for anyone working with color: painters, designers, architects, etc. WORKSHOP FEE INCLUDES LUNCHES.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
August 19-21, 2022
Friday-Sunday
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Mixed media/collage can be a gateway to new ideas and processes. By adding ready-made elements, you can test ideas, achieve meaning, add richness, and develop a broader vocabulary in your painting practice — in an instant!
This is a short but intense project-based workshop. There is a strong physical and sculptural aspect of collage; ideas will be worked out literally using your hands.
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY PRESENTATION: 6 pm EST two-hour presentation and explanation of the exercise/project. Q and A. Both groups attend.
SATURDAY FIRST CRIT:
Group A 4-6 pm EST (1-3 PST)
Group B 6:30 - 8:30 EST (3:30-5:30 PST)
SUNDAY FINAL CRIT:
Group B 4-6 pm EST (1-3 PST)
Group A 6:30 - 8:30 EST (3:30-5:30 PST)
WITH TIM KENNEDY and EVE MANSDORF
AUGUST 8 - 12, 2022
Monday - Friday
(TOP: Eve Mansdorf BOTTOM: Tim Kennedy)
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Since the invention of the paint tube in the early 19th century artists have been able to enter the landscape in order to paint directly from it. Think of Monet at Argenteuil or Fairfield Porter in Maine. Like an explorer setting out on an expedition, part of the fun in painting the landscape is organizing yourself and your materials to be able to do it at all. Landscape painters eye each others easels and palettes the way fishermen size up competitors’ rods and reels. Efficiency of movement and paring down what one carries to the bare essentials is learned and prized. Each artist finds his or her own process and way of being in the landscape. These locations need not be far off and exotic locations, but even painting a motif a few blocks or miles from the artist’s studio requires logistical planning.
This workshop promotes finding a site where people and nature coexist whether it be an industrial site, a nearby state park, a public swimming pool or the outskirts of a suburban neighborhood. The vagaries produced by human interaction with the landscape are the real subject. Will that car still be here tomorrow? Will the crop be harvested before I finish my painting? Temporality can lend urgency and vitality to an on site painting. The observation of how a place is being used can influence how the painter sees the motif. Each participant will produce a series of small one day paintings that explore both the natural beauty of a place and the human use of that space as it may be presented through objects, activities or built structures. During the course of the workshop we will use Zoom to meet two to three times a day to share our work.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
AUGUST 5-7, 2022
Friday-Sunday
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Mixed media/collage can be a gateway to new ideas and processes. By adding ready-made elements, you can test ideas, achieve meaning, add richness, and develop a broader vocabulary in your painting practice — in an instant!
This is a short but intense project-based workshop. There is a strong physical and sculptural aspect of collage; ideas will be worked out literally using your hands.
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY PRESENTATION: 6 pm EST two-hour presentation and explanation of the exercise/project. Q and A. Both groups attend.
SATURDAY FIRST CRIT:
Group A 4-6 pm EST (1-3 PST)
Group B 6:30 - 8:30 EST (3:30-5:30 PST)
SUNDAY FINAL CRIT:
Group B 4-6 pm EST (1-3 PST)
Group A 6:30 - 8:30 EST (3:30-5:30 PST)
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
June 24-26, 2022
Friday-Sunday
10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
IN PERSON. On site at Black Pond
FULLY VACCINATED
In this intensive three-day course, Lucy MacGillis shares her love for paint, beginning with its creation — mixing raw earth pigments from Italy with linseed oil. Working directly from observation of the model, participants learn not only how to create their own paint, but are guided in looking closely at the tones of the figure before them. By limiting the range of colors, painters use the relationships between colors to give them more force.
Using herculaneum and pozzuoli red, warm italian earth, yellow ochre, naples yellow, earth green, herculaneum blue, burnt and raw umber, roman black earth, and titanium white, participants are encouraged to paint with the palette knife via trial and error, mixing, placing the paint and scraping it off as needed — the result being a harmonious study of space, color and form.
Working directly from the observation of the nude model, participants are encouraged to reduce the figure into simple, carefully mixed planes of color.
On the each day there will be several fast studies as well as longer poses. Each day ends in a group critique including art historical examples, referring back to the Italian tradition of figure painting.
WITH NANCY McCARTHY
June 9-12, 2022
Thursday-Sunday
ONLINE WORKSHOP The striking contrasts of black and white, and the subtle differences between grays, will be the fuel for our images. First, using brushes with black ink on white paper, we will build compositions from shapes of black and white, with still life and the landscape as our sources. We will move into ink washes, then switch to white on black, and each day delve into more exercises using pens, cut paper, collage and block prints. Our aim is to generate a volume of drawings, from both observation and abstraction, which expand our visual vocabulary, sensitivity to value and shape, as well as compositional skills. We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, and Padlet share and discuss work.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
Five weekly meetings on WEDNESDAYS
April 6
April 13
April 20
April 27
May 4
11 a.m.-3 p.m. eastern time, US and Canada
ONLINE WORKSHOP. The objective for the course is to find new perspectives through short exercises. Exploration and discovery are the goal in working from life — objects or self portraits. Most work will be carried out on paper or on top of old paintings. Participants may work on any scale. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the week. Exercises will be introduced each meeting. Participants will post their work on Padlet for group feedback.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
APRIL 21-25, 2022
THURSDAY-MONDAY
“Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks.” – Mark Rothko
IN-PERSON WORKSHOP AT BLACK POND!
In celebration of being able to paint together in person, the workshop will center around painting from life. We will start with objects/still life and move to figures and self-portraits. The workshop will be made up of many short exercises throughout the 5 days. There will be a slide presentation and plenty of discussion.
Lunches are included in the workshop fee.
FULLY VACCINATED ONLY.
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
THURSDAYS
March 3
March 10
March 17
March 24
March 31
2022
In this five-week ONLINE course via Zoom with Italy-based Lucy MacGillis, painters will look closely at four 500-year-old Italian Renaissance and Rococo masterpieces, investigating what makes them so powerful. Each meeting will begin with an introduction to the painter whose work we are studying that week, and the context in which the painting was created. Using transcription, we will draw from these paintings, not copying, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality, and repetition within the geometry of each.
From Fra' Angelico and Botticelli to Andrea del Sarto and Tiepolo, we will explore a specific painting on paper and in discussion. Participants will create a painting sketch to better grasp the use of color in that week's Renaissance masterpiece. We will conclude with a group critique of the studies and a discussion about the colors which were used to create the original paintings. Work will be shared in an online platform.
Throughtout the class there will be several demos from Lucy MacGillis' studio.
Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the four paintings we will transcribe as well as Fabriano drawing and primed paper measured in proportion to the works. THE COST OF THE KITS IS INCLUDED IN THE WORKSHOP PRICE.
WITH ROTEM AMIZUR
March 18-22, 2022
Friday-Tuesday
ONLINE WORKSHOP We will begin by painting papers with colors that excite us. Then, looking at old masters’ paintings, we will choose hues that create a sensation equivalent to what is evoked by them. Working only with our pre-painted papers helps us find unexpected color combinations. We look for relationships that feel good as opposed to "mixing the colors out there." Once colors are chosen and satisfying to us, we can dive into the continuous cycle of building, overlapping, changing and moving the cutout shapes — thus experiencing painting, drawing, observation, and invention as inseparable.
We will work small, with foam board and pins, pinning the cut-out shapes as we go along. Pinning as opposed to immediately gluing gives us a chance to constantly move shapes around. Making a variation, then another and another... Each new combination of colors leads us to see the reproduction in a new way — memory and familiarity making the game even more exciting and giving us the courage to make decisions we wouldn’t have dreamed of in the beginning. We are using the masters as our source but creating something distinctly personal and our own.
We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, and discuss work shared on Padlet.
WITH MAUREEN NATHAN
March 25-27, 2022
Friday-Sunday
ONLINE WORKSHOP. This drawing workshop is about freeing up expectations and engaging in the process of discovery. Participants will undertake various exercises with the aim of generating unexpected and compelling outcomes, as well as finding the drawing vocabulary unique to each artist. This workshop is especially helpful to artists who feel they are becoming stylized in their approach and is equally suitable for those new to drawing.
WITH PETER VAN DYCK
Weekly on Sundays
February 6
February 13
February 20
February 27
March 6, 2022
ONLINE WORKSHOP
Using pencil sketches, color studies, larger drawings and painting on location, we will build paintings of interior spaces from direct observation. Our goal will be to merge two different ways of organizing and depicting space in a painting: one will be through drawing the 3-dimensional, volumetric quality of the space; the other will be through finding large color relationships to express the movement of light through space. Experience in basic observational drawing as well as with oil and/or acrylic paint will be helpful.
WITH JOE MORZUCH
Five weekly meetings
SATURDAYS
February 5
February 12
February 19
February 26
March 5, 2022
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Painting one’s reflected likeness is a strange and wonderful experience. It requires focus, patience, and the courage to look deeply at and within. With this workshop, participants will investigate the technical and conceptual challenges of painting self-portrait heads from direct observation. Referencing the work of historical and contemporary painters, participants will complete multiple works over the course of 5 weeks, guided by specific prompts and/or formal limitations. Each subsequent exercise will advance the concerns addressed the week before, resulting in an accumulated understanding of the complexities of painting a self-portrait from direct observation. Topics covered will include: the general structure and proportions of the human head, light, shadow, and tonality, form simplification and planar analysis, color temperature and intensity, and an exploration of various painting implements.
Workshop will be held on Zoom, and work will be shared on Padlet.
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE
Five weekly meetings.
WEDNESDAYS
February 2
February 9
February 16
February 23
March 2
2022
ONLINE WORKSHOP
I do not believe in things; I believe only in their relationship. For things to exist, there must first come into being a relationship between you and the things, or between the things themselves.
— Georges Braque
In this still-life workshop, participants will build and light their own setups, and have a full week between meetings to explore a series of exercises. Time lends depth to the painted image and frees us to pare down to the essential. The exercises include:
• Mapping the relationships between objects and the rectangle, using a specific drawing method.
• Exploring different limited palettes to discover the nature of a few paint colors at a time, in terms of opacity, transparency, and relative tinting strength.
• Shape will be central to our approach. Reducing the motif to10-15 shapes will bring the focus on color mixing and accurate value structure.
• Adjusting the colors in a multiple-pass painting to keep up with the way appearances can change from day to day.
Medium: oil paint
We will meet on Zoom and share work on an online platform
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
January 28-February 1
Friday-Tuesday
“If you want to have clean ideas, change them like shirts” — Francis Picabia
The objective for the course is to find new perspectives through short exercises. Exploration and discovery are the goal in working from life-- objects or self-portraits. Most work will be carried out on paper or on top of old paintings. Participants may work on any scale.
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Participants will meet daily on Zoom over the course of five days. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the day. Exercises will be introduced in the meeting each morning. Participants will post their work on Padlet and will have group feedback in the afternoon/evening.
WITH NANCY GRUSKIN
January 14-16, 2022
Friday-Sunday
ONLINE MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP. American artist Robert Zakanitch has described ornamentation as “the third door,” an alternative entry to painting from representation and abstraction. This three-day workshop will explore ornamentation and
pattern-making through collage, paint, and paper. We will begin on Friday with a slide presentation on the role of pattern in 20th- and 21st-century art. Morning Zoom meetings on Saturday and Sunday will include warm-up exercises and introduce assignments for the day. We will then reassemble on Zoom in the evening for group feedback and discussion. Participants will share their work on an online platform. The emphasis will be on experimentation and discovering new processes.
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE
Five weekly meetings
WEDNESDAYS
December 1, 2021
December 8, 2021
December 15, 2021
December 22, 2021
December 29, 2021
2-6 p.m. Eastern time, US and Canada
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photos of ancestors — those we have known in life and those we can know only from the images — will be the sources for this workshop. These photos might trigger a narrative, imaginary or real. We might begin with an impulse for detail and description, a desire to imagine those we can know in no other way. The ultimate goal will be reduction and a search for how much is enough. By analyzing the images as designs in a rectangle, breaking down the pictorial elements through simplification and abstraction, we will build drawings and paintings that stand on their own. Mediums will include graphite, collage, acrylic and/or oil paint.
We will meet on Zoom and share the work in an online platform.
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE
Five meetings
MONDAYS
11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Eastern time, US and Canada
November 1
November 8
November 15
November 22,
November 29, 2021
The figure attracts our attention more than any other subject. In this ONLINE workshop, we will work from images of models in specific lighting conditions. You will learn a drawing method that results in accuracy of proportion, an approach that is a way of looking and seeing, not a style. With practice, this method leads to an intuitive, personal balance between accuracy and individual voice. Exercises will explore line, shape, value, and color. Oil paint is the recommended medium. We will meet on Zoom and share the work in an online album.
WITH STEPHANIE PIERCE
Five weekly meetings.
TUESDAYS
November 2
November 9
November 16
November 23
November 30
1:00-4:30 p.m. eastern time, US and Canada
ONLINE WORKSHOP
In this painting workshop, students will explore light, time, and underlying geometry. Subjects lit by natural and artificial light will be painted from direct observation. Formal strategies such as reductive drawing, use of the grid, and collage will be investigated. Projects will examine color as light to create compositions that amplify aspects of the subject. As Giacometti said, “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”
Participants will work on a larger, ongoing painting throughout the five weeks, accompanied by smaller one-session works each week. Emphasis will be on keeping the work open, letting go of preconceived outcomes, and responding to weekly prompts. Reflecting on your work through writing will also be part of the process. Prior painting experience working from observation is recommended. Oil paint is the suggested medium.
Meetings will be held on Zoom, and work will be shared on an online platform.
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
November 12-14, 2021
Friday-Sunday
10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Eastern time, US and Canada.
Calculate for your own time zone
In this intensive three day ONLINE class, we will study the Italian Novecento, focusing on the works of three protagonists, Felice Casorati, Giorgio Morandi and Fausto Pirandello. After an art historical introduction to each painter and the context in which they were working, we will transcribe from a painting of theirs. Initially with a pencil and paper we will explore the composition, looking how and rhythm and duality are used create depth in each painting. In the second half of each day we will use oil paint to study the specific color relationships in these pieces and practice mixing paint.
Participants will receive a small packet in the mail prior to the class containing prints of the paintings we will be studying, Fabriano drawing paper measured with the proportional dimensions of the original as well as primed paper for painting the color study. The cost of supplied materials is included in the workshop fee.
Italy-based Lucy MacGillis enjoys sharing her knowledge of Italian art history from the perspective of a painter rather than that of a historian.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
OCTOBER 22-26, 2021
Friday-Tuesday
10:30 am.-4:30 p.m. eastern time, US and Canada
Calculate for your own time zone.
When you give up on the idea of right and wrong, you get rid of everything — freedom from ideas and responsibilities. — Agnes Martin
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Participants will meet daily on Zoom over the course of five days. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the day. Exercises will be introduced in the meeting each morning. Participants will post their work on Padlet and will have group feedback in the afternoon/evening.
Exploration and discovery are the main objectives for the course. The exercises will be based both from life and from photo sources.
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS
Five meetings
WEDNESDAYS
September 29
October 6
October 13
October 20
October 27
2021
11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Eastern time, US and Canada
In this intensive ONLINE course painters will look closely at 500 year old Italian masterpieces, investigating just what it is about them that is so timelessly captivating. Using the method of transcription, we will draw from these paintings each morning without copying them, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of these compositions. From Masaccio to Benozzo Gozzolli, Lippi, Sebastiano del Piombo, and concluding with Michelangelo, we will explore a specific painting at length on paper and in a group discussion over Zoom. Participants will also create a painting sketch to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece.
Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the five paintings we will transcribe as well as paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be primed Fabriano paper provided for afternoon painting studies. The cost of the supplied materials is included in the workshop fee.
WITH CLINTEL STEED
October 8-12, 2021
Friday-Tuesday
10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. eastern time,
US and Canada
Please calculate for your own time zone.
This ONLINE workshop will investigate the approach of the Nabis, specifically Vuillard and Bonnard. We will look at how these painters turned their home environments into personal narratives. Our own domestic spaces, and the mundane objects around us, will be our subject matter. Painting strictly from observation will free us to investigate how our own space relates to geometry and the rectangle. We will concentrate on structure (perspective, scale, and relationships) while considering color and light. Our challenge will be to look at our own living spaces to see how they can become meaningful through the act of painting.
There will be three meetings per day on Zoom. Work will be shared on an online platform.
WITH NANCY McCARTHY
ON SITE AT BLACK POND
(fully vaccinated only)
September 24-26, 2021
Friday-Sunday
10 a.m.-6 p.m.
As summer’s abundance fades and the quiet of autumn begins, we will observe and paint the complex landscape. Our focus will be summarizing this complexity into distinct shapes of value and hue. A series of exercises with large brushes and palette knives will encourage this process, and a one-session painting will be completed each day. we will also view contemporary and historical landscape painters and discuss the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors. This workshop will energize those who have painted outdoors many times as well as introduce this adventure to those doing so for the first time. Water based or oil paint may be used.
Lunch is included in the price of the workshop.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
AN ONLINE MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP
August 13-15, 2021
Friday-Sunday
“I thought art was a verb, rather than a noun” — Yoko Ono
WHY COLLAGE
Mixed media or collage can be a gateway to discover new ideas and processes by bringing in ready-made elements of our surroundings into our work. As a painter, I am constantly striving for richness and layers in my work. By adding imagery directly from the world around me I can test ideas, achieve meaning and develop a broader vocabulary in my painting practice -- in an instant!
This is a short but intense workshop. It is more project based rather than working on general fundamentals of painting within some context. There is a strong physical and sculptural aspect of collage. Ideas can be worked out literally using your hands.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
AN ONLINE MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP
August 20-22, 2021
Friday-Sunday
“I thought art was a verb, rather than a noun” — Yoko Ono
WHY COLLAGE
Mixed media or collage can be a gateway to discover new ideas and processes by bringing in ready-made elements of our surroundings into our work. As a painter, I am constantly striving for richness and layers in my work. By adding imagery directly from the world around me I can test ideas, achieve meaning and develop a broader vocabulary in my painting practice -- in an instant!
This is a short but intense workshop. It is more project based rather than working on general fundamentals of painting within some context. There is a strong physical and sculptural aspect of collage. Ideas can be worked out literally using your hands.
WITH TIM KENNEDY AND EVE MANSDORF
August 2-6, 2021
Monday-Friday
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Familiar and overlooked subjects will be the basis for unexpected and inspired paintings. Think of Bonnard’s windows or Fairfield Porter’s views of his neighborhood on Long Island. A landscape does not have to be a mountain in the distance, but might be a space as intimate as your back yard. Often the evidence of human presence can help to organize a motif, and objects can mitigate the boundless quality of landscape with specificity, narrative and humor. Such motifs present the possibility of contrasting the organic color and forms found in nature with synthetic color, shape and manufactured surfaces.
Participants will pick a site where people and nature coexist, whether it be a back yard, a park, a swimming pool, or the outskirts of a suburban neighborhood. Plan to produce a series of small, one-day paintings that explore both the natural beauty of a place and the human use of that space as it may be presented through objects, activities or built structures. We will use Zoom to meet two to three times a day to share our work.
ONLINE WORKSHOP
June 5-9, 2021
Saturday-Wednesday
Expand your watercolor fluency by experimenting with value, color, mark making and scale. Through a variety of exercises and techniques including staining, texture, dry brush, wet on wet and accidents, you will become more aware of how to manipulate the medium while maintaining its fluidity. Multiple studies will be created using references from nature. Other exercises may include working large (to put our body motion into the strokes), working abstractly, and creating collages from students’ own drawings and paintings. Looking at images of contemporary watercolor will be included. Participants should have some previous experience with watercolor.
This workshop will be held on Zoom, with three one-hour meetings per day.
WITH PETER VAN DYCK
ONLINE WORKSHOP
May 12-16, 2021
Wednesday-Sunday
Using pencil sketches, color studies, larger drawings and painting on location, we will build paintings of interior spaces from direct observation. Our goal will be to merge two different ways of organizing and depicting space in a painting: one will be through drawing the 3-dimensional, volumetric quality of the space; the other will be through finding large color relationships to express the movement of light through space. Experience in basic observational drawing as well as with oil and/or acrylic paint will be helpful.
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
May 7-11, 2021
Friday-Tuesday
When you give up on the idea of right and wrong, you get rid of everything — freedom from ideas and responsibilities. — Agnes Martin
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Participants will meet daily on Zoom over the course of five days. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the day. Exercises will be introduced in the meeting each morning. Participants will post their work on Padlet and will have group feedback in the afternoon/evening.
Exploration and discovery are the main objectives for the course. The exercises will be based both from life and from photo sources.
WITH ROTEM AMIZUR
May 1-4, 2021
Saturday-Tuesday
ONLINE WORKSHOP We will begin by painting papers with colors that excite us. Then, looking at old masters’ paintings, we will choose hues that create a sensation equivalent to what is evoked by them. Working only with our pre-painted papers helps us find unexpected color combinations. We look for relationships that feel good as opposed to "mixing the colors out there." Once colors are chosen and satisfying to us, we can dive into the continuous cycle of building, overlapping, changing and moving the cutout shapes — thus experiencing painting, drawing, observation, and invention as inseparable.
We will work small, with foam board and pins, pinning the cut-out shapes as we go along. Pinning as opposed to immediately gluing gives us a chance to constantly move shapes around. Making a variation, then another and another... Each new combination of colors leads us to see the reproduction in a new way — memory and familiarity making the game even more exciting and giving us the courage to make decisions we wouldn’t have dreamed of in the beginning. We are using the masters as our source but creating something distinctly personal and our own.
We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, share and discuss work.
Five meetings
WEDNESDAYS
March 31
April 7
April 14
April 21
April 28
2021
1:30-5 p.m. eastern US time
(calculate for your own time zone)
When you give up on the idea of right and wrong, you get rid of everything — freedom from ideas and responsibilities.
— Agnes Martin
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Participants will meet on Wednesdays over the course of five weeks. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the week. Each week exercises will be introduced.
Participants will post their work on Padlet and will have group feedback sessions during the meetings. Exploration and discovery are the main objectives for the course. The exercises will be based both from life and from photo sources.
April 17-19, 2021
Saturday-Monday
10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. US eastern time
Check your own time zone
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Color Rules! It does, absolutely, but there are NO rules, no formulas, no tricks. There is intention, getting color to say what you want it to say. In this intensive workshop we consider basic color concepts such as value, hue, and saturation and learn how to manipulate them to energize our work. Building color relationships with gouache on paper helps up understand how color functions and to build our personal color vocabulary. This workshop is meant for anyone working with color: painters, designers, architects, etc. We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, share and discuss work.
April 9-11, 2021
Friday-Sunday
In this intensive three-day ONLINE workshop, we will grind our own paints from raw Italian pigments and walnut oil, for a full earth palette. We will use this palette to create a still life painting of lemons. There will be a strong emphasis on mixing oil paint and the use of the palette knife. Parallel to the exploration of this common yellow form we will explore how we perceive yellow visually, and how artists have historically represented the lemon beginning with early roman frescoes from Pompeii. How does the plasticity of the lemon’s yellow oval affect the composition? The role of the lemon in Italy’s history will accompany our visual exploration.
We will meet on Zoom two or three times per day, and share the work in online albums.
Participants will receive a selection of earth pigments, walnut oil and other materials from Zecchi in Florence. The cost of supplied materials is included in the workshop fee.
WITH GWEN STRAHLE
MARCH 27-30, 2021
Saturday-Tuesday
ONLINE WORKSHOP
Drawing can be painterly, whether using charcoal, pencil or ink. This workshop will stimulate and maintain a continuous flow of drawing energy and examination. We will work from observation, using various materials and approaches. Exercises will be woven into the structure, including drawing from memory, gestures, drawing from other members of the studio. We will build abstractly to serve observation — drawing, re-drawing, re-thinking, re-seeing, re-working, to pull the drawing out from the inside, through process. Let’s make changes in order to dig deeper into the drawing experience, and provide opportunity for new invention. And, of course, it’s a marathon, so non-stop drawing...
Price includes model fee.
There will be three meetings per day on Zoom, and work will be shared and discussed as a group on Padlet.
March 11-13, 2021
Thursday-Saturday
ONLINE WORKSHOP The striking contrasts of black and white, and the subtle differences between grays, will be the fuel for our images. First, using brushes with black ink on white paper, we will build compositions from shapes of black and white, with still life and the landscape as our sources. We will move into ink washes, then switch to white on black, and each day delve into more exercises using pens, cut paper, collage and block prints. Our aim is to generate a volume of drawings, from both observation and abstraction, which expand our visual vocabulary, sensitivity to value and shape, as well as compositional skills. We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, share and discuss work.
March 6-8, 2021
Saturday-Monday
“A good actor can have a part in ten different plays; an object can play a role in ten different pictures.” Henri Matisse
In this three-day ONLINE workshop, we will make drawings, collages, and paintings of still life objects. These objects will serve as a springboard for experimentation and individual expression. Exercises will focus on playing with form, color and composition, as we see how far we can push our work’s relationship to reality. As we become more acquainted with these objects during the course of the workshop, we will take more liberties with their depiction, incorporating invented imagery and outside source material. Artists will be working in collage and with drawing materials, and water-based and/or oil paint. Slide shows of the work of modern and contemporary artists will supplement the exercises. It is intended to invigorate the practice of newer and more experienced artists alike. The workshop will meet on Zoom, two or three times per day, and work will be shared in an online album for discussion.
February 12-17, 2021
Friday-Wednesday
This ONLINE workshop, with Italy-based painter Lucy MacGillis, will look closely at five 500-year-old Italian secular masterpieces, investigating what makes them so powerful. Each day will begin with an introduction to the painter whose work we are studying, and the context in which the painting was created. We will draw from these paintings, searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of the painting. Specific paintings from the Renaissance will be our sources. In the afternoons, participants will create a painted sketch to better grasp the use of color in that day's painting. We will conclude with a group critique of the studies and a discussion about the colors that were used to create the original paintings.
Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing prints of the five paintings we will transcribe, as well as Fabriano paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be primed paper provided for afternoon painting studies. (The workshop fee includes the cost of materials and shipping.) The three daily meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared in online albums.
Limited to 15 participants. This five day workshop runs over six days, with a day off midweek.
January 13-17, 2021
Wednesday - Sunday
This ONLINE workshop will present a drawing method that results in accuracy of proportion. We will use straight lines to find relationships between the rectangle and the parts of the motif. This approach is a way of looking and seeing, not a style, and can be used to find the essential structure of any subject. We will work from images of the figure and the head. With practice, this method leads to an intuitive, personal balance between accuracy and individual voice.
We will meet on Zoom two or three times each day, and share the work in online albums.
ONLINE WORKSHOP
January 7-10, 2021
Thursday-Sunday
There is a way of constructing a painting that is comparable to writing fiction without an outline. Usually writers and painters compose by starting with a general outline, a design, where parts support the whole. But it is possible to reverse this method. Rather than composing the whole rectangle first, a painter’s starting point might be a detail: a small thing seen, a peculiar shape, shadow or color note. This visual starting point might not be important in itself, but for our eyes, it has a specific allure. By working out from this detail, we can embark on a painting journey where our habits of focus and hierarchy are upended, and all things seen have the potential to matter. By delaying our claim to a finished design, we will organically find a strong composition that is an authentic and possibly surprising account of an intimate visual experience.
We will meet on Zoom two or three times each day, and share the work in online albums.
ONLINE WORKSHOP
December 12-16, 2020
Saturday-Wednesday
“I don't know what perfection is.”
— Henry Taylor
Many painters work in isolation and find themselves in a rut or just need some direction. Both good habits and bad can get in the way of progress. The workshop is an opportunity to explore the process of painting through exercises with specific objectives. We'll do some premier coup and longer term work. Exploration will be encouraged! Hopefully it will be a week of stretching into new territory which each painter can carry into their own practice.
The exercises will be both working from still life and photos. Each day there will be presentations and group discussions to try to maintain the intimate environment of an in-person workshop. This workshop is best suited to intermediate to advanced painters.
December 5-9, 2020
Saturday-Wednesday
ONLINE WORKSHOP The head we see every day is a meaningful, personal and convenient subject for a painting. This workshop takes a reductive approach to painting the head, seeking how little information is enough. Universal proportions of the head will be covered, and a simple, intuitive drawing method will be introduced to help with drawing accuracy. Using paint, we will investigate whether translating the head into a few accurate shapes of color and value can create a truer likeness than a detailed description can. We will meet on Zoom two or three times each day, and share the work in online albums.
November 9-11, 2020
Monday-Wednesday
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Through an integrative, critical, and sequential process, participants will develop their own distinctive language to create new abstract works. Varied drawing experiences will help participants build vocabulary, create space and structure, and investigate what’s possible. The 3-day drawing workshop will become an experimental lab to generate new work informed by presentations, discussions, visual strategizing, and studio exploration. A description of an assignment to be completed before the start of the workshop will be sent to each participant with instructions and examples. The completed assignment is instrumental in launching the process covered by the workshop. Workshop will be held on Zoom. Three meetings each day.
ONLINE WORKSHOP
October 24-28, 2020
Saturday-Wednesday
Expand your watercolor fluency by experimenting with value, color, mark making and scale. Through a variety of exercises and techniques including staining, texture, dry brush, wet on wet and accidents, you will become more aware of how to manipulate the medium while maintaining its fluidity. Multiple studies will be created using references from nature. Other exercises may include working large (to put our body motion into the strokes), working abstractly, and creating collages from students’ own drawings and paintings. Looking at images of contemporary watercolor will be included. Participants should have some previous experience with watercolor.
This workshop will be held on Zoom, with three one-hour meetings per day.
October 10-14, 2020
Saturday-Wednesday
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photos of ancestors — those we have known in life and those we can know only from the images — will be the sources for this workshop. These photos might trigger a narrative, imaginary or real. We might begin with an impulse for detail and description, a desire to imagine those we can know in no other way. The ultimate goal will be reduction and a search for how much is enough. By analyzing the images as designs in a rectangle, breaking down the pictorial elements through simplification and abstraction, we will build drawings and paintings that stand on their own. Mediums will include graphite, collage, acrylic and/or oil paint.
We will meet online two or three times each day, and share the work, on Zoom.
NOW ONLINE
September 11-13, 2020
Friday-Sunday
8 a.m.-2 p.m. US Pacific time
11 a.m.-5 p.m. US eastern time
5 p.m.-11 p.m. Europe time
Check your own time zone
Color Rules! It does, absolutely, but there are NO rules, no formulas, no tricks. There is intention, getting color to say what you want it to say. In this intensive workshop we consider basic color concepts such as value, hue, and saturation and learn how to manipulate them to energize our work. Building color relationships with gouache on paper helps up understand how color functions and to build our personal color vocabulary. This workshop is meant for anyone working with color: painters, designers, architects, etc. We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, share and discuss work.
August 17-21, 2020
Monday-Friday
8 a.m.-2 p.m. US Pacific time
11 a.m.-5 p.m. US eastern time
5 p.m.-11 p.m. Europe time
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photography as a reference in painting is as old as the photograph itself. It is a tremendous tool that can transform the painter’s practice and content. The workshop will be centered on working from photos.The first two days will be spent painting short exercises. The rest of the week will be devoted to three paintings. They will be discussed at the end of the last day. There will be presentations, demonstrations and group discussions to try to maintain the intimate environment of a normal workshop.
Jennifer will be live for the first hour of each day to introduce the exercises and give demos or slideshows.
She will meet again with the group 1.5 hours before the end of the day for discussion of the work.
Materials:
Assortment of oils, brushes, medium such as Galkyd Lite
Newsprint
Any of the following supports: Canvas, panels, gessoed boards or paper for oils,
Chair or two as still life object
Still life objects
Photos will be provided
August 24-28, 2020
Monday-Friday
8 a.m.-2 p.m. US Pacific time
11 a.m.-5 p.m. US eastern time
5 p.m.-11 p.m. Europe time
ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photography as a reference in painting is as old as the photograph itself. It is a tremendous tool that can transform the painter’s practice and content. The workshop will be centered on working from photos.The first two days will be spent painting short exercises. The rest of the week will be devoted to three paintings. They will be discussed at the end of the last day. There will be presentations, demonstrations and group discussions to try to maintain the intimate environment of a normal workshop.
Jennifer will be live for the first hour of each day to introduce the exercises and give demos or slideshows.
She will meet again with the group 1.5 hours before the end of the day for discussion of the work.
Materials:
Assortment of oils, brushes, medium such as Galkyd Lite
Newsprint
Any of the following supports: Canvas, panels, gessoed boards or paper for oils,
Chair or two as still life object
Still life objects
Photos will be provided
July 9-13, 2020
10 a.m.-4 p.m. US east coast time
7 a.m.-1 p.m. US west coast time
4 p.m.-10 p.m. Italy time
Lucy will be live, and meet with participants, at the beginning, middle and end of each day of the workshop.
In this five-day ONLINE course, painters will look closely at 500 year old Italian masterpieces, investigating what makes them so powerful. Using transcription, we will draw from these paintings each morning, not copying, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of each. From Piero della Francesca to Tintoretto, Raffaello and concluding with Florentine master Pontormo, we will explore a specific painting on paper and in a discussion (using Zoom.) In the afternoons, participants will create a painting sketch to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece.
Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the five paintings we will transcribe as well as paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be hand primed paper provided for afternoon painting studies.
Limited to 12 participants.
SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2020
1-5 p.m. Eastern US time
ONLINE COURSE: In one four-hour Zoom session, we will approach the figure from three directions:
1. Blind contour drawing to fine-tune hand-to-eye coordination and remove any pressure about making a “good” drawing.
2. A method to help you draw the figure accurately and in proportion.
3. Finally, a fresh look at gesture drawing, to end on a note of freedom.
There will be an introductory image presentation; after that you will draw from images shown on your laptop or other device. At the end, you will be invited to upload three drawings from the session to share with the group, and talk about your experience with each of the three methods. Perfect for those with limited drawing experience, or for seasoned artists who want to refresh their grasp of the classic ways of seeing and drawing.
Limited to 20 participants.
SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2020
1-5 p.m. Eastern US time
ONLINE COURSE: In one four-hour Zoom session, we will approach the figure from three directions:
1. Blind contour drawing to fine-tune hand-to-eye coordination and remove any pressure about making a “good” drawing.
2. A method to help you draw the figure accurately and in proportion.
3. Finally, a fresh look at gesture drawing, to end on a note of freedom.
There will be an introductory image presentation; after that you will draw from images shown on your laptop or other device. At the end, you will be invited to upload three drawings from the session to share with the group, and talk about your experience with each of the three methods. Perfect for those with limited drawing experience, or for seasoned artists who want to refresh their grasp of the classic ways of seeing and drawing.
Limited to 20 participants.
June 15-19, 2020
Monday-Friday
10 a.m.-4 p.m. each day. (Eastern US time)
ONLINE COURSE: Portraits from art history will be the point of departure for study of pictorial structure and invention, with a focus on the head. We will work from reproductions of portraits from art history. You may work from postcards, photocopies from books, or images on your devices (tablet or laptop). We will touch upon the universal proportions of the head. Mediums will include graphite, charcoal, collage, gouache, acrylic and/or oil paint or materials you have on hand. Each participant will look deeply at one or two images and generate permutations through exercises that lead to simplification and abstraction. This rigorous and wide-ranging analysis of images from our painting ancestors will feed our own work and imaginations as we engage with images that speak to us still.
Daily schedule: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
(Eastern US time)
Image presentation: 10-11 a.m.
(Eastern US time)
Work on the exercise of the day
30-minute break
~ 1 p.m. upload images of exercise in progress
Continue with the exercise.
~ 4 p.m. upload images of exercise as is, with brief group conversation
24-hour studio access! to continue or finish exercise.
Limited to 15 participants
November 8-12, 2019
Friday-Tuesday
The act of painting is not about executing something well. It’s what happens instead.
The week will be about setting up exercises that will encourage something unexpected to happen.
During the five days of the workshop we will work on an enormous still life, work from a model and finally end with a day of self portraits from life or photos. We will also devote one day to working from photos. Three of the five days will focus on figuration.
The goals: to learn to trust first instincts, to hone skills by painting what is directly observed — but without overthinking or second-guessing, rendering or decorating. It will be a week of unfiltered mark making; maybe some stretching into new territory which each painter can carry into her own practice.
Participants who paint in oils will get the most out of this workshop.
Price includes a model session.
July 8-12, 2019
Monday-Friday
As a painting subject, the garden sits somewhere between landscape and domestic interior. A planned space used for aesthetic contemplation or for growing food, gardens have also served artists, since the Roman era, as a setting for pictorial narratives.
In this workshop we will make paintings about gardens, working from direct observation and invention. Painting perceptually in the gardens at Black Pond, we will also work from models, photographic sources, still lives of both organic forms and hardware store items. We will use the pure shapes of flowers and fruited vines, sun hats, watering cans, hammocks and hoes. We may evoke themes of Adam and Eve, Agony in the Garden, or a Constant Gardener who digs for truth.
Basic experience in perceptual painting is recommended for participants of this workshop.
JUNE 26-28, 2019
Wednesday-Friday
In this intensive three-day course, Lucy MacGillis shares her love for paint, beginning with its creation — mixing raw earth pigments from Italy with linseed oil. Venetian and Pozzuoli red, warm Italian earth, yellow ochre, Naples yellow, earth green, Herculaneum blue, burnt and raw umber, roman black earth, and titanium white are created by participants and then used to respond to the still life.
Participants will make several studies and a group critique (including art historical examples) ends each day.
May 30-June 2, 2019
Thursday-Sunday
10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
The natural world has remained a potent source for artists throughout history. The focus of this workshop is simplifying complex vistas into distinct shapes of specific value and hue. A series of exercises with large brushes and palette knives will encourage this process. We will view contemporary and historical landscape painters and discuss the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors. Each day a one-session painting will be completed. Those who have painted outdoors many times or those doing so for the first time are welcome to join this intense workshop meant to energize your painting practice. Water based or oil paint may be used.
MAY 4-8, 2019
Saturday-Wednesday
The act of painting is not about executing something well. It’s what happened instead.
The week will be about setting up exercises that will encourage something unexpected to happen.
During the five days of the workshop we will work on an enormous still life, then work from a model and finally end with a day of self portraits from life or photos. We will also devote one day to working from photos.
The goals: to learn to trust first instincts, to hone skills by painting what is directly observed — but without overthinking or second-guessing, rendering or decorating. It will be a week of unfiltered mark making; maybe some stretching into new territory which each painter can carry into her own practice.
MARCH 28-31, 2019
Thursday-Sunday
Drawing can be painterly, whether using charcoal, pencil or ink. This workshop will stimulate and maintain a continuous flow of drawing energy and examination. We will work from a still-life set-up that includes the model, using various materials and approaches. Exercises will be woven into the structure, including drawing from memory, gestures, drawing from other members of the studio. We will build abstractly to serve observation — drawing, re-drawing, re-thinking, re-seeing, re-working, to pull the drawing out from the inside, through process. Let’s make changes in order to dig deeper into the drawing experience, and provide opportunity for new invention. And, of course, it’s a marathon, so non-stop drawing...
10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Don't care about football? Join us for a six-hour model session. Single pose all day. No instruction, just a chance to paint or draw uninterrupted. Price includes model, beverages, and snacks. Bring your lunch and painting or drawing supplies. We have easels and palette tables; feel free to bring your own. Only odorless solvent (Gamsol), if used. Come as early as 9:30 a.m. for coffee and to set up. Model will start at 10. Limit: 10 participants.
SEPTEMBER 24-28, 2018
(Monday-Friday)
Geiger’s paintings are informed by art history, intuition and a desire to create visual drama. These forces create tension between nature and the internal world of emotion. In this workshop we will develop a series of studies to address drawing, composition, tonal and color relationships separately BEFORE the final painting. This preparatory work will help participants approach a painting with greater understanding and confidence. Painters will consider compositional ideas with thumbnails and drawings, create an underlying tonal structure with black and white paintings and finally experiment with color using a limited palette. Working from still-life setups, participants will make important decisions before attempting their final piece.
AUGUST 20-24, 2018 (Monday-Friday)
The week will start out with painting from a large still life. These will be quick reactions on small fugitive supports such as canvas boards or paper. Mid-week we will work from a model. Again, these will be quick, untethered exercises. The last two days we will be working from photos that each participant will provide.
Whether working from the natural world, or the mediated world, these subjects are just vehicles that trigger quick responses. Done from the gut, premier coup — no tweaking later! Each afternoon will be spent on one canvas — a new one each day. The goals: to learn to trust first instincts, to hone skills by painting what is directly observed — but without overthinking or second-guessing, rendering or decorating. It will be a week of unfiltered mark making; maybe some stretching into new territory which each painter can carry into her own practice.
MAY 31-JUNE 3, 2018
(Thursday through Sunday)
10 a.m.– 6 p.m.
Those who have painted outdoors many times or those doing so for the first time are welcome to join this outdoor painting experience meant to enrich your painting practice. We will work to simplify the complex vistas of the natural world into shapes of specific value and hue, starting with a series of exercises to encourage rapid work with large brushes and palette knives. Over the four days students will complete four one-sitting paintings. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors and an image presentation of the work of contemporary and historical landscape painters. Black Pond Studio’s 40 acres provide fields, trees, swamp and pond, as well as indoor spaces to work if rain interrupts us. All mediums are welcome.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6-MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2017
10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
How much is enough? Time lends depth to the painted image and frees us to pare down to the essential. Participants will build and light individual still-life setups and have four 6-hour sessions to complete one painting. This will be an antidote to the typical three-hour classroom paintings.
Day one: Build a setup and light it. Do several drawings to analyze the selection. Arrive at a final drawing on the painting support by the end of the day.
Day two: Do a first pass on the painting, covering it with your best color. By the end of the session the paint will be thin or scraped.
Day three: Do a second pass on the painting, assessing the color and value relationships and changing them, based on current lighting conditions.
Day four: Final pass on the painting, improving color and value relationships. Group discussion and review.
Medium: oil paint
June 12-16, 2017
In the brush doing what it’s doing, it will stumble on what one couldn’t do oneself.
— Robert Motherwell.
The workshop will be based on working from a large still life set up. The morning session will consist of short, small paintings done on fugitive supports such as canvas boards or primed paper. These will be done premier coup — no tweaking later! Each afternoon will be spent on one canvas — a new one each day. The goals: to learn to trust first instincts; to hone skills by painting what is directly observed — but without overthinking or second-guessing.
June 24, 25 and 26, 2017.
10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
This workshop takes a reductive approach to painting the head, experimenting with how little information is necessary. We will investigate whether translating the head into simple, accurate shapes of color and value can create a truer likeness than detailed description can. Universal proportions of the head will be covered. Light and the way it affects perception of structure will be emphasized, as well as finding specific and surprising color. We will work from the model. Self-portraits and a study of historical and contemporary portraiture will be included. Some painting experience required; oil paint is the preferred medium. Limited to seven participants. Price includes model fee.
May 6, 7 and 13, 2017
(Saturday, Sunday and Saturday.) 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Those who have painted outdoors many times or those doing so for the first time are welcome to join this outdoor painting experience meant to energize your painting practice. We will work to simplify the complex vistas of the natural world into shapes of specific value and hue, starting with a series of exercises to encourage rapid work with large brushes and palette knives. Over the three days students will complete three one-sitting paintings. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors and an image presentation of the work of contemporary and historical landscape painters. Black Pond Studio’s 40 acres provide fields, trees, swamp and pond, as well as indoor spaces to work if rain interrupts us. All mediums are welcome.
Sara. Join us for a six-hour model session. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Single pose all day. No instruction, just a chance to paint or draw uninterrupted. Price includes model, beverages, and snacks. Bring your lunch. Bring a portable easel and painting or drawing supplies. Only odorless solvent (Gamsol), if used. Come as early as 10:30 a.m. for coffee and to set up. Model will start at 11. Limit: 10 participants.
Sunday, October 16
Sunday, October 23
Sunday, October 30
Sunday, November 6
11 a.m.-5 p.m.
How much is enough? Time lends depth to the painted image and frees us to pare down to the essential. Participants will build and light individual still-life setups and have four 6-hour sessions to complete one painting. This will be an antidote to the typical three-hour classroom paintings.
Day one: Build a setup and light it. Do several drawings to analyze the selection. Arrive at a final drawing on the painting support by the end of the day.
Day two: Do a first pass on the painting, covering it with your best color. By the end of the session the paint will be thin or scraped.
Day three: Do a second pass on the painting, assessing the color and value relationships and changing them, based on current lighting conditions.
Day four: Final pass on the painting, improving color and value relationships. Group discussion and review.
Medium: oil paint
September 10,11 and 17, 2016 (Saturday, Sunday and Saturday.) 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Those who have painted outdoors many times or those doing so for the first time are welcome join this outdoor painting experience meant to energize your painting practice. We will work to simplify the complex vistas of the natural world into shapes of specific value and hue, starting with a series of exercises to encourage rapid work with large brushes and palette knives. Over the three days students will complete three one-sitting paintings. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors and an image presentation of the work of contemporary and historical landscape painters. Black Pond Studio’s 40 acres provide fields, trees, swamp and pond, as well as indoor spaces to work if rain interrupts us. All mediums are welcome. Limit: 10 participants.
September 25-29, 2017
We will begin by walking the landscape and recording motifs with photos and quick compositional sketches that will serve as studio reference. The majority of our investigations will take place in studio with a collage resource file that we will produce and use as a group.
There will be ample opportunity for one-on-one feedback and group discussion. Objectives include color mixing, developing composition skills, and resolving a painting in one sitting.
Three types of small painted compositions will be created in a studio setting:
1) abstract collages, with or without over-painted additions.
2) small format paintings from landscape motifs
3) combination collages/paintings from landscape motifs.
Participants will produce two pieces each day of the workshop.
Materials:
• acrylic paints
• small format art papers or painting panels
(9 x 12 inches is a good panel size. 11x14 inch heavy art papers will provide some space for a border around the work).
• Water soluble white glue (Lepages or Natura are common brands. Yes! Paste is an ideal glue choice)
• A brayer or small rolling pin for the collage work.
Limit: 10 participants
We undertake analysis of works of art, not because we mean to copy them, but in order to set ourselves in motion. — Paul Klee Complex paintings from art history will be the jumping-off place for exploration of pictorial structure and invention. Mediums will include graphite, charcoal, collage, acrylic and/or oil paint. Each participant will look deeply at one or two images and generate permutations through simplification and abstraction. We will work from reproductions of paintings from the 14th through the 18th centuries. This rigorous and wide-ranging analysis of images from our painting ancestors will feed our own work and imagination as we engage with images that speak to us still. Recommended: start with one image that you would like to work with, in various media. Bring a few extra images (postcards, printouts from online, etc.) in case you exhaust the possibilities or your interest in the first image. (collage image by Kathy Rubado)
Saturday, October 14, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
(Rain date: Sunday, October 15)
Get professional guidance for your chainsaw work!
CHAINSAW SAFETY Level 1 introduces open face felling and the techniques for safe chainsaw use. Topics include personal protective equipment, chainsaw safety features, chainsaw reactive forces, bore cutting, pre-planning the fell, and understanding hinge wood strength. Every participant will fell one tree during this workshop.
Rehoboth, Massachusetts
Please bring your lunch.
LIMIT: 10 participants
Sunday, February 7, 2016.
11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Don't care about football? Join us for a six-hour model session. Single pose all day. No instruction, just a chance to paint or draw uninterrupted. Price includes model, beverages, and snacks. Bring your lunch. Bring a portable easel and painting or drawing supplies. Only odorless solvent (Gamsol), if used. Come as early as 10:30 a.m. for coffee and to set up. Model will start at 11. Limit: 10 participants.