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Sign up for the mailing list to be notified of new workshops.
Contact us at blackpondstudio@gmail.com for our address.
Scroll down for complete listings.
DRAWING: ALL OUTDOORS
WITH DENNIS CONGDON
September 20-24, 2019
Friday-Tuesday
“A drawing of a tree shows, not a tree, but a tree being-looked-at …”
— John Berger, “ Drawn to the Moment.”
The edge of the woods has always been a rich and specific location between shade and sun, and the preferred home to much flora and fauna …and many painters.
In this workshop we will make drawings at the edge of the woods – from shade looking to light and from light looking into shade. We will explore the brambles, hedge, hummocks, copse, and tump of the Black Pond acreage. We will discuss how one chooses a motif. And we will study techniques for developing smaller plein-air drawings into larger scale studio drawings, working with ink, ink wash, charcoals, and pencil.
Participants must bring a love of drawing and a hat with a brim.
September 20-24, 2019
Friday-Tuesday
“A drawing of a tree shows, not a tree, but a tree being-looked-at …”
— John Berger, “ Drawn to the Moment.”
The edge of the woods has always been a rich and specific location between shade and sun, and the preferred home to much flora and fauna …and many painters.
In this workshop we will make drawings at the edge of the woods – from shade looking to light and from light looking into shade. We will explore the brambles, hedge, hummocks, copse, and tump of the Black Pond acreage. We will discuss how one chooses a motif. And we will study techniques for developing smaller plein-air drawings into larger scale studio drawings, working with ink, ink wash, charcoals, and pencil.
Participants must bring a love of drawing and a hat with a brim.
THE ACT OF PAINTING
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
November 8-12, 2019
Friday-Tuesday
THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL. Please email blackpondstudio@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list.
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.
November 8-12, 2019
Friday-Tuesday
THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL. Please email blackpondstudio@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list.
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.
PHOTO AS CATALYST
WITH JANICE NOWINSKI
March 27-29, 2020
Friday-Sunday
How can we best use the photograph as source material for paintings? In this workshop we will consider which information we glean from a photograph and how we transform that information into work that is personal. Where can the photo lead us in terms of memory, narrative, metaphor and invention? And how do the painter’s mark, color, and use of material contribute to the content? We will depart from purely perceptual painting and “paint the emotion awakened by what you see,” using photographs as a catalyst. This workshop is for experienced painters. Limited to ten participants.
March 27-29, 2020
Friday-Sunday
How can we best use the photograph as source material for paintings? In this workshop we will consider which information we glean from a photograph and how we transform that information into work that is personal. Where can the photo lead us in terms of memory, narrative, metaphor and invention? And how do the painter’s mark, color, and use of material contribute to the content? We will depart from purely perceptual painting and “paint the emotion awakened by what you see,” using photographs as a catalyst. This workshop is for experienced painters. Limited to ten participants.
COLOR RULES
WITH NANCY McCARTHY
May 15-17, 2020
Friday-Sunday
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.
May 15-17, 2020
Friday-Sunday
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.
WATERCOLOR: BREAK NEW GROUND
WITH ELIZABETH O'REILLY
June 25-29, 2020
Thursday-Monday
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.
June 25-29, 2020
Thursday-Monday
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.
LINEAGE INTO PAINT
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE
July10-14, 2020
Friday-Tuesday
THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL.
Please email blackpondstudio@gmail.com to be added to the wait list.
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.
July10-14, 2020
Friday-Tuesday
THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL.
Please email blackpondstudio@gmail.com to be added to the wait list.
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.