Painting

This is a structured oil painting course for the beginning or returning student emphasizing individual instruction and guidance appropriate with each students’ skill level. Discussions regarding materials and tools of oil painting will be combined with technique demonstrations for working with oil on canvas. Topics will include color mixing, composition, light, and rendering techniques. No experience is necessary.

Explore the fun of pure color on wet paper! In this class, you’ll discover your own approach to painting with transparent watercolors. Learn how to use the materials, practice different techniques and apply color theory while creating vibrant watercolor paintings of various subject matter.

This class will cover a variety of painting exercises designed to further students’ knowledge of color, tone, paint mixing, and drawing with paint. Working with gouache, ink, watercolor and acrylics, students will paint from their own choice of still life objects. The instructor will offer technical assistance and highlight significant artists and works that will cater to students individual interests in developing their work.

Painting intuitively connects us to our source of creativity, often bringing about transformative changes. Come have fun with brushes of flowing tempera color on large sheets of white paper, discovering your own unique imagery. By focusing on the painting process, without observing a subject or even having anything in mind, we can explore color, form, and gesture, guided by an inner sense of direction, free from expectations. Guided visualization summons a body-centered, nonverbal approach. Marks suggest shapes, and images begin to emerge. A nurturing environment supports taking risks, opening to possibilities, and staying present through creative blocks. Coming together in a circle offers opportunities for sharing, non-judgementally, and for learning ways to continue painting at home.

Engage in the tradition of painting the human figure. Students will study techniques for creating volume with light and shadow, and explore the power of color, producing effective and beautiful compositions. Representations of the figure in classical and contemporary art will be discussed.

In this course, students will focus on creating accurate and compelling portraits using gouache, ink and watercolor. Working from live models and photo reference materials, students will learn about the head and facial structural proportions that we share, as well as pinpointing that which makes us unique. Students will learn proper facial feature placement through measuring techniques to create a likeness of the model. This class will also look to classic and modern portrait artists for inspiration. All levels welcome.

Take your painting skills to the next level in this continuing study of painting skills and techniques. Students will complete several finished works, including still life, and their own personal projects under the instructor’s guidance. This is a great course for someone who has some experience in oil painting, or who has taken Principles of Oil Painting at The Arts Center.

In this course, students will work independently as they are guided through investigating the general language of abstract painting. Exploring direct contact with paint on canvas through different techniques and processes, the instructor will guide the student to develop their work in a different manner from a formal approach to understand effective use of color, texture, value, space, and non-representational modes of composition.

This class will explore the popular, inspiring genre of landscape. This class will enable the painting student to develop an attitude or “landscape sense” that will help build a confident approach to landscape painting. Students will discover the technical knowledge that will serve the painter well in his or her search for expressive creativity in landscape painting. Some drawing and painting experience will be helpful in the class.

Explore the fun of pure color on wet paper! In this class, you’ll discover your own approach to painting with transparent watercolors. Learn how to use the materials, practice different techniques and apply color theory while creating vibrant watercolor paintings of various subject matter.

Plein air painting (painting on location in the open-air) is a technique identified with the Impressionists and their examination of natural light. This class will meet at Peebles Island in the main parking lot, then move to paint on location. Students will develop and rely on direct personal observation to experience and paint nature as a moment of life, represented through color, value, and line. The instructor will offer demos, discussion, and guidance. Students must bring their own folding easel, canvas, paints, brushes, rags, solvents, and palette knives. This class will run rain or shine.