The White Vase, Mary Minifie, 34″ x 26″, oil
Edmund Tarbell Prize for Painting, Guild of Boston Artists
This intensive workshop will explore the most important aspects of producing a still life painting – it will run for three days with 2 three-hour sessions per day. Throughout the course students will produce at least two still lifes, one floral and one non-floral (or whatever their choosing) so as to decide what best suits their interest and skill. The aim is to have a near-finished painting, sized approximately 11″x14″ or 16″x20″, by the end of the workshop.
COMPOSITION: The still lifes will be pre-arranged in the interest of time, but before starting out we will discuss the ideas of color families, value contrasts, variety of size, color and value in the choice of objects. We will also focus on the abstraction of the value shapes and how they are arranged in the rectangle of the canvas.
COLOR NOTES: Keen emphasis will be placed on correctly observing the color notes in relation to each other at outset of the painting.
EDGES: Whether whisper-soft or razor-sharp, the workshop will help students to see and recognize them, know when and how to make use them and ways in which to create various kinds of edges.
LIGHT EFFECT: A good painting should have a strong sense of light. We will discuss the visual order that is needed to create a sense of light, the lost and foundness involved in that order, along with the practice of “squinting” to find that lostness. We will also explore color chroma, or intensity, in relation to light, and methods of understanding and managing seemingly difficult or unnamable colors.
Students are welcome to bring other paintings for a short critique on Day Three.
Tuition: $435
LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE. PRE-BOOKING HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.