Beginning Painting

Students will learn the fundamentals of painting: materials and tools, paint handling, shape, value, color mixing and composition. The course provides a solid foundation for students interested in developing their perceptual and aesthetic skills. It runs the full academic year with a different emphasis each term. Fall term covers shape, value and planes in depth, winter emphasizes color, and spring is space and composition – although each are covered to different degrees in every term. It is recommended that students take all three terms for maximum benefit, however they can be taken independently as well. Subject matter includes still life, interior space and figure.

Students will learn the fundamentals of painting: materials and tools, paint handling, shape, value, color mixing and composition. The course provides a solid foundation for students interested in developing their perceptual and aesthetic skills. It runs the full academic year with a different emphasis each term. Fall term covers shape, value and planes in depth, winter emphasizes color, and spring is space and composition – although each are covered to different degrees in every term. It is recommended that students take all three terms for maximum benefit, however they can be taken independently as well. Subject matter includes still life, interior space and figure.

For students new to painting as well as those with some basic painting experience, this class is an exploration into figure/space relationships, value and color issues of design and composition, color orchestration and planar structure, as well as the use of mark as a vehicle for expression and content. Students will work from still life, interior space and the figure, as well as individual sources as subject matter as they move into making the work more personal, expressive and inventive.

Good figure painting starts with good palette control, temperature shifts, and preserving saturation in skin tones. Learn how to organize and maintain a palette in order to create luminous figure paintings. Through a well-maintained palette and specific strategies to create intense and subtle light and mood, you will create flesh and richly colored fabrics using the figure in both period and contemporary clothing.

For students with some basic painting experience, this class is a further exploration into figure/space relationships, issues of design and composition, color orchestration and planar structure, as well as the use of mark as a vehicle for expression and content. Students will work from still life, interior space and the figure as subject matter as they move into making the work more personal, expressive and inventive.

This class will explore drawing as a means to communicate and start a dialogue with the viewer. Over the course of 10 weeks, students will develop and expand their own vocabulary that comes out of seeing, intuition and the materials themselves. Students will explore intentionality, including early decisions like size, scale, and format- and even further to titling your work and how to talk about the work. Taking advantage of prompts, in class conversation and critique, this class will push students to bridge the gap between classwork, working on their own, and building a body of work. Students will practice writing statements, descriptions, as well as giving artist talks. The instructor will be present in class the first two weeks, and every other week thereafter. Students will still meet every week for studio work days. This way, students will experience independence in their studio practice, while still taking advantage of fellow studio/classmates. Students will be encouraged to reach out to fellow artists/students for problem solving and advice. At the end of the independent classes, students will be asked to send a review of their workday, in-progress photos, and complete a writing prompt (given by the instructor), which will be emailed to Katie. Email dialogue between students and the instructor will help expand students’ language and ability to write about themselves and their work— an important tool, especially when applying to exhibitions. One on one, in-progress critiques with the instructor, as well as group in progress and final critiques will be planned and given as deadlines on day one. Practicing managing time with several deadlines, will also be explored. This class will be a lot of fun, with a lot of freedom to explore, encourage one another, and push your own work to new and exciting places.

Contemporary still life painter Erin Raedeke breaks open the world of what still life can be for students. Students will examine what has been handed down over centuries in the realm of still life and learn to challenge that by pushing parameters and questioning assumptions. Once we are open enough to strip away those assumptions, all kinds of possibilities open up and surprising things can emerge. Teetering on the edge of abstraction and reality, looking closely at color relationships, and recognizing the beauty of overlooked things as subject, you will see that anything you stumble upon can be observed and painted with meaning, nuance and new eyes.

While strengthening perceptual and technical skills, this course will investigate the materials, expressive content and visual concepts of painting and drawing as they relate to the human form. Students work towards a personal sensibility, while learning to express the complexities of the human form in its spatial environment. Gesture, proportion, skeletal structure, planar structure and placement within the rectangle are all addressed. While primarily a painting class, students are welcome to draw or use wet drawing media.

This class is for intermediate and advanced level students who have a commitment to painting and seek to develop a personal vocabulary and direction that will begin to define their own identity as a painter. With guidance from the instructor, students will explore sources and subjects of their choice, working independently both inside and outside of class. A model will be available for a five week pose for those who want to take advantage of the opportunity to sustain a long pose or do multiple versions of one.