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Approaches to Painting

Accessing your Creativity for Beginners

Advanced Painting Techniques

Painting from Photographs

Master Class in Portraiture

Drawing & Sketching for Beginners

Landscape Painting En Plein Air

Acrylic Painting

Painting: Independent Studies

Drawing in Colour

Approaches to Painting

This class will help students further define and develop their approaches to painting, under the guidance of a professional artist. Through lessons geared at refining perceptual skills, drawing as the foundation for painting, paint application and colour comprehension, students will begin to feel comfortable with painting as their medium of choice. Still life, photos and existing images will be utilized and students can paint in their choice of oils or acrylics. This course is suitable for those with previous drawing experience.

Accessing your Creativity for Beginners

Come and break through or discover the blocks that may be inhibiting your use of creativity in your work. This workshop will help students believe in and develop their own creative process through a unique series of exercises in drawing and sketching. This class is perfect for anyone interested and curious about the creative process and how it can help in your work and in your life.

Advanced Painting Techniques

In this intensive painting course, students will study and reproduce a painting from the subject matter of their own choosing. This week long workshop is designed to help students to determine and refine their method of painting. Plenty of one-on-one guidance and critiquing will be provided, in an effort to help artists identify and best resolve problem areas in their painting. This course is best suited for students who have previous drawing and painting experience. Students can work in either oils or acrylics and must bring a photograph of their choice to class.

Painting from Photographs

Learn how to work from your photographs, to paint expressive and believable images, by going beyond the flatness of 2-D. In this week long, intensive class, students will improve their technical painting skills through the process of completing a single painting. Composition, colour theory and mixing, and how they apply to painting techniques will be emphasized. Students may choose to paint in either acrylic or oils. A photo, of the student's choosing must be brought to the first class.

Master Class in Portraiture

Live and accurate portrait painting or drawing is the greatest challenge an artist can face. To paint a person clearly and simply, with beauty and strength, to paint the humanity inside the person through their outer body is the hardest and greatest goal. To render with the skills of past masters while still feeling fresh, to capture a portrait that feels like it is alive and full of intelligence and emotion, is to jump into the world of the great artists of times past. The only pre-requisites for this course are a serious work ethic and a sincere desire to learn. There will be a one-hour lunch break each day.

Drawing & Sketching for Beginners

This workshop is designed for beginners and those wishing to improve their drawing skills and refine their understanding of visual language. Using pencils, conté, charcoal and pastels, you will learn fundamental techniques such as line weights, shading and highlighting. This condensed program will help students become confident with the basic tools of visual expression and provide a good foundation to further studies in painting.

Landscape Painting En Plein Air

This is a wonderful opportunity for painting enthusiasts to learn how to paint outdoors, from nature. To accurately paint light and colour effects in landscape renderings, artists must learn to paint directly from life. Students will learn to focus on the important details of the subject, to maximize painting time outdoors and create successful pieces of art. Plenty of demonstrations and one-on-one critiques will be provided as students paint daily on location. Each student must provide their own portable easel, as well as their own transportation. A digital camera would also be helpful to take reference photos. In inclement weather, an indoor location will be arranged.

Acrylic Painting

This workshop will focus on the fundamentals of colour theory, paint handling and application, while developing one's own creative and perceptual skills. This is an introductory course in acrylic painting, suitable for beginners or as a "refresher" for those who have not painted recently or those who would like a supportive environment for summer painting fun. With plenty of guidance and individual attention, students will feel ready to explore the next step in painting upon completing this intensive workshop.

Painting: Independent Studies

This workshop will help students further define and develop their own personal painting style under the guidance of a professional artist. Daily lessons will be geared at refining perceptual skills, paint application and advanced colour comprehension. Students will feel better equipped to start creating a body of work based on personal interests and subject matter. Students should have some previous painting experience.

Drawing in Colour

Pastels are one of the most immediate and satisfying mediums to work in. They can produce intense, vivid colours or soft and subtle shades and were also used by many famous artists including Renoir and Degas. A great introduction to colour, for people who are contemplating a painting course, this program is guaranteed to take your drawing abilities to the next level. Pastel is a crayon-like medium that combines the best qualities of drawing and painting. It is an expressive medium, which will allow for a more satisfying drawing experience. Working from photos and still life, students will develop their understanding of color theory, harmony and composition. No previous experience is necessary.