Vibrant Florals
Thu 21 Aug - 3 hour(s)
Emma McClure
A playful and process-led workshop exploring the possibilities of mixed media painting through drawing, composition and mark-making.
Course details
This course revels in the bounty of materials available to you as a painter. Use differences in texture and viscosity to describe organic coastal forms. Combine sheer washes and sprays with thicker, impasto marks by layering, scraping and saturating, building the dramatic expanse of the sea.
Plunge into painting the ocean in all its mesmerising wildness. Learn from the masters of layering and gesture – Claude Monet, Cy Twombly, Joan Eardley and more – to create energy and texture from beneath the surface of your paintings. Jill Eisele offers her professional insight into techniques that often took artists years to develop – and how to apply them in your own expressive seascapes.
Over the three days you’ll gradually incorporate colour and materials to build layers of interest, experimenting with how different consistencies react to one another. Rough and viscous textures like salt, wax and oil bars combine with washes, glazes and inky pools, replicating the movements, meetings and retreating of the sea, land and sky.
You’ll spend time surrounded by the sea, working en plein air – a method that revolutionised Monet’s work, allowing him to ‘seize’ the experience of a landscape and truly capture it in his. Work with specific colour palettes and combinations to evoke tone and mood in your paintings. Learn to control saturation and translucency of colour to build intensity.
Collecting from the treasure trove of research and experiments you’ve gathered, you’ll create vibrant, semi-abstract paintings with a powerful personal connection to the ocean.
Day to day plan
This is a rough indication of what to expect over the course. However sometimes the structure of the days may alter depending on the nature of the group and weather.
Day 1
After a brief introduction we will explore the work of artists such as Monet, Tress and Twombly, specifically how they created texture in their surfaces. We will spend time both outside and in the studio, experimenting with a variety of materials in monochrome and creating surfaces to use in the coming days. We will then explore colour control, saturation and translucency.
Day 2
We will continue to explore colour today, creating depth using washes and ink. We will then explore earth tones and gestural mark making using a palette knife.
Day 3
After some sketching outside we will consolidate work and research from previous days to create semi-abstract paintings. We’ll apply principles of composition and structure gleaned from deconstructing historic works to create strong, interesting paintings.
What will I learn?
- Professional insight into the techniques used by expressive landscape painters.
- Exploration and experimentation in a wide variety of materials.
- A technical understanding of colour theory.
- Confidence and control in using colour to create saturation, translucency and glazes.
- An understanding of principles of structure and composition to create strong paintings.
Who would this course suit?
If you’re inspired by the ever-changing ocean and would like to put that inspiration into practice, whatever your experience, this course is for you. Jill Eisele’s positivity and enthusiasm create the ideal conditions for venturing into experimentation and abstraction. If gestural and luscious landscape paintings appeal to you, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn the tips and techniques for creating textured and intriguing seascapes.
Taught by
What to Bring
Our studios are fully equipped and we provide you with all the materials you need for your course. However, if you have a favourite set of brushes or any specialist materials that you would prefer to use, please bring them with you.
Timings and Breaks
The first day starts at 10am and finishes at 4.30pm, please aim to arrive ten to fifteen minutes before the start time.
All course days after that start at 9.30am and finish at 4pm and there will be an hour for lunch. There are plenty of nearby places to eat and we will serve tea and coffee at break times during the day.
FAQs
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