Summer school: Figure into Painting with Dan Coombs, 31 Jul to 4 Aug 2023

This five-day in studio course with Dan Coombs will show us how to use the figure to communicate emotion and to create an effect in the viewer. We will explore different poses and compositions, using single isolated figures, or arrangements of multiple figures, to build narratives and create compositions. We will work from the model each morning and use these drawings to create collages and studies that will be made into paintings on the final day of the course. We will look at how the body carries and communicates emotions and unconscious thought, and also, study the way single or multiple figures can be arranged to create narratives. We will blur the division between figuration and abstraction to allow the possibilities for painting that arise from the figure to be as far reaching and varied as possible. Each student will be encouraged to follow their own intuition in order to give form to their own unique voice in working from the model.