Description
We will be immersed in all aspects of painting, learning about and practising different approaches to materials, methods and ideas. Often learning about painting materials and techniques is relegated to the inferior status of skills or craft; in fact where ideas meet materials unexpected things happen. Until exploration and making takes place within a visual medium, the range and possibilities of materials remain quiet to the thinker as they contemplate their idea(s) within a different stream.
The course in detail
LEVEL: This course is suitable for a range of levels of experience, the common factor being a desire to learn more about and develop your painting.
During the course we will cover materials of painting beginning with surfaces, from traditional canvas and wood panels to newer materials such as aluminium and linoleum, moving through the range of types of paint including oil, acrylic, gouache, watercolour, egg tempera and the mediums and additives available for each, both traditional and recent developments like acrylic gels and crackle mediums.
We will cover a range of painting techniques achievable with these materials and the options within mixed media combinations. Whether you like the smooth dragging and blending of Gerhard Richter, the clean lines of Michael Craig Martin or the gestural drips of Jackson Pollock, the language of marks and effects in paint will be explored and demystified. Broaden your vocabulary in painting and you will become more fluent and versatile as a painter.
The focus will also move to content and ideas; the different ways we can develop them in painting. We can start with an idea or allow an idea to emerge from the painting process. Looking at ways to brainstorm through encountering and juxtaposing imagery such as in collage we can find meaning by noting where we become interested. Exploring other means such as the use of technology e.g. iPads and computers, we can learn how to use them like sketchbooks to run through many possibilities quickly.
The end of the academic year will culminate in a group exhibition.
