Suitable for newcomers and for more experienced painters wanting to try something new and exciting.
Day 1 will begin with an introduction to abstract art, and a discussion about what art means today as a visual manifestation of human expression. Students will be invited to share (if they wish) the kind of abstract art they find appealing and what they would like to develop themselves.
Following this, we will focus on colour. We will look at examples of artists who have magnified and celebrated colour in their work, and use acrylic paint to make our own experimental pieces that celebrate colour.
We will look at contrasting colour, paint opacity/transparency and experiment layering lights over darks, darks over lights, bright over dull, blending edges etc. We will have time for appraisal and feedback, appreciating different people’s reactions and responses to our work.
We will experiment with different ways of applying colour: brushing, sponging, scraping, using different tools and textured items to apply paint with.
Day 2 will focus on composition, space and mark making. This will improve the ability to isolate visual information and notice the essential qualities of a painting, which will in turn help us distinguish and employ differing abstract techniques.
We will practise locating a focal area in various examples, and how to emphasise this by mark making. Intuitive exercises will help us to discover our own unique marks and voice – wavy lines, straight lines, splatters, random, controlled, etc. We will look at shapes and use the shapes that appeal to us to create our own original pieces of art.
We will look at opposites: saturated and neutral, dark and light, busy and quiet, textured and flat.
Looking into the arrangement of these elements and their relationship to one another we will learn how to put these together onto paper/canvas, producing aesthetically pleasing arrangements and patterns.
Day 3 will combine concepts from days 1 and 2, plus experimentation with layering for depth, self-exploring, and how to be “confidently spontaneous and intuitive”.
We will be given the opportunity to choose from different loose “themes” which we will interpret with our own creativity and style.
Example “Themes”:– Portraiture – Musical Energy – Peace and Simplicity – Softness – Clash and Disorder – Invisible Currents – Intersections – Melancholy.
Every student will receive specific and individual feedback, suggestions, encouragement and advice from the tutor throughout, with the freedom to be as vocal or as quiet as desired during discussion times.
This course will give you opportunities for improving practical skills; practising both inward reflection and outward appreciation; and developing your unique artistic voice.
Dates
Sundays from 12pm – 4pm
1st, 8th and 15th October
Venue
Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX
Situated in the centre of Liverpool, just behind Church Street, down Church Alley and in front of Liverpool ONE. You can enter the building via the front courtyard off School Lane, or through the garden at the back off College Lane. Nearest train station- Liverpool Central.
Cost
£135 for the 3-week course (full course must be booked in advance)
Materials
- · Plenty of acrylic paint in lots of different colours (The Works and Art Discount do the cheapest versions)
- · Brushes of varying sizes and shapes
- · 2-3 sponges (art sponges or domestic sponges will work)
- · Small tools, i.e. squeegee/scraper/palette knife/even a short ruler for the scraping technique
- · 4-8 small to medium sized canvas boards (The Works and Home Bargains sell quite cheap ones) or other preferred substrates.
- · A4 or A3 sketchpad
- · Coloured pencils and / or oil pastels
- · Apron/painting shirt (acrylic paint stains as it is plastic based)
- · Pictures/scrap book of abstract art/ideas that you find inspiring (Optional)