Description
Painterly Painting – A Two-day Workshop by DIANE PIKE *FULL – Please call the office to sign up.
Thursday & Friday, June 8 – 9, 2023
10:00am – 4:00pm,
$315 members / $335 non-members
Cape Cod Art Center, Barnstable, Massachusetts
How do I take my paintings from tight and unexpressive to loose and painterly? This workshop will address several tools in the artist’s toolbox that can help you achieve a more personal expression in your paintings. This workshop will be divided into two days.
Day one will be spent doing several quick painting exercises dealing with color mixing, color harmony, using different kinds of brushes and good brushwork, and doing quick paintings in 50 strokes or less.
Day two will be spent doing one or two paintings using the techniques we tried out on Day One. You may paint from personal photos for these paintings. I will demo on both days. Let’s get loose!
Thursday/Friday, June 8 – 9, 2023
Day One: We will be doing several quick exercises, so bring several surfaces to paint on: a pad of good multi media paper would be great. I have found that Arches Oil Paper (140 lb, cold or hot press) is a less costly surface to paint on than canvas panels. It is available in a pad of 12 sheets, 12×16, from Dick Blick, Cheap Joe’s or Jerry’s Artarama for $32. You can also use the 9×12 size. If you prefer painting on canvas panels bring at least four 12×16 or 16×20 panels for the exercises. We will be dividing them into halves or fourths so we end up with several areas for quick exercises.
Day Two: We will be using what we learned on Day One to create a painting (or two) on the second day. Subject matter is your choice. You may paint from photos. You may paint in any size you like for these paintings. They can be panels or canvas, sanded pastel paper, Arches Oil Paper or whatever you want to paint on.
Supply List for Painterly Painting
Pastel Paper: If you will be painting with soft pastels, I recommend using a sanded paper like UArt, and bringing several sheets at least 12×16 or smaller. Bring a surface to mount the paper to as well. As for the exercises, bring a variety of paper to paint on. They don’t have to be sanded, although I find them nice to work on.
Gouache or Watercolors: Bring whatever colors you like to use and different size paper to paint on.
Brushes: If you are in need of some brushes, I recommend Robert Simmon’s “Simply Simmons Long Handle” for workshop brushes. They are reasonably priced and can be found at most art supply stores. Try to bring brushes in a variety of sizes, Flats or Brights—#6,7,or 8’s. Try to bring at least one filbert, Extra Long size, No. 4 or 6. These are great for painting loose, because they are hard to control. I also use Silver Brush Grand Prix Bristle Brushes and Robert Simmon’s Long Handle Sapphire Brushes.
For Oil Painters: Gamsol or Odor Free Turpenoid and a can to hold it, paper towels—Viva are the best.
Palette Colors: Those who have taken classes from me know that I put many colors on my palette! That being said, I am not asking you to bring two dozen tubes of paint. Bring whatever colors you enjoy working with, but try to include the following colors if you can:
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Lemon
Cadmium Yellow Deep
Cadmium Red Light or Napthol Red
Permanent Alizarin Crimson
Ultramarine Blue
Cobalt Blue or Manganese Blue Hue
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Green or a similar hued green
Permanent Green Light
Paynes Grey
FYI: Gamblin makes some fun inexpensive colors, around $10 for 37 ml. They are RADIANT BLUE, RADIANT GREEN, RADIANT LEMON, RADIANT MAGENTA, RADIANT TURQUOISE AND RADIANT VIOLET. Bring a few of these if you like. Certainly not required, but a nice array of colors for a good price.
Gouache or Watercolors: Bring whatever colors you like to use and paper to paint on.
Pastel Colors: Bring whatever colors you like to use!
Sketch Book and Fine Black Sharpies (not thin Ultra Fine). A Gray Metallic Sharpie is great for adding a third value to sketches. Bring one if you can find it.
For the Color Mixing Exercises:
Bring some kind of Multi Media paper or inexpensive canvas to paint on.
Bring a sense of adventure—let’s get loose!!!
My email is: fishartz@msn.com
BIO: Diane Pike was born in Iowa, and moved to Boulder, Colorado at an early age. Boulder was home for 50 years until the Lake Norman area of North Carolina became her residence in late 2008. In 2020, change came once again, and Diane moved back to Colorado. Diane graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 1975 with a focus on graphic design and printmaking. She took her first painting class in 2002, learning the Henry Hensche tradition — The Art of Color Seeing–studying the effect that light has on color. It is this approach that fuels Diane’s paintings and infuses them with saturated color and abstract shapes. Diane paints full-time at her studio in Longmont, Colorado and also teaches several workshops a year—Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Alaska, North Carolina and Ireland have been recent workshop locations. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Be it witnessing the aftermath of Nature’s response to the reality of climate change or the end result of simply pulling memories and dreams out of conversations shared—light and its effect on color are the tools used to translate what is seen and what is imagined. What comes off the end of the paintbrush can be challenging and unsettling, but dialogues can be like that. The struggle is in the notoriously difficult task of simply getting out of the way.
