Think Like a Still Life Painter: Still Life/Portrait

Think Like a Still Life Painter: Still Life/Portrait

Workshop | Available

All Levels

4/29/2024-5/2/2024

9:00 AM-4:00 PM on Mon Tue Wed Th

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$650.00

$65.00

In nature, light reveals color. In painting, color reveals light. Learning to understand lighting phenomena gives us more freedom in choosing how we paint what we see, rather than having to look to nature for every decision. We are concerned with realism and abstraction. How can we make imperfect paintings that are intriguing and compelling? Still life and portraiture both provide a reason to set up figure/ground challenges so we can paint to learn. In this class you can choose to paint either one. Paintings start and end with an idea, and the process can take many different forms. The brush is loaded with accumulated knowledge. In this workshop, you’ll be presented with approaches that will change your thinking and invite you to see differently. Start with what you do know, and expand your skills and your comfort zone. Plan on some serious learning in a lighthearted atmosphere! www.aimeeerickson.com

 

SKILL LEVEL: Appropriate for all levels; true beginners are advised to familiarize themselves with tools and materials before class starts.

CLASS SCHEDULE

Day 1: Morning: Canvas tone explained. Demo/color exercise (sketchbook or small panel)

Afternoon:  FBI Witness Protection exercise (on toned canvas) AM: no model.

PM: model or still life

Day 2: Morning: Demo: Flat Shadows approach

Afternoon:  Students paint, roving instruction

AM: model

PM: model, still life

Day 3: Morning: Demo: Light, Color, and Paint

Afternoon: Students paint, roving instruction

AM: model

PM: model, still life

Day 4: Morning: Students paint

Afternoon: Review student work. All questions addressed.

AM: model or still life

PM: none

Erickson, Aimee

“Color has emotional weight and is related to the shape of space. Drawing or painting, for me, means to look at the thing and transmit its vitality to the canvas.” Aimee Erickson is a representational oil painter. Born in Paris (1967) and raised in Sunnyvale, California, she started oil painting at age eight. After earning a BFA in Visual Communication Design/Illustration, she developed a warm, inviting pictorial voice grounded in traditional realism, informed by the principles of design, and inspired by nature and human experience. She has also studied with a number of prominent painters. Her approach to painting tends to be very direct and experimental, without a set routine, and leans toward the abstract; she uses brushes mostly, palette knives frequently, and sometimes a bigger scraper or straightedge. Aimee teaches painting, drawing, and color theory at venues nationwide and overseas. She has a particular interest in what enables or inhibits artistic progress. How do we learn to see what we cannot yet see? How does expectation influence our ability to perceive? One of the winningest painters in the plein air world, Aimee took home Best of Show and Artists' Choice at Plein Air Easton in 2019; she has also won Best of Show at Laguna, Olmsted, Carmel, Sonoma, and Pacific Northwest Plein Air. She was a finalist at the Portrait Society of America, is a signature member with multiple awards from Oil Painters of America, and won Best of Show at an American Women Artists national show. In 1997 she painted the official gubernatorial portrait of Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts. She has travelled to China and Russia to paint and is an inaugural member of En Train Air. Aimee lives in Portland, Oregon, and carries a sketchbook.