Whenever we are painting, regardless of the subject matter, what we are really painting is light. This workshop will take a “nuts and bolts” approach to understanding how light and color really work and also give students plenty of opportunities to practice putting the knowledge in to practice. In this course students will learn how to convincingly paint light and form in full color. Through a combination of quick color mixing exercises and simple still life paintings students will learn how to take the mystery out of color painting. Students will learn how to accurately mix color, how to avoid “dead” “muddy” or “chalky” color and most importantly, how to begin thinking of color not as a set of isolated pigments but rather as an interconnected series of relationships. This class will include in depth lectures and demonstrations by the instructor on the properties of color and the physics of light, as well as detailed demonstrations and explanations of how to approach each step of the painting process from beginning to end. In addition to learning about color and light, this course will serve as an opportunity for students to become familiar with each step of the process of creating finished paintings