Personal Enrichment

Have you ever wanted to paint an thick oil, laying down the paint like buttery frosting on a cake? How about the need to paint direct expressive marks that reveal your very soul, as opposed to hiding how you make every mark? This fun-filled oil painting class takes you beyond the guilty pleasure of painting thick to a place where you will get quality results technically and compositionally. Using the oil painting methods of the Venetian and Italian painters, Michael will show you how to use oil paint and mediums to make your colors brighter, adding a luster to the appearance; and improve the viscosity of the paint. For the beginner or experienced artist alike, participants will learn how to paint directly using different sizes and types of palette knives and brushes. They will learn how to paint with a “loaded brush or palette knife” to get amazing impasto results that add texture and depth to their subjects. Michael will demonstrate and put you at ease with his approachable teaching style as he reveals the painters in history who painted using impasto oil painting methods. He will help students apply these painterly principals through in-class painting assignments that are meant to demystify the impasto oil process. Artists will also be encouraged to participate in weekly out-of-class assignments that gives participants the opportunities to reinforce what was learned in class and apply those skills to personal painting ideas at home. Group critiques will be featured to offer constructive suggestions and provide the artist with a supportive opportunity to develop their powers to talk about their work. Participants may choose instructor resources or their own subjects from drawings, experiences from memory, photographs or from direct observation to develop their own painting themes. The course gives technical insight through visual aid presentations of oil painting movements and artist trends that define modern impasto oil painting today. This course will give the artist a solid base from which to build oil painting experiences upon and will take place in a safe studio classroom environment. Come and experience a course that develops in you a new appreciation for this versatile medium.

SUGESTED ART MATERIALS FOR OIL PAINTERS

 1. Stretched canvas, boards, Masonite or wood panels, or stretched canvases. Recommended maximum size 8 in. x 10 in. or 11 in. x 14 in., [not much larger for in-class studies] and bring a minimum of 1 substrate surfaces per class and one for out-of-class assignments, size is depended on personal preference and goals.

2. Paint Box and/or Pack; preferably large enough to contain your palette as well as paints, brushes etc.

3. Bottle or small pint can of liquin or Black Oil Wax Medium (That you can buy from the instructor) and a bottle of sun thickened linseed oil. If you mostly use Black Oil Wax medium as the Venetian and Italian Masters did, you will essentially be painting solvent free.

4. Oil Paint; at least a warm and cool of each primary color and black and white. You may want to bring small 35ml tubes for compactness  depending on how much paint you use. I use quality paints packed with pigment with only linseed oil as a binder. The brands I use are Willamsburg, Blockx, Old Holand, and Sennelier oils in 35 ml tubes. I recommend the following colors:

Cadmium Yellow Light or Aureolin     Cadmium Yellow Deep    

Yellow Ochre or Italian Yellow Ochre  Cadmium Orange Cadmium Red Deep or Mars Red  

Permanent Crimson or Quinacridon Magenta     Burnt Sienna    

Cobalt Violet Deep or manganese Violet    

Manganese Blue     Ultramarine Blue     Prussian or Phthalo Blue

Viridian Green     Indigo     Lamp Black or Ivory Black    

Large tube of Titanium /Zinc White

5. Brushes; round, flat or filbert oil painting brushes from sizes no.6 to a no.12. Choose at least three (one small, medium, and large). You   might also be able to use a small brush for detail or your signature. 

6. Palette Knives. I like to use a very small 1-inch, a medium and large palette knife for small studies and a larger one for bigger sized paintings.

7. Palette (It can be a folding palette or a wooden studio palette, even ¼ inch glass taped at the edges).

8. Rags (one per painting); preferably cotton rags because they soak up paint and cleaner better than polyester. You can also use paper towels. 

9. Charcoal, graphite pencils or sticks, or vine charcoal.

10.Wet canvas carrier, clips or foamboard strips. (They can be made of foamboard strips and made into a frame taped around the panel or canvas and then duck taped on to the back of the painting and stacked upon each other with a foamboard divider, stored in a small cardboard mailer box for multiple studies.

11.  Miscellaneous Supplies, including: a roll of 2" duck tape, a foamboard strips 1 inch by 16  ½ inches long, (natural are the best), Sketch book and Camera. 2 cups for holding solvents or Black Oil, ex-acto knife.