February 25-27, 2027
Thursday-Saturday

Abstracting the Landscape

In this workshop we will use the landscape as a vehicle to create abstract paintings. Freeing ourselves from the need to copy exactly what we see, we will use a mixture of observation, intuition, and curiosity to explore the spectrum of abstraction. Using photographs, students will work with pencil, ink, and watercolor to make studies that they will use as references to create a larger abstract painting. Students will choose how far from reality to push their image as they focus on the formal qualities of the medium—color, shape, and gesture. Demonstrations will be done in oil, but all paint mediums are welcome. Along the way, we will look at work from contemporary and historic artists who use the landscape as a similar tool for abstraction.

Tentative Syllabus:

Day 1 Morning: Intro, Process description, Demo, Potentially start studies.

Day 1 Afternoon: Drawings/studies from photographs.

Day 2 Morning: Brief Demo, Finish Studies, Potentially start larger painting

Day 2 Afternoon: Painting

Day 3 Morning: Brief Instruction, Painting

Day 3 Afternoon: Painting, Wrap Up