LA DOLCE VITA II

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS


FIVE MEETINGS

Wednesdays

October 30

November 6

November 13

November 20

Skip November 27 (Thanksgiving week)

December 4

2024


11 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. eastern time


In this intensive ONLINE class, we will consider how Italian neorealist cinema was inspired by renaissance art. Parallel to our in-depth studies of 4 great films, we will transcribe from paintings that directly relate to these films. In transcription, we will draw and paint from the masterpieces, investigating, not copying, in order to grasp what made them so important and timeless. We will focus on The Bicycle Thief by De Sica 1948, Fellini's 1954 La Strada, Antonioni's La Notte, and Pasolini's Gospel According to Matthew from 1964. Each week a film will be introduced, discussed and we will sketch stills from each one. Participants’ painting transcriptions and sketches will be discussed in weekly group critiques, in order to address issues such as composition and the mixing of color. A packet containing prints of the paintings we'll be transcribing, as well as Fabriano oil painting and drawing paper, will be shipped to each participant before the start of the workshop.

LINEAGE INTO PAINT

WITH CATHERINE KEHOE


Five Meetings

Thursdays

October 3

October 10

October 17

October 24

October 31

2024

1-4:30 p.m. eastern time


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photos of ancestors — those we have known in life and those we can know only from the images — will be the sources for this workshop. These photos might trigger a narrative, imaginary or real. We might begin with an impulse for detail and description, a desire to imagine those we can know in no other way. The ultimate goal will be reduction and a search for how much is enough. By analyzing the images as designs in a rectangle, breaking down the pictorial elements through simplification and abstraction, we will build drawings and paintings that stand on their own. Mediums will include graphite, collage, acrylic and/or oil paint.

Meetings will be held on Zoom and work will be shared on Padlet, an online platform.

COLLAGE AND THE FIGURE

WITH ROTEM AMIZUR


October 25-28, 2024

Friday-Monday

10 a.m.-4 p.m. eastern time


IN-PERSON WORKSHOP AT BLACK POND. Collage gives one the opportunity to paint without fear. It turns looking and composing into a playful game, where shapes of color are easily cut and moved. We will start by painting paper; participants will create their own color palette. Throughout the workshop we will investigate color families, rhyming shapes, and echoes in painting.

We will focus on the connection between the model and her surroundings, first through art history and then through looking and experiencing life in front of us. When painting something alive like the model, suddenly the wall, the chair, the flowers, everything around her becomes alive and part of the composition. By prioritizing that connection, and applying observation and invention, surprising harmonies will occur.

DRAWING UPON LITERATURE

WITH SUSAN LICHTMAN

AND ROBIN FEUER MILLER


Seven meetings

Tuesdays

10:30 a.m-2 p.m. eastern time

September 17

September 24

October 1

October 8

October 15

October 22

October 29

2024


ONLINE WORKSHOP. This interdisciplinary, team-taught workshop will bring together the practice of studio art and the study of Russian literature. Working in a range of media (drawing, painting, and digital), participants will use Russian fiction (and some critical theory) as source material for the creation of visual images. Readings will include short texts of Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Babel, and Nabokov.


Meetings will be held on Zoom and work will be shared on the Padlet platform.


Lectures by Robin Feuer Miller will introduce the readings, and visual exercises will be presented by Susan Lichtman. Both instructors will review the work with the group in live, interactive meetings. Participants should have basic drawing and painting experience.


Robin Feuer Miller, Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities and Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at Brandeis University.

Susan Lichtman, Painter, Professor of Fine Arts, Brandeis University

Image: Anna Karenina by Susan Lichtman

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

Exploring the world through drawing, sculpture, printmaking and collage



WITH NANCY GRUSKIN AND MAUREEN NATHAN



Five meetings

WEDNESDAYS

September 11 through October 9, 2024

11 a.m.-2 p.m. eastern time



ONLINE: Much can be learned from working across media and exploring one theme through 2D and 3D processes. Prior to the start of this online workshop, participants will select a subject to serve as the springboard for their drawings, sculptures, prints, and collages. This subject could be a group of objects, a personal photograph, the view from the artist’s window, a work of art produced by another artist, or an intangible idea. Maureen Nathan will encourage participants to develop and explore their chosen subjects through a variety of drawing exercises that aim to expand the artists’ alphabet of marks with an emphasis on context. Nancy Gruskin will then shift the focus from 2D to 3D, inviting students to interpret their drawings as sculptures constructed of common household materials. In week three, these sculptures will serve as subject matter for prints. Nathan will introduce both intaglio and relief printmaking using recycled materials with water-based inks. In our fourth meeting, participants will explore paper cut-outs and the medium of collage with Gruskin, using their prints from week three as points of departure. Our fifth class will give participants the opportunity to talk about their work, as we consider final thoughts on the conversation between drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and collage.

Nathan and Gruskin will be participants in this workshop, as well as instructors, with the aim of facilitating exciting and unexpected outcomes. We will use Zoom to meet as a group and all work will be shared on Padlet. Slide presentations and demos will supplement both instructors’ exercises. A small craft press is useful, but not necessary, for the printmaking exercises.

ABSTRACTION FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PAINTERS, THROUGH COLLAGE

WITH KEN KEWLEY



September 19 – 23, 2024

Thursday – Monday


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND. This is a workshop for getting back to what we already knew. Back to those wooden blocks that we could pile up into worlds that thrilled and surprised us. Many of us were taught that representation came before abstraction. That we start with something, then we abstract it. This is backwards. Abstraction must come first. Otherwise, there is nothing to build representation with. No wooden blocks. We may ask ourselves, what is wrong with our work? What did we not get? 


One day (spread over several years) I realized what I had left out. It was the abstraction. I had left the art out. No matter how well the subject is observed, it is the shapes within things, the arrangement of the light and dark shapes, that must make up the representation.



Collage is the quickest way to make shapes. I think of collage as painting with dry paint. In the workshop we start by arranging shapes without subject. Then we will work from our own work, and each other’s, finding ways to shift the shapes to strengthen our representations. Lunch is included in the workshop fee.

CINEMA AND THE ART OF PAINTING

WITH VERA ILIATOVA


Five meetings

TUESDAYS

July 9

July 16

July 23

July 30

August 6

2024

1-4:30 p.m. eastern time


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Taking inspiration from the history of cinema and painting, students will examine the parallels between these two media. How can color, value, composition, and texture be used to create a narrative progression and a passage of time? What is narrative and can it be expressed abstractly as well as literally? Each week we will look deeply into these concepts across a selection of contemporary and historical paintings and films. Thematically, we will focus on still life, landscape, and interior as the starting points for creating a narrative. Students will be given a prompt to experiment with in their own paintings and drawings. Students will develop technical and conceptual skills that are crucial to the painting process. The course will include image presentations, film clips, and recommendations for further film viewing and reading. Meetings will be held on Zoom and work will be shared on the Padlet platform. 

LA MATERIA II

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS

June 27-29, 2024

10 a.m.-4 p.m. eastern time


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND!

In this intensive three-day workshop, we will work from a still life setup, with handmade Italian earth paints. Lucy will share her joy of 'la materia' — the material of paint itself, and the grinding process of oil paint. The limited earth palette and use of palette knives will help participants improve their mixing of tones, and consider more carefully the relationships of colors. We will make several quick studies and one longer one; daily critiques will include art historical references. We will focus specifically on Cezanne's still life paintings in this class, sketching from his work as well as creating our own paintings. Some pigment will be supplied and lunch will be provided each day. Workshop fee includes lunches.

ONE OBJECT IN 100 WAYS

WITH ELIZABETH O'REILLY


Four meetings

JUNE 20-23, 2024

Thursday-Sunday

Two meetings per day: 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Using one object of your choice, you’ll receive 100 prompts for ways to paint it in watercolor or the water-based medium of your choice. Some prompts will be slow and thoughtful, some will be fast and furious, and some will stretch your color choices. Your object could be a pineapple, an artichoke, or a witch hat — anything that will engage you over several days. Other possibilities: painting your object in a good or bad mood, with a blindfold on, or on a large scale. To expand your options, acrylics, pastels, and collage may be used in addition to watercolor. The goals of the workshop will be to break out of old habits, increase your proficiency, and have fun doing it! Meetings will be held on Zoom and work responding to the prompts will be done between meetings, and posted on the Padlet for discussion at the afternoon meeting.

THE DAILY MIRACLE

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI



One of the pleasant things those of us who write or paint do is to have the daily miracle. It does come. ~ Gertrude Stein


June 6-10, 2024

Thursday-Monday

10 a.m.-4 p.m.


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND

The workshop will center around painting from life. We will start with objects/still life and move to the figure and self portraits, with many short exercises throughout the five days. Basic materials needed: oil paint or acrylic. No specific palette required. Supports include mostly paper and some canvas or panels. Recommended for experienced painters. Workshop fee includes lunches and model.

COLOR RULES

WITH NANCY McCARTHY

May 30-June 2, 2024

Thursday-Sunday

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND! Color Rules! It does, absolutely, but there are NO rules, formulas, or tricks. There is intention, getting color to say what you want it to say. In this intensive workshop we consider basic color concepts such as value, hue, and saturation, and learn how to manipulate them to energize our work. Building color relationships with acrylic gouache on paper helps us understand how color functions and increases our personal color vocabulary. This workshop is meant for anyone working with color: painters, designers, architects, etc. WORKSHOP FEE INCLUDES LUNCHES.

GOUACHE: THE POWER OF THE COMMONPLACE

WITH CATHERINE DRABKIN


May 17-20, 2024

Friday - Monday


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND. Gouache is a wonderfully versatile medium. In this intensive long weekend, you will learn how to make it work for you. We will dive into painting an expansive and evolving still life/interior space. Exploring the mystery of the everyday, we will turn ordinary forms into the extraordinary. Each day, your work will be supported by individual conversations and group critiques. Our goal will be to discover the challenges and thrills of using light, shadow, and color to make meaning and build a sustainable, nimble studio process. Studio sessions will include a slide talk and discussion that explores rhythm, movement, the creative process, and a variety of art historical masterworks. WORKSHOP FEE INCLUDES LUNCHES.

THE COMMON OBJECT

WITH ERIN RAEDEKE



TUESDAYS

March 12

March 19

March 26

April 2

April 9

2024

1 p.m.-4:30 p.m. eastern time US and Canada


In this ONLINE painting workshop, we will work from a common object, but the way each of us interprets this object will be anything but common. Each participant will include a balloon as part of a still life. Inflated or deflated, in the air or laying on a table, a remnant from a party that tells a narrative or a stand-in for a sphere in a formal investigation — these are just a few ways this ordinary object can be used and interpreted. Along with working from a common object, we will also share the same palette of colors, further exploring how sharing something in common can lead to individual expression and interpretation. Meetings will be held on Zoom and work will be shared on Padlet. Oil paint is the recommended medium.

UNSENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

WITH ELIZABETH REAGH


TUESDAYS

January 30-February 27, 2024

11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. eastern time


ONLINE WORKSHOP. We will approach still life painting as a pictorial journey, destination unknown, the only dead ends being cliché, sentimentality and timidity. Through a series of short and more sustained exercises we will focus on balancing intuitive and analytical powers to make compelling paintings. Some of the concepts we will explore to achieve this end will be observation, memory, and invention. Students may use oil or acrylic paints. Class sessions will include slide shows, demos, and in depth discussion about students’ work. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on Padlet, an online platform.

LIMONI ll

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS


February 17-19, 2024

Saturday, Sunday, Monday


Two meetings per day:

10:30 a.m.

and

3 p.m.

eastern time


In this intensive ONLINE painting class, we'll create our own oil paint from Italian pigments. Once we've created our full earth color palette, we'll do gradient studies in order to understand the colors we are working with. Next we'll sketch a composition of lemons in our respective studios. Finally we'll create a still life of lemons. Each of the three days will include group discussions based on the images uploaded by the participants, guided by Lucy MacGillis. Lectures on the color yellow in painting, the lemon in the history of painting and demos from MacGillis' studio in Italy will also be included. We will discuss our paintings of lemons in group discussions/critiques over zoom.


Prior to the class, participants will receive the kit from Zecchi in Florence containing Fabriano oil painting paper, the pigments, linseed oil, and a palette knife.


The cost of materials from Zecchi is included in the workshop fee.

THE (RE)ARRANGEMENT OF THINGS 2

WITH NANCY GRUSKIN



WEDNESDAYS

January 24

January 31

February 7

February 14

2024

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. eastern time


ONLINE WORKSHOP. The genre of still life need not be still. We can record our observations of objects and then alter, transform, and activate these recordings. For example, a still life painting can be cut up; the pieces rearranged; and the composition changed to suit the needs of a new picture. Artists in this online workshop will explore the visual arrangement and rearrangement of their own still life objects through drawing, painting, and collage exercises. We will work on our observational skills, but also strengthen our intuition as artists and push our work to be greater than the sum of its parts. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on Padlet, an online platform.

LE PITTRICI ll

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS



THURSDAYS

January 11-February 8, 2024

10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Eastern time



In this online class, we'll focus on the masterpieces of four female Italian painters, investigating just what it is about them that is so timelessly captivating. Using the method of transcription, we will draw from these paintings without copying them, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of these compositions. We'll begin by looking at ancient Roman paintings, into the Renaissance to Sofonisba Anguissola, and towards the baroque Diana di Rosa, Elisabetta Sirani and Artemisia Gentileschi.  In each session we will explore a specific painting at length in a group discussion over Zoom. After the introduction to each painting, participants will have a week to prepare a drawing transcription, as well as a chromatic study created with oil paints, to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece. MacGillis will present demos from her studio in Italy to show how she goes about mixing the colors in the paintings using a limited earth palette and palette knife.

Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the four paintings we will transcribe as well as paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be primed Fabriano paper provided for the color oil painting studies. 

Lucy MacGillis has been living and painting in Umbria, Italy for over twenty years. She enjoys interpreting Italian art history from the perspective of a painter rather than that of an art historian.

PAINTING: PERSONAL AND POWERFUL

WITH NANCY McCARTHY


Eight meetings

Tuesdays 6:30 -10 p.m.

eastern time

September 12 and 26

October 10 and 24

November 7 and 21

December 5 and 19

2023


There are 3 main objectives in this ONLINE class:

• To identify aspects of your work that are distinct and personal to your painting, and to explore ways of developing and fortifying those aspects.

• To determine areas of your work that are weak and/or diminish your work and (using a variety of exercises), work to improve those areas.  

• To establish a consistent, disciplined painting practice.

 

The goal of creating more personal and powerful paintings will be addressed by considering the following issues: content, composition/format, color, surface as well as materials and craft. We will explore the aspects of painting that interest each student most, including experimentation with materials and conceptual and technical approaches to painting or more traditional work from observation. Classes consist of discussion, image presentations and critique. Each student will develop a set of written goals as well as a painting schedule. Students must be present and are encouraged to participate in all discussion and critiques. Students will post new work, preliminary drawings, and work in progress on the Padlet each week for discussion. Additionally, students are required to research and identify their relatives, 3 artists whose work shares common elements with their own work or the work they aspire to do.

Those who want more structure and/or direction will be given assignments tailored to their particular needs. Group discussion of student work along with looking at contemporary and historical painting will enhance the class.

Meetings will be held on Zoom and work will be shared on Padlet, the online platform.

 



LA DOLCE VITA

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS



Fridays

November 3

November 10

November 17

November 24 (skip this week due to Thanksgiving holiday)

December 1

December 8

2023


In this intensive five-week online workshop, we will transcribe from paintings of Giorgio Morandi, Rosso Fiorentino, and Mantegna, and discuss how they are intrinsically connected to the cinema of Pasolini and Fellini. There will be a small reading list to accompany this class as well as films to watch. 

The process of transcribing involves studying a painting to better grasp how it was created, looking for what it is that makes it a masterpiece. Rather than copy the paintings, we study the underlying abstract composition, searching for rhythm, repetition and duality. Participants receive a small kit from Italy in the mail containing prints of the images we will be working from as well as Fabriano painting and drawing paper.

STILL LIFE IN CONTEXT — 10 weeks

WITH PETER VAN DYCK


TEN SESSIONS

Tuesdays

October 3

October 10

October 17

October 24

October 31

November 7

November 14

November 21

November 28

December 5

2023

10:30-2:30 eastern time


ONLINE WORKSHOP. This 10-week workshop will focus on creating still-life paintings that incorporate the larger spatial context in which the still life is set. Participants will make paintings from observation with an emphasis on light, color, structure and pictorial design. We will start by finding a subject and looking at the practical and formal aspects of setting up a still life. We will discuss how to organize and simplify complex information, how to create a unified sense of light throughout a picture, and how to interpret color and tone relationships. We will also cover aspects of drawing that will help in the creation of a convincing sense of space.

PRESSING MATTERS

WITH MAUREEN NATHAN


WEDNESDAYS

OCTOBER 11

OCTOBER 18

OCTOBER 25

2023


11 a.m.-2 p.m. eastern time, US and Canada


ONLINE. This workshop will introduce intaglio and relief printmaking, together with collage. You will learn to print a drypoint edition, as well as create unique layered monoprints. Work will be shared on the online platform Padlet, which will make it easy to discuss our experience and knowledge throughout the workshop. We will use non-toxic water-based inks and, where possible, recycled/found materials.

PLEASE NOTE: You will need to use a press. If you do not have access to a print studio, there are many craft presses suitable for these methods; they are available at relatively low cost.

THE (RE)ARRANGEMENT OF THINGS

 WITH NANCY GRUSKIN


WEDNESDAYS

September 6

September 13

September 20

September 27

2023

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. eastern time


ONLINE WORKSHOP. The genre of still life need not be still. We can record our observations of objects and then alter, transform, and activate these recordings. For example, a still life painting can be cut up; the pieces rearranged; and the composition changed to suit the needs of a new picture. Artists in this online workshop will explore the visual arrangement and rearrangement of their own still life objects through drawing, painting, and collage exercises. We will work on our observational skills, but also strengthen our intuition as artists and push our work to be greater than the sum of its parts. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on Padlet, an online platform.

YOUR HEAD, MY PALETTE

WITH ERIN RAEDEKE


SEPTEMBER 7 - 11, 2023

Thursday - Monday


10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Eastern time (US and Canada)

Three meetings per day on Zoom:

10 a.m.

2 p.m. (optional meeting)

4:30 p.m.


In this five-day online workshop, we will explore the self portrait using a chromatic palette.  Using no earth colors and mixing optical blues and yellows we will get to know a palette that is full of possibilities.  We will tame and harness potent colors, yet also learn to embrace their strength. As we discover more about each color's inherent qualities and potential, we will carefully observe the structure of the head, focusing on color, temperature and value.  


Palette:

Cadmium Orange (Gamblin Artist Brand)

Cadmium Red Medium

Alizarin Crimson

Quinacridone Red

Dioxazine Purple

Chromium Oxide

Phthalo Green

Titanium White 

HOME FRONT

WITH NICOLE SANTIAGO


August 9 - 13, 2023

Wednesday - Sunday


Two meetings per day:

11 a.m. eastern time

4 p.m. eastern time


ONLINE WORKSHOP. The interior is an ideal subject to examine the complexities of light, space, composition, and content. In this five-day workshop, I will share my process of creating interior paintings from direct observation through demonstrations, discussions, work sessions, and critiques. The depiction of the interior throughout art history will be presented. The Padlet platform will be used to share images; workshop meetings will be held on Zoom. All exercises will be completed using oil paint; other acceptable mediums include acrylic, gouache, and casein.


PAINTING FROM A VISUAL DIARY

WITH MEGAN MARDEN


Mondays

July 31

August 7

August 14

August 21

August 28, 2023

11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. eastern time


ONLINE. Artists build a greater sense of connection to the world by making daily sketches. After several days of 'artist walks,' we might find ourselves looking at everything as if it were a painting. Participants will keep small, daily sketchbooks using portable media like pencil and watercolor. We will review the sketches in class each week and select one or more to use as the point of departure for a new painting. Working from these quick, observational studies allows the opportunity to revisit and reconsider formal issues in the new painting, while embracing the fluidity and immediacy of the original sketch. Some areas will need to be resolved through invention and interpretation. Others will require the artist to access their memory of the experience. Equal weight will be given to sketches and building a painting. Meetings will be held on Zoom and work will be shared on the Padlet platform.

DIALOGUES BETWEEN PAINTING AND PHOTOGRAPHY

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


July 9-13,2023

Sunday-Thursday


ONLINE WORKSHOP

The focus of the workshop will be working from photo references. Since the mid 1800s, working from photographic sources has been a common practice in painting. We will explore ways to sharpen our personal language when painting from mediated imagery, as well as ways to add more adventure. Participants will meet in the morning to watch a presentation of ideas and exercises. They will work on their own and then meet again each morning for group discussion and more presentations. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on the Padlet platform.


This is a hands-on workshop. Participants must be present.

 

Sunday, July 9

Intros and presentation of concepts and the exercise and discussion

Meeting time: 10 a.m.-noon eastern time

Monday, July 10

Presentation of concepts and the exercise and discussion

Meeting time: 10 a.m.-noon eastern time

Tuesday, July 11

Critique/feedback

Meeting time: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. eastern time

Wednesday, July 12

Final presentations and discussions

Meeting time: 10 a.m.-noon eastern time

Thursday, July 13

Final Critique/feedback

Meeting time: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. eastern time

LA MATERIA

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS



June 27-29, 2023

Tuesday - Thursday

10 a.m. - 5 p.m.


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND! In this intensive three-day workshop we will work from a still life setup, with handmade Italian earth paints. Lucy will share her joy of 'la materia', the material of paint itself, and the grinding process of oil paint. The limited earth palette and use of palette knives will help participants improve their mixing of tones, and consider more carefully the relationships of colors. We will make several quick studies and a longer one; daily critiques will include art historical references. Some pigment will be supplied, and lunch will be provided each day

REALITY CHECK: INVENTION

WITH ELIZABETH REAGH


WEDNESDAYS

May 31-June 21, 2023

11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. eastern time


ONLINE. Through a series of short and sustained exercises, we will incorporate invention into representational work. An example: shapes that can be read as light or shadow that have no basis in objective reality, but somehow enhance and become integral to the composition and overall painting, and importantly, make sense in the world of the painting. Working from photo references and life, we will alter what we see in order to make a more compelling image. Analysis and intuitive leaps will play equal parts in arriving at unexpected outcomes. We will prioritize “right” over “correct”. There will be demos, slide shows, and discussions about the resulting work. Meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared on the Padlet platform.

FLUID LIGHT: WATERCOLOR IN THE LANDSCAPE

WITH NANCY McCARTHY


June 9 - 11, 2023

Friday - Sunday

10 a.m. — 5 p.m.


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND. The spring greens and chromatic grays of trees, field, and pond are a potent source of visual content. Using watercolor, participants will respond to landscape by looking deeply and translating what is observed into shape, value, and hue. A series of exercises will enhance fluency with the medium and deepen understanding of color mixing and compositional strategies. Each day multiple studies will be completed. This course is ideal for those people new to watercolor and those with some experience. Lunches are included in the cost of the workshop.

PAINT FACTORY

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


May 17-21, 2023

WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.



“Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks.” – Mark Rothko


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND! The workshop will center around painting from life. We will start with objects/still life and move to the figure and self portraits. There will be many short exercises throughout the 5 days. Basic materials needed: oil paint or acrylic . No specific palette required. Support includes mostly paper and some canvas or panels. There will be a slide presentation and plenty of discussion. Lunch will be provided each day.

THE HEAD EXAMINED THROUGH TIME

WITH CATHERINE KEHOE



MONDAYS

April 3 - May 1, 2023

11 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Eastern time, US and Canada


ONLINE COURSE: Portraits from art history will be the point of departure for study of pictorial structure and invention, with a focus on the head. You may work from postcards, photocopies from books, or images on your devices (tablet or laptop). We will touch upon the universal proportions of the head. Mediums will include graphite, charcoal, collage, gouache, acrylic and/or oil paint or materials you have on hand. Each participant will look deeply at one or two images and generate permutations through exercises that lead to simplification and abstraction. This rigorous and wide-ranging analysis of images from our painting ancestors will feed our own work and imaginations as we engage with images that speak to us still.

SPRING FEVER

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


One of the pleasant things those of us who write or paint do is to have the daily miracle. It does come. ~ Gertrude Stein


April 19 - 23, 2023

WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND. The workshop will center around painting from life. We will start with objects/still life and move to the figure and self portraits. The workshop will be made of many short exercises throughout the 5 days. Basic materials needed: oil paint or acrylic. No specific palette required. Supports include paper and canvas or panels. There will be a slide presentation and plenty of discussion. Lunches are included in the workshop fee.

THREE DAYS IN MARCH

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


THURSDAY, MARCH 23

FRIDAY, MARCH 24

FRIDAY, MARCH 31


11 a.m.-2 p.m. eastern time


The key is what is within the artist. The artist can only paint what she or he is about.

Lee Krasner



This online workshop is a three day course that focuses on the freedom of invention and how it may inform perceptual and observational painting. The first day will be a presentation of ideas that relate to the project. The second day will be a working day. The meeting will open and participants will be presented with an image. The image will be taken away and the participants will then work in their studios for about 2 hours. They will have the freedom to remember/imagine and invent what they saw.

The Zoom meeting will resume and participants will post their work and there will be a general discussion. At the end of that second day, the participants will then be given the image and they will be able to refer to it as they paint it again and post it in time for the third meeting.

On the third day, a week later, an in depth discussion/critique of the work will take place.

LINEAGE INTO PAINT

WITH CATHERINE KEHOE


WEDNESDAYS

March 1-29, 2023

1-4:30 p.m.

eastern time


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photos of ancestors — those we have known in life and those we can know only from the images — will be the sources for this workshop. These photos might trigger a narrative, imaginary or real. We might begin with an impulse for detail and description, a desire to imagine those we can know in no other way. The ultimate goal will be reduction and a search for how much is enough. By analyzing the images as designs in a rectangle, breaking down the pictorial elements through simplification and abstraction, we will build drawings and paintings that stand on their own. Mediums will include graphite, collage, acrylic and/or oil paint.

We will meet on Zoom and share the work in an online platform.

ON YOUR MARKS

WITH MAUREEN NATHAN


March 3 - 5, 2023

Friday - Sunday


Hours: 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. eastern time

Two meetings per day:

11 a.m.

3 p.m.


ONLINE WORKSHOP. This drawing workshop is about freeing up expectations and engaging in the process of discovery. Participants will undertake various exercises with the aim of generating unexpected and compelling outcomes, as well as finding the drawing vocabulary unique to each artist. This workshop is especially helpful to artists who feel they are becoming stylized in their approach and is equally suitable for those new to drawing.

STILL LIFE: NEW LIFE

WITH ERIN RAEDEKE


February 16 - 20, 2023

Thursday - Monday


Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

eastern time, US and Canada

Three meetings per day on Zoom:

10 a.m.

2 p.m.

5 p.m.


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Still-life painting gained prominence in the 16th century, but it dates back to ancient times. Today, the possibilities of this genre are unlimited. In this workshop we will begin by reflecting on our assumptions about what makes an interesting still life, and what we “bring to the table.” From there we will expand our ideas of what a still life can be. Composition, point of view, space, and color relationships are just some of the ideas that we will focus on.  

THE CAMERA AND THE EYE: PAINTING FROM PHOTOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


February 7-11, 2023

Tuesday-Saturday


All painters are interested in photography to a certain extent.

— David Hockney  


ONLINE WORKSHOP 

The focus of the workshop will be working from photo references. Since the mid 1800s, working from photographic sources has been a common practice in painting. We will explore ways to sharpen our personal language when painting from mediated imagery, as well as ways to add more adventure. This intensive five-day course is geared toward people who have a robust painting practice. Participants will meet in the morning to watch a presentation of ideas and exercises. They will work on their own and then meet again each morning for group discussion and more presentations.


Schedule:

Tuesday Feb 7 

Intros and presentation of concepts and the exercise and discussion

Meeting time: 10 am EST (lasting 1 1/2 --2 hours)

 

Wednesday Feb 8 

Presentation of concepts and the exercise and discussion

Meeting time: 10 am EST. (lasting 1 1/2 -- 2 hours)

  

Thursday Feb 9

Critique/feedback

Meeting time (lasts 2 1/2 hours):

GROUP A  10 am EST 

GROUP B 12:30 pm EST 


Friday Feb 10

Final presentations and discussions

Meeting time 10 am EST (lasting 1 1/2 -- 2 hours)

 

Saturday Feb 11

Final Critique/feedback 

Meeting time (lasts 2 1/2 hours):

GROUP A  10 am EST 

GROUP B 12:30 pm EST

COLLAGE AFTER MASTERS

WITH ROTEM AMIZUR


Sundays

January 8

January 15

January 22

January 29

February 5

2023


ONLINE WORKSHOP We will begin by painting papers with colors that excite us. Then, looking at old masters’ paintings, we will choose hues that create a sensation equivalent to what is evoked by them. Working only with our pre-painted papers helps us find unexpected color combinations. We look for relationships that feel good as opposed to "mixing the colors out there." Once colors are chosen and satisfying to us, we can dive into the continuous cycle of building, overlapping, changing and moving the cutout shapes — thus experiencing painting, drawing, observation, and invention as inseparable.


We will work small, with foam board and pins, pinning the cut-out shapes as we go along. Pinning as opposed to immediately gluing gives us a chance to constantly move shapes around. Making a variation, then another and another... Each new combination of colors leads us to see the reproduction in a new way — memory and familiarity making the game even more exciting and giving us the courage to make decisions we wouldn’t have dreamed of in the beginning. We are using the masters as our source but creating something distinctly personal and our own.

We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, and discuss work shared on Padlet.

LE PITTRICI ITALIANE

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS


TUESDAYS

January 3

January 10

January 17

January 24

January 31

2023


In this ONLINE class, we'll focus on the masterpieces of four female Italian painters, investigating what makes them so timelessly captivating. Using the method of transcription, we will draw from these paintings without copying them, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of these compositions. We'll begin by looking at ancient Roman paintings, into the Renaissance to Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Fede Galizia, and then towards the baroque with Artemisia Gentileschi. In each session we will explore a specific painting at length in a group discussion over Zoom. After the introduction to each painting, participants will have a week to prepare a drawing transcription as well as a chromatic study created with oil paints, to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece. MacGillis will present demos from her studio in Italy to show how she goes about mixing the colors in the paintings using a limited earth palette and palette knife.

Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the five paintings we will transcribe as well as paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be primed Fabriano paper provided for the color painting studies.

Work will be shared on an online platform.

THE COST OF THE KITS IS INCLUDED IN THE WORKSHOP PRICE.

PAINTING REBOOT

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


It’s easy to create art. What’s difficult is creating the new conditions in which art can arise.

— Brancusi


5 Weekly meetings on Wednesday:

NOVEMBER 2

NOVEMBER 9

NOVEMBER 16

Break for Thanksgiving

NOVEMBER 30

DECEMBER 7


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Going back to basics. During the first two weeks we will work on short, repetitive exercises, designed to develop muscle memory. We will push to those outer limits that we don't always access when painting. Two still-life assignments will follow — these will encourage working in an open-ended manner. Investigation and discovery are the goals in working from observation, whether objects or self-portraits. Most work will be carried out on paper or on top of old paintings. Participants may work on any scale. There will be slide presentations and demos that illustrate the focus for the week. Exercises will be introduced at each meeting. Participants will post their work on Padlet for group feedback on Zoom. Enrollment is limited to 16 participants.

LIMONI

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS


December 2-4, 2022

Friday-Sunday


In this intensive ONLINE painting class, we'll create our own oil paint from Italian pigments. Once we've created our full earth color palette, we'll do gradient studies in order to understand the colors we are working with. Next we'll sketch a composition of lemons in our respective studios. Finally we'll create a still life of lemons. Each of the three days will include group discussions based on the images uploaded by the participants, guided by Lucy MacGillis. Lectures on the color yellow in painting, the lemon in the history of painting and demos from MacGillis' studio in Italy will also be included.

Prior to the class, participants will receive the kit from Zecchi in Florence containing Fabriano oil painting paper, the pigments, linseed oil, and a palette knife.

The cost of materials from Zecchi is included in the workshop fee.

INTERIOR SPACE

WITH PETER VAN DYCK


ONLINE WORKSHOP


MONDAYS

October 31

November 7

November 14

November 21

November 28

2022

10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Eastern time, US and Canada


Using pencil sketches, color studies, larger drawings and painting on location, we will build paintings of interior spaces from direct observation. Our goal will be to merge two different ways of organizing and depicting space in a painting: one will be through drawing the 3-dimensional, volumetric quality of the space; the other will be through finding large color relationships to express the movement of light through space. Experience in basic observational drawing as well as with oil and/or acrylic paint will be helpful.

BAROQUE MARATHON

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS


NOVEMBER 11-13, 2022

Friday-Sunday


In this three-day ONLINE course via Zoom with Italy-based Lucy MacGillis, painters will look closely at three 500-year-old Italian Renaissance and early Baroque masterpieces investigating what makes them so powerful. Each day will begin with an introduction to the painter whose work we are studying that day and the context in which the painting in question was created. Using transcription, we will draw from these paintings, not copying, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality, and repetition within the geometry of each. From Giorgione to the Baroque Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi we will explore a specific painting on paper and in a discussion. In the later part of each day, participants will create a painting sketch to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece. We will conclude with a group critique of the studies and a discussion about the colors which were used to create the original paintings.

Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the three paintings we will transcribe, as well as Fabriano drawing and primed paper measured in proportion to the works. Throughout the class there will be several demos from Lucy MacGillis' studio. THE COST OF THE KITS IS INCLUDED IN THE WORKSHOP PRICE.

THE THIRD DOOR

WITH NANCY GRUSKIN


TUESDAYS

October 11

October 18

October 25

November 1

November 8

2022


11 a.m.-1 p.m. Eastern Time


ONLINE WORKSHOP Searching in the late 1970s for a subject matter that was neither representational nor wholly abstract, American painter Robert Zakanitch embraced ornamentation as an alternative entry into painting, a so-called “third door.” This online workshop will explore pattern and decoration through painting, printmaking, collage, and cardboard and papier-mâché constructions. Slide presentations and demos will introduce the exercises each week. As the workshop progresses, each participant will work toward creating their own installation that includes hand-made wallpaper, paintings and/or collages, and sculptures. Participants will post images of their work on Padlet for written feedback during the first four weeks of the workshop. We will look at Padlet together during our final Zoom meeting, for a group discussion of participants’ completed installations.

MAKING AN IMPRESSION: PRINTMAKING WITHOUT A PRESS

WITH MAUREEN NATHAN


WEDNESDAYS

October 12

October 19

October 26, 2022


11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Eastern time


ONLINE. This workshop will introduce printmaking techniques that do not require a printing press. Methods will include intaglio and relief printing, together with collage; each process will be introduced by video demonstrations and slideshows. You will learn to print an edition, as well as create unique layered monoprints. Work will be shared on an online platform called Padlet, which will make it easy to discuss our experience and knowledge throughout the workshop. We will use non-toxic water-based inks and, where possible, recycled materials.

TIME TO GET OUT: PAINTING ON LOCATION

WITH ELIZABETH O'REILLY


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND

September 16-18, 2022

Friday-Sunday


Painting on location is challenging and exciting, but choosing a motif from the complexity of what’s out there can be intimidating. Working from locations in the vicinity of Black Pond Studio, we will work quickly from observation, translating that complexity into a manageable motif. Redefining what we see into light and dark, warm and cool, and understanding spatial cues will help students to find structure in the outdoors and create space on the rectangle.


Finding a motif is an important element of working en plein air, but the nuts and bolts of painting outside of the studio are also an integral part of this workshop. Students will learn how to set up an easel and lay out a palette in order to work on one-shot paintings. Demonstrations and critique will be included. If there is rain, we will work from the windows of Black Pond’s spacious barn. Working indoors on a still life will also be an option.


Participants are free to work in oils or watercolor, and all levels are welcome.


Lunches are included in the cost of the workshop.

COLOR RULES

WITH NANCY McCARTHY


IN PERSON AT BLACK POND STUDIO

In our air-conditioned studio


August 25-28, 2022

Thursday-Sunday

10 a.m.-4 p.m.


Color Rules! It does, absolutely, but there are NO rules, no formulas, no tricks. There is intention, getting color to say what you want it to say. In this intensive workshop we consider basic color concepts such as value, hue, and saturation, and learn how to manipulate them to energize our work. Building color relationships with acrylic gouache on paper helps us understand how color functions and increase our personal color vocabulary. This workshop is meant for anyone working with color: painters, designers, architects, etc. WORKSHOP FEE INCLUDES LUNCHES.

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS 2

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


August 19-21, 2022

Friday-Sunday


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Mixed media/collage can be a gateway to new ideas and processes. By adding ready-made elements, you can test ideas, achieve meaning, add richness, and develop a broader vocabulary in your painting practice — in an instant!

This is a short but intense project-based workshop. There is a strong physical and sculptural aspect of collage; ideas will be worked out literally using your hands.


SCHEDULE

FRIDAY PRESENTATION: 6 pm EST two-hour presentation and explanation of the exercise/project. Q and A. Both groups attend.


SATURDAY FIRST CRIT:

Group A 4-6 pm EST (1-3 PST)

Group B 6:30 - 8:30 EST (3:30-5:30 PST)


SUNDAY FINAL CRIT:

Group B 4-6 pm EST (1-3 PST)

Group A 6:30 - 8:30 EST (3:30-5:30 PST)

FIELD NOTES

WITH TIM KENNEDY and EVE MANSDORF


AUGUST 8 - 12, 2022

Monday - Friday

(TOP: Eve Mansdorf BOTTOM: Tim Kennedy)


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Since the invention of the paint tube in the early 19th century artists have been able to enter the landscape in order to paint directly from it. Think of Monet at Argenteuil or Fairfield Porter in Maine. Like an explorer setting out on an expedition, part of the fun in painting the landscape is organizing yourself and your materials to be able to do it at all. Landscape painters eye each others easels and palettes the way fishermen size up competitors’ rods and reels. Efficiency of movement and paring down what one carries to the bare essentials is learned and prized. Each artist finds his or her own process and way of being in the landscape. These locations need not be far off and exotic locations, but even painting a motif a few blocks or miles from the artist’s studio requires logistical planning.


This workshop promotes finding a site where people and nature coexist whether it be an industrial site, a nearby state park, a public swimming pool or the outskirts of a suburban neighborhood. The vagaries produced by human interaction with the landscape are the real subject. Will that car still be here tomorrow? Will the crop be harvested before I finish my painting? Temporality can lend urgency and vitality to an on site painting. The observation of how a place is being used can influence how the painter sees the motif. Each participant will produce a series of small one day paintings that explore both the natural beauty of a place and the human use of that space as it may be presented through objects, activities or built structures. During the course of the workshop we will use Zoom to meet two to three times a day to share our work.

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS 1

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


AUGUST 5-7, 2022

Friday-Sunday


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Mixed media/collage can be a gateway to new ideas and processes. By adding ready-made elements, you can test ideas, achieve meaning, add richness, and develop a broader vocabulary in your painting practice — in an instant!

This is a short but intense project-based workshop. There is a strong physical and sculptural aspect of collage; ideas will be worked out literally using your hands.


SCHEDULE

FRIDAY PRESENTATION: 6 pm EST two-hour presentation and explanation of the exercise/project. Q and A. Both groups attend.


SATURDAY FIRST CRIT:

Group A 4-6 pm EST (1-3 PST)

Group B 6:30 - 8:30 EST (3:30-5:30 PST)


SUNDAY FINAL CRIT:

Group B 4-6 pm EST (1-3 PST)

Group A 6:30 - 8:30 EST (3:30-5:30 PST)

PAINTING THE FIGURE WITH THE ITALIAN EARTH PALETTE

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS


June 24-26, 2022

Friday-Sunday

10 a.m. - 5 p.m.


IN PERSON. On site at Black Pond

FULLY VACCINATED


In this intensive three-day course, Lucy MacGillis shares her love for paint, beginning with its creation — mixing raw earth pigments from Italy with linseed oil. Working directly from observation of the model, participants learn not only how to create their own paint, but are guided in looking closely at the tones of the figure before them. By limiting the range of colors, painters use the relationships between colors to give them more force.

Using herculaneum and pozzuoli red, warm italian earth, yellow ochre, naples yellow, earth green, herculaneum blue, burnt and raw umber, roman black earth, and titanium white, participants are encouraged to paint with the palette knife via trial and error, mixing, placing the paint and scraping it off as needed — the result being a harmonious study of space, color and form.

Working directly from the observation of the nude model, participants are encouraged to reduce the figure into simple, carefully mixed planes of color.

On the each day there will be several fast studies as well as longer poses. Each day ends in a group critique including art historical examples, referring back to the Italian tradition of figure painting.

BLACK, WHITE, AND IN-BETWEEN

WITH NANCY McCARTHY


June 9-12, 2022

Thursday-Sunday


ONLINE WORKSHOP The striking contrasts of black and white, and the subtle differences between grays, will be the fuel for our images. First, using brushes with black ink on white paper, we will build compositions from shapes of black and white, with still life and the landscape as our sources. We will move into ink washes, then switch to white on black, and each day delve into more exercises using pens, cut paper, collage and block prints. Our aim is to generate a volume of drawings, from both observation and abstraction, which expand our visual vocabulary, sensitivity to value and shape, as well as compositional skills. We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, and Padlet share and discuss work.

PAINT LAB

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI



Five weekly meetings on WEDNESDAYS

April 6

April 13

April 20

April 27

May 4


11 a.m.-3 p.m. eastern time, US and Canada


ONLINE WORKSHOP. The objective for the course is to find new perspectives through short exercises. Exploration and discovery are the goal in working from life — objects or self portraits. Most work will be carried out on paper or on top of old paintings. Participants may work on any scale. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the week. Exercises will be introduced each meeting. Participants will post their work on Padlet for group feedback.

BACK TO LIFE

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


APRIL 21-25, 2022

THURSDAY-MONDAY


“Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks.” – Mark Rothko


IN-PERSON WORKSHOP AT BLACK POND!

In celebration of being able to paint together in person, the workshop will center around painting from life. We will start with objects/still life and move to figures and self-portraits. The workshop will be made up of many short exercises throughout the 5 days. There will be a slide presentation and plenty of discussion.

Lunches are included in the workshop fee.

FULLY VACCINATED ONLY.

TRANSCRIBING ITALIAN MASTERS

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS


THURSDAYS

March 3

March 10

March 17

March 24

March 31

2022


In this five-week ONLINE course via Zoom with Italy-based Lucy MacGillis, painters will look closely at four 500-year-old Italian Renaissance and Rococo masterpieces, investigating what makes them so powerful. Each meeting will begin with an introduction to the painter whose work we are studying that week, and the context in which the painting was created. Using transcription, we will draw from these paintings, not copying, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality, and repetition within the geometry of each.


From Fra' Angelico and Botticelli to Andrea del Sarto and Tiepolo, we will explore a specific painting on paper and in discussion. Participants will create a painting sketch to better grasp the use of color in that week's Renaissance masterpiece. We will conclude with a group critique of the studies and a discussion about the colors which were used to create the original paintings. Work will be shared in an online platform.

Throughtout the class there will be several demos from Lucy MacGillis' studio.


Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the four paintings we will transcribe as well as Fabriano drawing and primed paper measured in proportion to the works. THE COST OF THE KITS IS INCLUDED IN THE WORKSHOP PRICE.

COLLAGE AFTER MASTERS

WITH ROTEM AMIZUR


March 18-22, 2022

Friday-Tuesday


ONLINE WORKSHOP We will begin by painting papers with colors that excite us. Then, looking at old masters’ paintings, we will choose hues that create a sensation equivalent to what is evoked by them. Working only with our pre-painted papers helps us find unexpected color combinations. We look for relationships that feel good as opposed to "mixing the colors out there." Once colors are chosen and satisfying to us, we can dive into the continuous cycle of building, overlapping, changing and moving the cutout shapes — thus experiencing painting, drawing, observation, and invention as inseparable.


We will work small, with foam board and pins, pinning the cut-out shapes as we go along. Pinning as opposed to immediately gluing gives us a chance to constantly move shapes around. Making a variation, then another and another... Each new combination of colors leads us to see the reproduction in a new way — memory and familiarity making the game even more exciting and giving us the courage to make decisions we wouldn’t have dreamed of in the beginning. We are using the masters as our source but creating something distinctly personal and our own.

We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, and discuss work shared on Padlet.

ON YOUR MARKS

WITH MAUREEN NATHAN


March 25-27, 2022

Friday-Sunday


ONLINE WORKSHOP. This drawing workshop is about freeing up expectations and engaging in the process of discovery. Participants will undertake various exercises with the aim of generating unexpected and compelling outcomes, as well as finding the drawing vocabulary unique to each artist. This workshop is especially helpful to artists who feel they are becoming stylized in their approach and is equally suitable for those new to drawing.

INTERIOR SPACE

WITH PETER VAN DYCK


Weekly on Sundays

February 6

February 13

February 20

February 27

March 6, 2022


ONLINE WORKSHOP


Using pencil sketches, color studies, larger drawings and painting on location, we will build paintings of interior spaces from direct observation. Our goal will be to merge two different ways of organizing and depicting space in a painting: one will be through drawing the 3-dimensional, volumetric quality of the space; the other will be through finding large color relationships to express the movement of light through space. Experience in basic observational drawing as well as with oil and/or acrylic paint will be helpful.

THE HEAD IN THE MIRROR

WITH JOE MORZUCH


Five weekly meetings

SATURDAYS

February 5

February 12

February 19

February 26

March 5, 2022


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Painting one’s reflected likeness is a strange and wonderful experience. It requires focus, patience, and the courage to look deeply at and within. With this workshop, participants will investigate the technical and conceptual challenges of painting self-portrait heads from direct observation. Referencing the work of historical and contemporary painters, participants will complete multiple works over the course of 5 weeks, guided by specific prompts and/or formal limitations. Each subsequent exercise will advance the concerns addressed the week before, resulting in an accumulated understanding of the complexities of painting a self-portrait from direct observation. Topics covered will include: the general structure and proportions of the human head, light, shadow, and tonality, form simplification and planar analysis, color temperature and intensity, and an exploration of various painting implements.

Workshop will be held on Zoom, and work will be shared on Padlet.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THINGS

WITH CATHERINE KEHOE


Five weekly meetings.

WEDNESDAYS

February 2

February 9

February 16

February 23

March 2

2022


ONLINE WORKSHOP


I do not believe in things; I believe only in their relationship. For things to exist, there must first come into being a relationship between you and the things, or between the things themselves.

— Georges Braque


In this still-life workshop, participants will build and light their own setups, and have a full week between meetings to explore a series of exercises. Time lends depth to the painted image and frees us to pare down to the essential. The exercises include:

• Mapping the relationships between objects and the rectangle, using a specific drawing method.

• Exploring different limited palettes to discover the nature of a few paint colors at a time, in terms of opacity, transparency, and relative tinting strength.

• Shape will be central to our approach. Reducing the motif to10-15 shapes will bring the focus on color mixing and accurate value structure.

• Adjusting the colors in a multiple-pass painting to keep up with the way appearances can change from day to day.

Medium: oil paint

We will meet on Zoom and share work on an online platform

PAINTING RESET

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


January 28-February 1

Friday-Tuesday


“If you want to have clean ideas, change them like shirts” — Francis Picabia


The objective for the course is to find new perspectives through short exercises. Exploration and discovery are the goal in working from life-- objects or self-portraits. Most work will be carried out on paper or on top of old paintings. Participants may work on any scale.


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Participants will meet daily on Zoom over the course of five days. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the day. Exercises will be introduced in the meeting each morning. Participants will post their work on Padlet and will have group feedback in the afternoon/evening.

THE THIRD DOOR

WITH NANCY GRUSKIN


January 14-16, 2022

Friday-Sunday


ONLINE MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP. American artist Robert Zakanitch has described ornamentation as “the third door,” an alternative entry to painting from representation and abstraction. This three-day workshop will explore ornamentation and

pattern-making through collage, paint, and paper. We will begin on Friday with a slide presentation on the role of pattern in 20th- and 21st-century art. Morning Zoom meetings on Saturday and Sunday will include warm-up exercises and introduce assignments for the day. We will then reassemble on Zoom in the evening for group feedback and discussion. Participants will share their work on an online platform. The emphasis will be on experimentation and discovering new processes.

LINEAGE INTO PAINT

WITH CATHERINE KEHOE


Five weekly meetings

WEDNESDAYS

December 1, 2021

December 8, 2021

December 15, 2021

December 22, 2021

December 29, 2021

2-6 p.m. Eastern time, US and Canada


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photos of ancestors — those we have known in life and those we can know only from the images — will be the sources for this workshop. These photos might trigger a narrative, imaginary or real. We might begin with an impulse for detail and description, a desire to imagine those we can know in no other way. The ultimate goal will be reduction and a search for how much is enough. By analyzing the images as designs in a rectangle, breaking down the pictorial elements through simplification and abstraction, we will build drawings and paintings that stand on their own. Mediums will include graphite, collage, acrylic and/or oil paint.

We will meet on Zoom and share the work in an online platform.

THE FIGURE: DRAWING AND PAINTING

WITH CATHERINE KEHOE


Five meetings

MONDAYS

11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Eastern time, US and Canada


November 1

November 8

November 15

November 22,

November 29, 2021


The figure attracts our attention more than any other subject. In this ONLINE workshop, we will work from images of models in specific lighting conditions. You will learn a drawing method that results in accuracy of proportion, an approach that is a way of looking and seeing, not a style. With practice, this method leads to an intuitive, personal balance between accuracy and individual voice. Exercises will explore line, shape, value, and color. Oil paint is the recommended medium. We will meet on Zoom and share the work in an online album.

LIGHT AND TIME

WITH STEPHANIE PIERCE


Five weekly meetings.

TUESDAYS

November 2

November 9

November 16

November 23

November 30

1:00-4:30 p.m. eastern time, US and Canada


ONLINE WORKSHOP


In this painting workshop, students will explore light, time, and underlying geometry. Subjects lit by natural and artificial light will be painted from direct observation. Formal strategies such as reductive drawing, use of the grid, and collage will be investigated. Projects will examine color as light to create compositions that amplify aspects of the subject. As Giacometti said, “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”

Participants will work on a larger, ongoing painting throughout the five weeks, accompanied by smaller one-session works each week. Emphasis will be on keeping the work open, letting go of preconceived outcomes, and responding to weekly prompts. Reflecting on your work through writing will also be part of the process. Prior painting experience working from observation is recommended. Oil paint is the suggested medium.

Meetings will be held on Zoom, and work will be shared on an online platform.

THE ITALIAN NOVECENTO

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS


November 12-14, 2021

Friday-Sunday

10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Eastern time, US and Canada.

Calculate for your own time zone


In this intensive three day ONLINE class, we will study the Italian Novecento, focusing on the works of three protagonists, Felice Casorati, Giorgio Morandi and Fausto Pirandello. After an art historical introduction to each painter and the context in which they were working, we will transcribe from a painting of theirs. Initially with a pencil and paper we will explore the composition, looking how and rhythm and duality are used create depth in each painting. In the second half of each day we will use oil paint to study the specific color relationships in these pieces and practice mixing paint.

Participants will receive a small packet in the mail prior to the class containing prints of the paintings we will be studying, Fabriano drawing paper measured with the proportional dimensions of the original as well as primed paper for painting the color study. The cost of supplied materials is included in the workshop fee.


Italy-based Lucy MacGillis enjoys sharing her knowledge of Italian art history from the perspective of a painter rather than that of a historian.

PAINTERS PAINTING

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI



OCTOBER 22-26, 2021

Friday-Tuesday

10:30 am.-4:30 p.m. eastern time, US and Canada

Calculate for your own time zone.


When you give up on the idea of right and wrong, you get rid of everything — freedom from ideas and responsibilities. — Agnes Martin


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Participants will meet daily on Zoom over the course of five days. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the day. Exercises will be introduced in the meeting each morning. Participants will post their work on Padlet and will have group feedback in the afternoon/evening.


Exploration and discovery are the main objectives for the course. The exercises will be based both from life and from photo sources.

TRANSCRIBING ITALIAN MASTERS

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS


Five meetings

WEDNESDAYS

September 29

October 6

October 13

October 20

October 27

2021


11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Eastern time, US and Canada


In this intensive ONLINE course painters will look closely at 500 year old Italian masterpieces, investigating just what it is about them that is so timelessly captivating. Using the method of transcription, we will draw from these paintings each morning without copying them, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of these compositions. From Masaccio to Benozzo Gozzolli, Lippi, Sebastiano del Piombo, and concluding with Michelangelo, we will explore a specific painting at length on paper and in a group discussion over Zoom. Participants will also create a painting sketch to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece.


Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the five paintings we will transcribe as well as paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be primed Fabriano paper provided for afternoon painting studies. The cost of the supplied materials is included in the workshop fee.

THE SPACES WE LIVE IN

WITH CLINTEL STEED


October 8-12, 2021

Friday-Tuesday

10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. eastern time,

US and Canada

Please calculate for your own time zone.


This ONLINE workshop will investigate the approach of the Nabis, specifically Vuillard and Bonnard. We will look at how these painters turned their home environments into personal narratives. Our own domestic spaces, and the mundane objects around us, will be our subject matter. Painting strictly from observation will free us to investigate how our own space relates to geometry and the rectangle. We will concentrate on structure (perspective, scale, and relationships) while considering color and light. Our challenge will be to look at our own living spaces to see how they can become meaningful through the act of painting.

There will be three meetings per day on Zoom. Work will be shared on an online platform.

SUMMER'S END

WITH NANCY McCARTHY


ON SITE AT BLACK POND

(fully vaccinated only)


September 24-26, 2021

Friday-Sunday

10 a.m.-6 p.m.


As summer’s abundance fades and the quiet of autumn begins, we will observe and paint the complex landscape. Our focus will be summarizing this complexity into distinct shapes of value and hue. A series of exercises with large brushes and palette knives will encourage this process, and a one-session painting will be completed each day. we will also view contemporary and historical landscape painters and discuss the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors. This workshop will energize those who have painted outdoors many times as well as introduce this adventure to those doing so for the first time. Water based or oil paint may be used.

Lunch is included in the price of the workshop.

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS #1

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


AN ONLINE MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP


August 13-15, 2021

Friday-Sunday


“I thought art was a verb, rather than a noun” — Yoko Ono


WHY COLLAGE

Mixed media or collage can be a gateway to discover new ideas and processes by bringing in ready-made elements of our surroundings into our work. As a painter, I am constantly striving for richness and layers in my work. By adding imagery directly from the world around me I can test ideas, achieve meaning and develop a broader vocabulary in my painting practice -- in an instant!

This is a short but intense workshop. It is more project based rather than working on general fundamentals of painting within some context. There is a strong physical and sculptural aspect of collage. Ideas can be worked out literally using your hands.

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS #2

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI


AN ONLINE MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP


August 20-22, 2021

Friday-Sunday


“I thought art was a verb, rather than a noun” — Yoko Ono


WHY COLLAGE

Mixed media or collage can be a gateway to discover new ideas and processes by bringing in ready-made elements of our surroundings into our work. As a painter, I am constantly striving for richness and layers in my work. By adding imagery directly from the world around me I can test ideas, achieve meaning and develop a broader vocabulary in my painting practice -- in an instant!

This is a short but intense workshop. It is more project based rather than working on general fundamentals of painting within some context. There is a strong physical and sculptural aspect of collage. Ideas can be worked out literally using your hands.

CLOSE TO HOME

WITH TIM KENNEDY AND EVE MANSDORF


August 2-6, 2021

Monday-Friday


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Familiar and overlooked subjects will be the basis for unexpected and inspired paintings. Think of Bonnard’s windows or Fairfield Porter’s views of his neighborhood on Long Island. A landscape does not have to be a mountain in the distance, but might be a space as intimate as your back yard. Often the evidence of human presence can help to organize a motif, and objects can mitigate the boundless quality of landscape with specificity, narrative and humor. Such motifs present the possibility of contrasting the organic color and forms found in nature with synthetic color, shape and manufactured surfaces.


Participants will pick a site where people and nature coexist, whether it be a back yard, a park, a swimming pool, or the outskirts of a suburban neighborhood. Plan to produce a series of small, one-day paintings that explore both the natural beauty of a place and the human use of that space as it may be presented through objects, activities or built structures. We will use Zoom to meet two to three times a day to share our work.

WATERCOLOR: BREAK NEW GROUND
WITH ELIZABETH O'REILLY

ONLINE WORKSHOP
June 5-9, 2021
Saturday-Wednesday

Expand your watercolor fluency by experimenting with value, color, mark making and scale. Through a variety of exercises and techniques including staining, texture, dry brush, wet on wet and accidents, you will become more aware of how to manipulate the medium while maintaining its fluidity. Multiple studies will be created using references from nature. Other exercises may include working large (to put our body motion into the strokes), working abstractly, and creating collages from students’ own drawings and paintings. Looking at images of contemporary watercolor will be included. Participants should have some previous experience with watercolor.
This workshop will be held on Zoom, with three one-hour meetings per day.
INTERIOR SPACE

WITH PETER VAN DYCK


ONLINE WORKSHOP

May 12-16, 2021

Wednesday-Sunday


Using pencil sketches, color studies, larger drawings and painting on location, we will build paintings of interior spaces from direct observation. Our goal will be to merge two different ways of organizing and depicting space in a painting: one will be through drawing the 3-dimensional, volumetric quality of the space; the other will be through finding large color relationships to express the movement of light through space. Experience in basic observational drawing as well as with oil and/or acrylic paint will be helpful.

PAINTERS PAINTING 2

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI

May 7-11, 2021

Friday-Tuesday


When you give up on the idea of right and wrong, you get rid of everything — freedom from ideas and responsibilities. — Agnes Martin


ONLINE WORKSHOP. Participants will meet daily on Zoom over the course of five days. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the day. Exercises will be introduced in the meeting each morning. Participants will post their work on Padlet and will have group feedback in the afternoon/evening.


Exploration and discovery are the main objectives for the course. The exercises will be based both from life and from photo sources.

COLLAGE AFTER MASTERS

WITH ROTEM AMIZUR


May 1-4, 2021

Saturday-Tuesday


ONLINE WORKSHOP We will begin by painting papers with colors that excite us. Then, looking at old masters’ paintings, we will choose hues that create a sensation equivalent to what is evoked by them. Working only with our pre-painted papers helps us find unexpected color combinations. We look for relationships that feel good as opposed to "mixing the colors out there." Once colors are chosen and satisfying to us, we can dive into the continuous cycle of building, overlapping, changing and moving the cutout shapes — thus experiencing painting, drawing, observation, and invention as inseparable.


We will work small, with foam board and pins, pinning the cut-out shapes as we go along. Pinning as opposed to immediately gluing gives us a chance to constantly move shapes around. Making a variation, then another and another... Each new combination of colors leads us to see the reproduction in a new way — memory and familiarity making the game even more exciting and giving us the courage to make decisions we wouldn’t have dreamed of in the beginning. We are using the masters as our source but creating something distinctly personal and our own.

We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, share and discuss work.

OPENING DOORS
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI

Five meetings
WEDNESDAYS
March 31
April 7
April 14
April 21
April 28
2021
1:30-5 p.m. eastern US time
(calculate for your own time zone)

When you give up on the idea of right and wrong, you get rid of everything — freedom from ideas and responsibilities.
— Agnes Martin

ONLINE WORKSHOP. Participants will meet on Wednesdays over the course of five weeks. There will be slide presentations as well as demos that illustrate the focus for the week. Each week exercises will be introduced.
Participants will post their work on Padlet and will have group feedback sessions during the meetings. Exploration and discovery are the main objectives for the course. The exercises will be based both from life and from photo sources.
COLOR RULES
WITH NANCY McCARTHY

April 17-19, 2021
Saturday-Monday

10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. US eastern time
Check your own time zone

ONLINE WORKSHOP. Color Rules! It does, absolutely, but there are NO rules, no formulas, no tricks. There is intention, getting color to say what you want it to say. In this intensive workshop we consider basic color concepts such as value, hue, and saturation and learn how to manipulate them to energize our work. Building color relationships with gouache on paper helps up understand how color functions and to build our personal color vocabulary. This workshop is meant for anyone working with color: painters, designers, architects, etc. We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, share and discuss work.
LEMON
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS

April 9-11, 2021
Friday-Sunday

In this intensive three-day ONLINE workshop, we will grind our own paints from raw Italian pigments and walnut oil, for a full earth palette. We will use this palette to create a still life painting of lemons. There will be a strong emphasis on mixing oil paint and the use of the palette knife. Parallel to the exploration of this common yellow form we will explore how we perceive yellow visually, and how artists have historically represented the lemon beginning with early roman frescoes from Pompeii. How does the plasticity of the lemon’s yellow oval affect the composition? The role of the lemon in Italy’s history will accompany our visual exploration.
We will meet on Zoom two or three times per day, and share the work in online albums.
Participants will receive a selection of earth pigments, walnut oil and other materials from Zecchi in Florence. The cost of supplied materials is included in the workshop fee.
DRAWING MARATHON

WITH GWEN STRAHLE


MARCH 27-30, 2021

Saturday-Tuesday


ONLINE WORKSHOP

Drawing can be painterly, whether using charcoal, pencil or ink. This workshop will stimulate and maintain a continuous flow of drawing energy and examination. We will work from observation, using various materials and approaches. Exercises will be woven into the structure, including drawing from memory, gestures, drawing from other members of the studio. We will build abstractly to serve observation — drawing, re-drawing, re-thinking, re-seeing, re-working, to pull the drawing out from the inside, through process. Let’s make changes in order to dig deeper into the drawing experience, and provide opportunity for new invention. And, of course, it’s a marathon, so non-stop drawing...

Price includes model fee.

There will be three meetings per day on Zoom, and work will be shared and discussed as a group on Padlet.

BLACK, WHITE, AND IN-BETWEEN
WITH NANCY McCARTHY

March 11-13, 2021
Thursday-Saturday

ONLINE WORKSHOP The striking contrasts of black and white, and the subtle differences between grays, will be the fuel for our images. First, using brushes with black ink on white paper, we will build compositions from shapes of black and white, with still life and the landscape as our sources. We will move into ink washes, then switch to white on black, and each day delve into more exercises using pens, cut paper, collage and block prints. Our aim is to generate a volume of drawings, from both observation and abstraction, which expand our visual vocabulary, sensitivity to value and shape, as well as compositional skills. We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, share and discuss work.
THE OBJECT AS ACTOR
WITH NANCY GRUSKIN

March 6-8, 2021
Saturday-Monday

“A good actor can have a part in ten different plays; an object can play a role in ten different pictures.” Henri Matisse

In this three-day ONLINE workshop, we will make drawings, collages, and paintings of still life objects. These objects will serve as a springboard for experimentation and individual expression. Exercises will focus on playing with form, color and composition, as we see how far we can push our work’s relationship to reality. As we become more acquainted with these objects during the course of the workshop, we will take more liberties with their depiction, incorporating invented imagery and outside source material. Artists will be working in collage and with drawing materials, and water-based and/or oil paint. Slide shows of the work of modern and contemporary artists will supplement the exercises. It is intended to invigorate the practice of newer and more experienced artists alike. The workshop will meet on Zoom, two or three times per day, and work will be shared in an online album for discussion.


TRANSCRIBING ITALIAN MASTERS
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS

February 12-17, 2021
Friday-Wednesday

This ONLINE workshop, with Italy-based painter Lucy MacGillis, will look closely at five 500-year-old Italian secular masterpieces, investigating what makes them so powerful. Each day will begin with an introduction to the painter whose work we are studying, and the context in which the painting was created. We will draw from these paintings, searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of the painting. Specific paintings from the Renaissance will be our sources. In the afternoons, participants will create a painted sketch to better grasp the use of color in that day's painting. We will conclude with a group critique of the studies and a discussion about the colors that were used to create the original paintings.
Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing prints of the five paintings we will transcribe, as well as Fabriano paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be primed paper provided for afternoon painting studies. (The workshop fee includes the cost of materials and shipping.) The three daily meetings will be on Zoom, and work will be shared in online albums.
Limited to 15 participants. This five day workshop runs over six days, with a day off midweek.
DRAWING: PROPORTION AND ECONOMY
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE

January 13-17, 2021
Wednesday - Sunday

This ONLINE workshop will present a drawing method that results in accuracy of proportion. We will use straight lines to find relationships between the rectangle and the parts of the motif. This approach is a way of looking and seeing, not a style, and can be used to find the essential structure of any subject. We will work from images of the figure and the head. With practice, this method leads to an intuitive, personal balance between accuracy and individual voice.
We will meet on Zoom two or three times each day, and share the work in online albums.
START WITH A PART
WITH SUSAN LICHTMAN

ONLINE WORKSHOP
January 7-10, 2021
Thursday-Sunday

There is a way of constructing a painting that is comparable to writing fiction without an outline. Usually writers and painters compose by starting with a general outline, a design, where parts support the whole. But it is possible to reverse this method. Rather than composing the whole rectangle first, a painter’s starting point might be a detail: a small thing seen, a peculiar shape, shadow or color note. This visual starting point might not be important in itself, but for our eyes, it has a specific allure. By working out from this detail, we can embark on a painting journey where our habits of focus and hierarchy are upended, and all things seen have the potential to matter. By delaying our claim to a finished design, we will organically find a strong composition that is an authentic and possibly surprising account of an intimate visual experience.
We will meet on Zoom two or three times each day, and share the work in online albums.
NEW GROUND
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI

ONLINE WORKSHOP
December 12-16, 2020
Saturday-Wednesday

“I don't know what perfection is.”
— Henry Taylor

Many painters work in isolation and find themselves in a rut or just need some direction. Both good habits and bad can get in the way of progress. The workshop is an opportunity to explore the process of painting through exercises with specific objectives. We'll do some premier coup and longer term work. Exploration will be encouraged! Hopefully it will be a week of stretching into new territory which each painter can carry into their own practice.
The exercises will be both working from still life and photos. Each day there will be presentations and group discussions to try to maintain the intimate environment of an in-person workshop. This workshop is best suited to intermediate to advanced painters.
THE HEAD IN THE MIRROR
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE

December 5-9, 2020
Saturday-Wednesday

ONLINE WORKSHOP The head we see every day is a meaningful, personal and convenient subject for a painting. This workshop takes a reductive approach to painting the head, seeking how little information is enough. Universal proportions of the head will be covered, and a simple, intuitive drawing method will be introduced to help with drawing accuracy. Using paint, we will investigate whether translating the head into a few accurate shapes of color and value can create a truer likeness than a detailed description can. We will meet on Zoom two or three times each day, and share the work in online albums.
THE LANGUAGE OF ABSTRACTION
WITH DEBORAH ZLOTSKY

November 9-11, 2020
Monday-Wednesday

ONLINE WORKSHOP. Through an integrative, critical, and sequential process, participants will develop their own distinctive language to create new abstract works. Varied drawing experiences will help participants build vocabulary, create space and structure, and investigate what’s possible. The 3-day drawing workshop will become an experimental lab to generate new work informed by presentations, discussions, visual strategizing, and studio exploration. A description of an assignment to be completed before the start of the workshop will be sent to each participant with instructions and examples. The completed assignment is instrumental in launching the process covered by the workshop. Workshop will be held on Zoom. Three meetings each day.
WATERCOLOR: BREAK NEW GROUND
WITH ELIZABETH O'REILLY

ONLINE WORKSHOP
October 24-28, 2020
Saturday-Wednesday

Expand your watercolor fluency by experimenting with value, color, mark making and scale. Through a variety of exercises and techniques including staining, texture, dry brush, wet on wet and accidents, you will become more aware of how to manipulate the medium while maintaining its fluidity. Multiple studies will be created using references from nature. Other exercises may include working large (to put our body motion into the strokes), working abstractly, and creating collages from students’ own drawings and paintings. Looking at images of contemporary watercolor will be included. Participants should have some previous experience with watercolor.
This workshop will be held on Zoom, with three one-hour meetings per day.
LINEAGE INTO PAINT
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE

October 10-14, 2020
Saturday-Wednesday

ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photos of ancestors — those we have known in life and those we can know only from the images — will be the sources for this workshop. These photos might trigger a narrative, imaginary or real. We might begin with an impulse for detail and description, a desire to imagine those we can know in no other way. The ultimate goal will be reduction and a search for how much is enough. By analyzing the images as designs in a rectangle, breaking down the pictorial elements through simplification and abstraction, we will build drawings and paintings that stand on their own. Mediums will include graphite, collage, acrylic and/or oil paint.
We will meet online two or three times each day, and share the work, on Zoom.
COLOR RULES
WITH NANCY McCARTHY

NOW ONLINE

September 11-13, 2020
Friday-Sunday

8 a.m.-2 p.m. US Pacific time
11 a.m.-5 p.m. US eastern time
5 p.m.-11 p.m. Europe time
Check your own time zone

Color Rules! It does, absolutely, but there are NO rules, no formulas, no tricks. There is intention, getting color to say what you want it to say. In this intensive workshop we consider basic color concepts such as value, hue, and saturation and learn how to manipulate them to energize our work. Building color relationships with gouache on paper helps up understand how color functions and to build our personal color vocabulary. This workshop is meant for anyone working with color: painters, designers, architects, etc. We will use Zoom to meet as as group, view image presentations, share and discuss work.
EXPRESSIVE POSSIBILITIES IN PAINTING FROM PHOTOS 1
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI

August 17-21, 2020
Monday-Friday

8 a.m.-2 p.m. US Pacific time
11 a.m.-5 p.m. US eastern time
5 p.m.-11 p.m. Europe time

ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photography as a reference in painting is as old as the photograph itself. It is a tremendous tool that can transform the painter’s practice and content. The workshop will be centered on working from photos.The first two days will be spent painting short exercises. The rest of the week will be devoted to three paintings. They will be discussed at the end of the last day. There will be presentations, demonstrations and group discussions to try to maintain the intimate environment of a normal workshop.

Jennifer will be live for the first hour of each day to introduce the exercises and give demos or slideshows.
She will meet again with the group 1.5 hours before the end of the day for discussion of the work.

Materials:
Assortment of oils, brushes, medium such as Galkyd Lite
Newsprint
Any of the following supports: Canvas, panels, gessoed boards or paper for oils,
Chair or two as still life object
Still life objects
Photos will be provided
EXPRESSIVE POSSIBILITIES IN PAINTING FROM PHOTOS 2
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI

August 24-28, 2020
Monday-Friday

8 a.m.-2 p.m. US Pacific time
11 a.m.-5 p.m. US eastern time
5 p.m.-11 p.m. Europe time

ONLINE WORKSHOP. Photography as a reference in painting is as old as the photograph itself. It is a tremendous tool that can transform the painter’s practice and content. The workshop will be centered on working from photos.The first two days will be spent painting short exercises. The rest of the week will be devoted to three paintings. They will be discussed at the end of the last day. There will be presentations, demonstrations and group discussions to try to maintain the intimate environment of a normal workshop.

Jennifer will be live for the first hour of each day to introduce the exercises and give demos or slideshows.
She will meet again with the group 1.5 hours before the end of the day for discussion of the work.

Materials:
Assortment of oils, brushes, medium such as Galkyd Lite
Newsprint
Any of the following supports: Canvas, panels, gessoed boards or paper for oils,
Chair or two as still life object
Still life objects
Photos will be provided
TRANSCRIBING ITALIAN MASTERS
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS

July 9-13, 2020

10 a.m.-4 p.m. US east coast time
7 a.m.-1 p.m. US west coast time
4 p.m.-10 p.m. Italy time
Lucy will be live, and meet with participants, at the beginning, middle and end of each day of the workshop.

In this five-day ONLINE course, painters will look closely at 500 year old Italian masterpieces, investigating what makes them so powerful. Using transcription, we will draw from these paintings each morning, not copying, but searching for the brilliant uses of rhythm, duality and repetition within the geometry of each. From Piero della Francesca to Tintoretto, Raffaello and concluding with Florentine master Pontormo, we will explore a specific painting on paper and in a discussion (using Zoom.) In the afternoons, participants will create a painting sketch to better grasp the use of color in that day's masterpiece.
Each participant will receive a kit in the mail, prior to the course, containing the prints of the five paintings we will transcribe as well as paper measured in proportion to the works. There will also be hand primed paper provided for afternoon painting studies.
Limited to 12 participants.


DRAWING THE FIGURE 2
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE

SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2020
1-5 p.m. Eastern US time

ONLINE COURSE: In one four-hour Zoom session, we will approach the figure from three directions:
1. Blind contour drawing to fine-tune hand-to-eye coordination and remove any pressure about making a “good” drawing.
2. A method to help you draw the figure accurately and in proportion.
3. Finally, a fresh look at gesture drawing, to end on a note of freedom.
There will be an introductory image presentation; after that you will draw from images shown on your laptop or other device. At the end, you will be invited to upload three drawings from the session to share with the group, and talk about your experience with each of the three methods. Perfect for those with limited drawing experience, or for seasoned artists who want to refresh their grasp of the classic ways of seeing and drawing.
Limited to 20 participants.
DRAWING THE FIGURE
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE

SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2020
1-5 p.m. Eastern US time

ONLINE COURSE: In one four-hour Zoom session, we will approach the figure from three directions:
1. Blind contour drawing to fine-tune hand-to-eye coordination and remove any pressure about making a “good” drawing.
2. A method to help you draw the figure accurately and in proportion.
3. Finally, a fresh look at gesture drawing, to end on a note of freedom.
There will be an introductory image presentation; after that you will draw from images shown on your laptop or other device. At the end, you will be invited to upload three drawings from the session to share with the group, and talk about your experience with each of the three methods. Perfect for those with limited drawing experience, or for seasoned artists who want to refresh their grasp of the classic ways of seeing and drawing.
Limited to 20 participants.
THE HEAD EXAMINED THROUGH TIME
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE

June 15-19, 2020
Monday-Friday
10 a.m.-4 p.m. each day. (Eastern US time)

ONLINE COURSE: Portraits from art history will be the point of departure for study of pictorial structure and invention, with a focus on the head. We will work from reproductions of portraits from art history. You may work from postcards, photocopies from books, or images on your devices (tablet or laptop). We will touch upon the universal proportions of the head. Mediums will include graphite, charcoal, collage, gouache, acrylic and/or oil paint or materials you have on hand. Each participant will look deeply at one or two images and generate permutations through exercises that lead to simplification and abstraction. This rigorous and wide-ranging analysis of images from our painting ancestors will feed our own work and imaginations as we engage with images that speak to us still.
Daily schedule: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
(Eastern US time)
Image presentation: 10-11 a.m.
(Eastern US time)
Work on the exercise of the day
30-minute break
~ 1 p.m. upload images of exercise in progress
Continue with the exercise.
~ 4 p.m. upload images of exercise as is, with brief group conversation
24-hour studio access! to continue or finish exercise.
Limited to 15 participants
THE ACT OF PAINTING
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI

November 8-12, 2019
Friday-Tuesday

The act of painting is not about executing something well. It’s what happens instead.

The week will be about setting up exercises that will encourage something unexpected to happen.

During the five days of the workshop we will work on an enormous still life, work from a model and finally end with a day of self portraits from life or photos. We will also devote one day to working from photos. Three of the five days will focus on figuration.

The goals: to learn to trust first instincts, to hone skills by painting what is directly observed — but without overthinking or second-guessing, rendering or decorating. It will be a week of unfiltered mark making; maybe some stretching into new territory which each painter can carry into her own practice.

Participants who paint in oils will get the most out of this workshop.

Price includes a model session.
THE GARDEN
WITH SUSAN LICHTMAN

July 8-12, 2019
Monday-Friday

As a painting subject, the garden sits somewhere between landscape and domestic interior. A planned space used for aesthetic contemplation or for growing food, gardens have also served artists, since the Roman era, as a setting for pictorial narratives.

In this workshop we will make paintings about gardens, working from direct observation and invention. Painting perceptually in the gardens at Black Pond, we will also work from models, photographic sources, still lives of both organic forms and hardware store items. We will use the pure shapes of flowers and fruited vines, sun hats, watering cans, hammocks and hoes. We may evoke themes of Adam and Eve, Agony in the Garden, or a Constant Gardener who digs for truth.

Basic experience in perceptual painting is recommended for participants of this workshop.
PAINTING WITH THE EARTH PALETTE — LA MATERIA
WITH LUCY MacGILLIS

JUNE 26-28, 2019
Wednesday-Friday

In this intensive three-day course, Lucy MacGillis shares her love for paint, beginning with its creation — mixing raw earth pigments from Italy with linseed oil. Venetian and Pozzuoli red, warm Italian earth, yellow ochre, Naples yellow, earth green, Herculaneum blue, burnt and raw umber, roman black earth, and titanium white are created by participants and then used to respond to the still life.
Participants will make several studies and a group critique (including art historical examples) ends each day.
THE NATURAL WORLD: SHAPE AND COLOR
WITH NANCY McCARTHY

May 30-June 2, 2019
Thursday-Sunday
10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

The natural world has remained a potent source for artists throughout history. The focus of this workshop is simplifying complex vistas into distinct shapes of specific value and hue. A series of exercises with large brushes and palette knives will encourage this process. We will view contemporary and historical landscape painters and discuss the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors. Each day a one-session painting will be completed. Those who have painted outdoors many times or those doing so for the first time are welcome to join this intense workshop meant to energize your painting practice. Water based or oil paint may be used.
THE ACT OF PAINTING
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI

MAY 4-8, 2019
Saturday-Wednesday

The act of painting is not about executing something well. It’s what happened instead.

The week will be about setting up exercises that will encourage something unexpected to happen.

During the five days of the workshop we will work on an enormous still life, then work from a model and finally end with a day of self portraits from life or photos. We will also devote one day to working from photos.

The goals: to learn to trust first instincts, to hone skills by painting what is directly observed — but without overthinking or second-guessing, rendering or decorating. It will be a week of unfiltered mark making; maybe some stretching into new territory which each painter can carry into her own practice.
DRAWING MARATHON
WITH GWEN STRAHLE
MARCH 28-31, 2019
Thursday-Sunday

Drawing can be painterly, whether using charcoal, pencil or ink. This workshop will stimulate and maintain a continuous flow of drawing energy and examination. We will work from a still-life set-up that includes the model, using various materials and approaches. Exercises will be woven into the structure, including drawing from memory, gestures, drawing from other members of the studio. We will build abstractly to serve observation — drawing, re-drawing, re-thinking, re-seeing, re-working, to pull the drawing out from the inside, through process. Let’s make changes in order to dig deeper into the drawing experience, and provide opportunity for new invention. And, of course, it’s a marathon, so non-stop drawing...
SUPER BOWL MODEL SESSION
Sunday, February 3, 2019
10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Don't care about football? Join us for a six-hour model session. Single pose all day. No instruction, just a chance to paint or draw uninterrupted. Price includes model, beverages, and snacks. Bring your lunch and painting or drawing supplies. We have easels and palette tables; feel free to bring your own. Only odorless solvent (Gamsol), if used. Come as early as 9:30 a.m. for coffee and to set up. Model will start at 10. Limit: 10 participants.
BLUEPRINT FOR A BETTER PAINTING
WITH ELIZABETH GEIGER
SEPTEMBER 24-28, 2018
(Monday-Friday)

Geiger’s paintings are informed by art history, intuition and a desire to create visual drama. These forces create tension between nature and the internal world of emotion. In this workshop we will develop a series of studies to address drawing, composition, tonal and color relationships separately BEFORE the final painting. This preparatory work will help participants approach a painting with greater understanding and confidence. Painters will consider compositional ideas with thumbnails and drawings, create an underlying tonal structure with black and white paintings and finally experiment with color using a limited palette. Working from still-life setups, participants will make important decisions before attempting their final piece.
PUSHING PAINT
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
AUGUST 20-24, 2018 (Monday-Friday)

The week will start out with painting from a large still life. These will be quick reactions on small fugitive supports such as canvas boards or paper. Mid-week we will work from a model. Again, these will be quick, untethered exercises. The last two days we will be working from photos that each participant will provide.
Whether working from the natural world, or the mediated world, these subjects are just vehicles that trigger quick responses. Done from the gut, premier coup — no tweaking later! Each afternoon will be spent on one canvas — a new one each day. The goals: to learn to trust first instincts, to hone skills by painting what is directly observed — but without overthinking or second-guessing, rendering or decorating. It will be a week of unfiltered mark making; maybe some stretching into new territory which each painter can carry into her own practice.
PAINTING THE ENERGY IN NATURE
WITH NANCY McCARTHY
MAY 31-JUNE 3, 2018
(Thursday through Sunday)
10 a.m.– 6 p.m.

Those who have painted outdoors many times or those doing so for the first time are welcome to join this outdoor painting experience meant to enrich your painting practice. We will work to simplify the complex vistas of the natural world into shapes of specific value and hue, starting with a series of exercises to encourage rapid work with large brushes and palette knives. Over the four days students will complete four one-sitting paintings. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors and an image presentation of the work of contemporary and historical landscape painters. Black Pond Studio’s 40 acres provide fields, trees, swamp and pond, as well as indoor spaces to work if rain interrupts us. All mediums are welcome.
STILL LIFE: BUILT AND PAINTED
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6-MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2017
10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

How much is enough? Time lends depth to the painted image and frees us to pare down to the essential. Participants will build and light individual still-life setups and have four 6-hour sessions to complete one painting. This will be an antidote to the typical three-hour classroom paintings.
Day one: Build a setup and light it. Do several drawings to analyze the selection. Arrive at a final drawing on the painting support by the end of the day.
Day two: Do a first pass on the painting, covering it with your best color. By the end of the session the paint will be thin or scraped.
Day three: Do a second pass on the painting, assessing the color and value relationships and changing them, based on current lighting conditions.
Day four: Final pass on the painting, improving color and value relationships. Group discussion and review.
Medium: oil paint
ONE-SHOT STILL LIFES
WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI
June 12-16, 2017

In the brush doing what it’s doing, it will stumble on what one couldn’t do oneself.
— Robert Motherwell.

The workshop will be based on working from a large still life set up. The morning session will consist of short, small paintings done on fugitive supports such as canvas boards or primed paper. These will be done premier coup — no tweaking later! Each afternoon will be spent on one canvas — a new one each day. The goals: to learn to trust first instincts; to hone skills by painting what is directly observed — but without overthinking or second-guessing.
THE HEAD EXAMINED
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE

June 24, 25 and 26, 2017.
10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

This workshop takes a reductive approach to painting the head, experimenting with how little information is necessary. We will investigate whether translating the head into simple, accurate shapes of color and value can create a truer likeness than detailed description can. Universal proportions of the head will be covered. Light and the way it affects perception of structure will be emphasized, as well as finding specific and surprising color. We will work from the model. Self-portraits and a study of historical and contemporary portraiture will be included. Some painting experience required; oil paint is the preferred medium. Limited to seven participants. Price includes model fee.
PAINTING THE ENERGY OF NATURE
WITH NANCY McCARTHY
May 6, 7 and 13, 2017

(Saturday, Sunday and Saturday.) 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Those who have painted outdoors many times or those doing so for the first time are welcome to join this outdoor painting experience meant to energize your painting practice. We will work to simplify the complex vistas of the natural world into shapes of specific value and hue, starting with a series of exercises to encourage rapid work with large brushes and palette knives. Over the three days students will complete three one-sitting paintings. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors and an image presentation of the work of contemporary and historical landscape painters. Black Pond Studio’s 40 acres provide fields, trees, swamp and pond, as well as indoor spaces to work if rain interrupts us. All mediums are welcome.
OPEN MODEL SESSION 2
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Sara. Join us for a six-hour model session. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Single pose all day. No instruction, just a chance to paint or draw uninterrupted. Price includes model, beverages, and snacks. Bring your lunch. Bring a portable easel and painting or drawing supplies. Only odorless solvent (Gamsol), if used. Come as early as 10:30 a.m. for coffee and to set up. Model will start at 11. Limit: 10 participants.
STILL LIFE: BUILT AND PAINTED
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE
Sunday, October 16
Sunday, October 23
Sunday, October 30
Sunday, November 6
11 a.m.-5 p.m.

How much is enough? Time lends depth to the painted image and frees us to pare down to the essential. Participants will build and light individual still-life setups and have four 6-hour sessions to complete one painting. This will be an antidote to the typical three-hour classroom paintings.
Day one: Build a setup and light it. Do several drawings to analyze the selection. Arrive at a final drawing on the painting support by the end of the day.
Day two: Do a first pass on the painting, covering it with your best color. By the end of the session the paint will be thin or scraped.
Day three: Do a second pass on the painting, assessing the color and value relationships and changing them, based on current lighting conditions.
Day four: Final pass on the painting, improving color and value relationships. Group discussion and review.
Medium: oil paint
PAINTING: RESPONDING TO NATURE
WITH NANCY McCARTHY
September 10,11 and 17, 2016 (Saturday, Sunday and Saturday.) 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Those who have painted outdoors many times or those doing so for the first time are welcome join this outdoor painting experience meant to energize your painting practice. We will work to simplify the complex vistas of the natural world into shapes of specific value and hue, starting with a series of exercises to encourage rapid work with large brushes and palette knives. Over the three days students will complete three one-sitting paintings. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors and an image presentation of the work of contemporary and historical landscape painters. Black Pond Studio’s 40 acres provide fields, trees, swamp and pond, as well as indoor spaces to work if rain interrupts us. All mediums are welcome. Limit: 10 participants.
EARTH AND SKY
WITH HARRY STOOSHINOFF

September 25-29, 2017

We will begin by walking the landscape and recording motifs with photos and quick compositional sketches that will serve as studio reference. The majority of our investigations will take place in studio with a collage resource file that we will produce and use as a group.
There will be ample opportunity for one-on-one feedback and group discussion. Objectives include color mixing, developing composition skills, and resolving a painting in one sitting.
Three types of small painted compositions will be created in a studio setting:
1) abstract collages, with or without over-painted additions.
2) small format paintings from landscape motifs
3) combination collages/paintings from landscape motifs.
Participants will produce two pieces each day of the workshop.
Materials:
• acrylic paints
• small format art papers or painting panels
(9 x 12 inches is a good panel size. 11x14 inch heavy art papers will provide some space for a border around the work).
• Water soluble white glue (Lepages or Natura are common brands. Yes! Paste is an ideal glue choice)
• A brayer or small rolling pin for the collage work.
Limit: 10 participants
COPIES: ANALYSIS AND VARIATION
WITH CATHERINE KEHOE Sunday, June 5, 2016, 7-8 p.m. Monday, June 6, 10-5 Tuesday, June 7, 10-5 Wednesday, June 8, 10-5
We undertake analysis of works of art, not because we mean to copy them, but in order to set ourselves in motion. — Paul Klee Complex paintings from art history will be the jumping-off place for exploration of pictorial structure and invention. Mediums will include graphite, charcoal, collage, acrylic and/or oil paint. Each participant will look deeply at one or two images and generate permutations through simplification and abstraction. We will work from reproductions of paintings from the 14th through the 18th centuries. This rigorous and wide-ranging analysis of images from our painting ancestors will feed our own work and imagination as we engage with images that speak to us still. Recommended: start with one image that you would like to work with, in various media. Bring a few extra images (postcards, printouts from online, etc.) in case you exhaust the possibilities or your interest in the first image. (collage image by Kathy Rubado)
CHAINSAW SAFETY WORKSHOP
TAUGHT BY WILLIAM GIRARD, LICENSED FORESTER

Saturday, October 14, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
(Rain date: Sunday, October 15)
Get professional guidance for your chainsaw work!

CHAINSAW SAFETY Level 1 introduces open face felling and the techniques for safe chainsaw use. Topics include personal protective equipment, chainsaw safety features, chainsaw reactive forces, bore cutting, pre-planning the fell, and understanding hinge wood strength. Every participant will fell one tree during this workshop.

Rehoboth, Massachusetts
Please bring your lunch.
LIMIT: 10 participants
PAINTING THE ENERGY OF NATURE
WITH NANCY McCARTHY June 4, 5 and 11, 2016 (Saturday, Sunday and Saturday.) 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Those who have painted outdoors many times or those doing so for the first time are welcome join this outdoor painting experience meant to energize your painting practice. We will work to simplify the complex vistas of the natural world into shapes of specific value and hue, starting with a series of exercises to encourage rapid work with large brushes and palette knives. Over the three days students will complete three one-sitting paintings. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the issues, tools and procedures unique to painting outdoors and an image presentation of the work of contemporary and historical landscape painters. Black Pond Studio’s 40 acres provide fields, trees, swamp and pond, as well as indoor spaces to work if rain interrupts us. All mediums are welcome. Limit: 10 participants.
MODEL SESSION ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
Sign up for mailing list to be notified of the next one.
Sunday, February 7, 2016.
11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Don't care about football? Join us for a six-hour model session. Single pose all day. No instruction, just a chance to paint or draw uninterrupted. Price includes model, beverages, and snacks. Bring your lunch. Bring a portable easel and painting or drawing supplies. Only odorless solvent (Gamsol), if used. Come as early as 10:30 a.m. for coffee and to set up. Model will start at 11. Limit: 10 participants.