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.

WITH NANCY McCARTHY

March 4 - 7, 2024

Monday - Thursday

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

IN PERSON AT BLACK POND

The striking contrasts of black and white, and the subtle differences between grays, will fuel 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 view image presentations, and discuss work. Image presentations and discussions will deepen our work. WORKSHOP FEE INCLUDES LUNCHES.

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.

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.

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.

WITH ELIZABETH O'REILLY

JUNE 20-23, 2024

Thursday-Sunday

IN PERSON AT BLACK POND. Using one object of your choice, you’ll receive 100 prompts for ways to paint it in watercolor. 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! Workshop fee includes lunches.

Exploring the world through drawing, sculpture, printmaking and collage

WITH NANCY GRUSKIN AND MAUREEN NATHAN

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.

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS

THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL

February 17-19, 2024

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

10:30 a.m.-1:30 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.

WITH NANCY McCARTHY



THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL

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.



 WITH LUCY MacGILLIS

THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL



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.

WITH LUCY MacGILLIS

THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL

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.

WITH NANCY GRUSKIN

THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL



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.

WITH JENNIFER POCHINSKI

THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL

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.