“The Dark of Light”

This three day workshop is designed for intermediate to advanced oil painters although the concepts are pertinent to beginners and other mediums as well. Acrylic and pastel painters are welcome but I encourage you to try oils if you haven’t before. If you don’t already own oils, consider water-soluble oils for this class. I will work with you individually at your easel to address compositional and color issues and will provide careful critique.

On at least one day of the workshop we will work on a landscape that clearly shows depth of atmosphere. I will bring a couple of sample photos you can use but please bring photos of your own choosing. Try to bring photos with 3-4 clearly definable planes. If your photos do not project near and far distances please use one of those I will bring. Our objective is to learn how to make features move back in space and allow your subject to appear properly anchored in your composition. Palette organization will be emphasized to allow for easy shadow and highlight mixing.

On one of our days we will work on nocturnes. You will learn how light sources appear to the naked eye as opposed to camera lenses and other filtering devices and how different light sources appear in oil paintings. Finding your own suitable nocturne photos can be hard and I will bring some you can use. You may bring your own but please allow me to decide if yours will be suitable to apply the techniques I will be teaching. You should leave with a better understanding of how to capture the glow of light sources and make your painting “sing.”

Discussion on key factors such as composition, underpainting and edges will be incorporated in the workshop as well as tips on traveling with wet panels, toning canvasses and methods of cleaning and storing brushes. There will be lots of little tips along the way and everyone should go home learning something they never have before.

We can also have a “lunch and learn” opportunity if enough of you are interested. If so, we could eat lunch “in” one day and I will be happy to share how Artwork Archive software can help you organize most facets of your art business to help you keep organized. More about this discussion will be shared during the workshop.

Questions about the materials supply list or workshop can be directed to me at: art@janisblayer.com or contact me on my cell at 808-250-2141.

Oil Paints: Choose quality pigments. My personal preference is Gamblin.
Titanium White
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Yellow
Cadmium Orange
Cadmium Red
Transparent Red Oxide
Alizarin Crimson
Viridian
Cerulean Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Portland Cool Grey
Portland Grey Medium
Gamsol or odorless terpenoid and lidded container. Stand oil, linseed or similar oils are also good brush cleaning mediums. Please feel free to use water-soluble oil pigments if you prefer.

Brushes:
Long bristle flats or filberts, #2, #4, #6, #8, #10 and one pointed round #2 or #4
I gravitate toward Rosemary and Silver brands. Boar and similar stiff bristles are generally best for Canvas, synthetics for smoother surfaces like extra fine linen or gessobord.

Supports:
Panels (your choice of surfaces above) 9 x 12,” 11×14,” 12×16,” or similar, 2 each. Please allow for at least 2 panels for each day of the workshop.

Please also bring the following:
Table easel, palette, palette cup(s), palette knife, note/sketch book and soft graphite pencil, paper towels or “Rembrandt rolls” (TP), disposable trash bag for each day (used produce grocery bags work fine), latex or nitrile gloves (cadmiums and solvents are toxic!), apron, panel box to safely transport wet panels. Dawn detergent for final brush cleaning. If traveling, you may want to consider using Gamblin Solvent Free Gel to speed the drying process of your pigments for traveling.

Download the Materials Supply List