The instructor was Dan Gunn, and I leaned quite a bit from him. I don't think I really have a natural talent for painting, but enjoyed it all the same. Here's the work we did, in order. The first 3 pieces had strict rules/constraints designed to teach us certain concepts. After that, our personality could show through more. All the canvases were 18x24" unless noted, and we used oil paints for all of them.
Assignment 1: Black and White Value Study from instructor-set still life
Assignment 2: Cool/Warm Tones Study from instructor-set still life
Assignment 3: Still Life with Painted Fruit of our own choosing. In this one, we brought fruit and painted it (I used grapefruits, oranges, limes & lemons and my stencils for the stars and circles). Then we set up a still life of our own, and painted the painted fruit. The tablecloth is one I bought in Switzerland when I was a college exchange student.
Assignment 4: Impressionist Landscape - we chose a section of the lake that was outside the art studio windows.
Assignment 5: Glazing (with Galkyd) over a grey-tone background; a technique used by old masters to save on pigments. We started by doing a collage and then our glazed painting had to replicate the collage. Very time consuming method.
Assignment 6: Geometric Abstraction. I also added encaustic wax and layered canvas strips. This was inspired by the cliffs that have mineral striations on the shores of Lake Superior -- in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Assignment 7: "No Hands" - for this work we could not use paintbrushes or similar utensils. I used an empty wine bottle to "paint" this -- I applied the paint using the wine bottle like a rolling pin. This turned out to be my favorite piece from the whole semester. It's big, 2 x 3 feet.
Assignment 8: Final. We had free rein on the final painting. I chose to do a scene of the Clarion River (with a very big sky) in autumn, from my Pennsylvania hometown. This was also a big canvas, 2 x 3 feet.
