Abstract Painting

Delve into the imaginative world of abstract painting with professional artist Madeleine Pires.

***To avoid a non-refundable booking fee and pay by card, cheque or cash, please contact dot-art Services directly on 0345 017 6660***

Sundays from 12pm - 4pm starting 29th September (£135 for 3-day sessions)

29th September, 6th & 13th October

Programme

Suitable for newcomers and for more experienced painters wanting to try something new and exciting.

This course has new content, updated from Madeleine’s popular abstract painting course.

• Day 1 will begin with an updated introduction to abstract art, and a discussion about the reasons for making art, whether realistic or non-representational. Students will be invited to share (if they wish) the kind of abstract art they find appealing and what they would like to develop themselves.

Following this, we will focus on colour and layering. We will look at examples of artists who have magnified and celebrated colour in their work, and use acrylic paint to make our own evocative pieces. We will learn how to blend colours in a way that uses depth and perspective to mentally transport ourselves and viewers into a different place.

We will look at the different associations of colour, including emotions, and learn to use contrasting and complimenting colours. We will “learn by doing”, learning how paint behaves, opacity/transparency and experiment layering lights over darks, darks over lights, bright over dull, blending edges etc. We will experiment with different ways of applying colour: brushing, sponging, masking out and using layers.

We will look at “harmonious opposites”: e.g. bright and muted, busy and quiet, textured and flat.

We will have time for appraisal and feedback, appreciating different people’s reactions and responses to our work.

• Day 2 will focus on composition, space, pattern and movement, and the highly enjoyable “scrape painting” technique. This will improve the ability to isolate visual information and notice the essential qualities of a painting, which will in turn help us distinguish and employ differing abstract techniques.

We will practise locating a focal area and evocation of depth in various examples, and determining what kind of movement has been used to make a painting. Using various examples of shapes and patterns, we will do some intuitive exercises to discover our own unique “movement” – wavy lines, straight lines, splatters, random, controlled, etc.

We will create mood and atmosphere and discover our own unique style through this session. There will also be the opportunity to create pieces to do with music and “expressing the invisible”.

• Day 3 will look at ways of making art using reduction, simplification and geometric abstraction (removing something from context), as well as inspiration from natural forms such as “the sinuous line”. We will explore recent neurological discoveries about the functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and discuss the relationship between the explicit and the implicit, logic and intuition, simplicity and complexity, and the interface art can be between the physical and the transcendent. We will create unique artworks using skills from Day 1 and Day 2 as well as the themes of Day 3.

Every student will receive specific and individual feedback, suggestions, encouragement and advice from the tutor throughout, with the freedom to be as vocal or as quiet as desired during discussion times.

This course will give you opportunities for improving practical skills; practising both inward reflection and outward appreciation; and developing your unique artistic voice.

Dates

Sundays from 12pm - 4pm

29th September, 6th & 13th October

Venue

Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX

Situated in the centre of Liverpool, just behind Church Street, down Church Alley and in front of Liverpool ONE. You can enter the building via the front courtyard off School Lane, or through the garden at the back off College Lane. Nearest train station- Liverpool Central.

Cost

£135 for the 3-week course (full course must be booked in advance)

Materials

• Plenty of acrylic paint in lots of different colours (The Works and Art Discount do the cheapest versions)
• Brushes of varying sizes and shapes
• 2-3 sponges (art sponges or domestic sponges will work)
• Small squeegee/scraper/palette knife/even a short ruler for the scraping technique
• 4-8 small to medium sized canvasses (The Works and Home Bargains sell quite cheap ones)
• A4 or A3 sketchpad
• Coloured pencils or pastels
• Water pot or jar for washing brushes
• Kitchen roll
• Apron/painting shirt (acrylic paint stains as it is plastic based)
• Pictures/scrap book of abstract art/ideas that you find inspiring (Optional)

Notes

There are a maximum of 15 places available on the course, so early booking is essential. To avoid a booking fee and pay by card, cheque or cash, please contact dot-art Services directly on 0345 017 6660.

Cancellations / Refunds

Once you have made your course booking you are committed to it. This is because our courses have very small student numbers, and often sell-out and are unavailable to others. Therefore any cancellations may result in a place not being filled, or a course not being able to run.

Cancellations are permitted up to 30 days before the start of a course, and a full refund will be issued. Refunds will not be made for cancellations less than 30 days before the start of a course. If you are unable to attend due to illness, personal or professional commitments you do not have the right to a refund.

If you wish to cancel your place on a course that has not yet started and you have a friend or colleague who can take your place we can accommodate this substitution.

If we are unable to deliver a course due to low bookings, tutor illness or venue unavailability we will process the dot-art amount of the course tickets. Please note the booking fee is non-refundable as this charge does not go to the organiser. To avoid the booking fee please book over the phone with us on 0345 017 6660 and have your card details to hand. Or you can pay in person with cash, card or cheque in dot-art Gallery, Queen Avenue, Liverpool.

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