Luminous Still Life Painting

Learn to simply and quickly bring a painting to luminous, life-like fruition! In Still Life Painting, students of all levels will study the properties of design, value, volume and color which are integral to a painting’s mood and drama. We will cover techniques from the Old masters to present day contemporary artists, and demonstrations will be given on topics such as color mixing, form rendering and indirect painting. 

Students will learn to render sumptuous fruit, glittering metal, voluminous fabric and more.

Q&A

Q: Can I make up a class if I miss one?
A: No, there are no makeup classes. Because art is taught with demonstrations and demonstrations are time consuming, if one person misses the class each week, the instructor would spend the first part of each class repeating the demonstration from last week before moving on to the next lesson, which isn't fair to the students who attended. That said, most of our classes are taught atelier style. If there is a demonstration during the particular session, after the demonstration, the instructor goes to each student to work with them on a one-on-one basis. During this time, the instructor can work with you if you missed the previous week to talk and explain what to do.

Materials List:

Brushes We will need 8-12 long handled oil-painting brushes, in a variety of shapes and sizes. I’ve listed the size of brush in inches, because every brand uses different numbers to size brushes, it can be confusing and useless to use numbers 1-20 as descriptors. So, when you are in the brush aisle at the art store, take out your mini ruler, and measure each brush to get a variety of sizes. All brushes can be natural or synthetic fibers, specific suggestions follow. Make sure you haveat least one large brush!

Filbert

• ¼” Synthetic (1 or 2 ea)
• 3/8” Synthetic (1 ea)
• ½” Natural/bristle (1 or 2 ea)
• ¾” Natural Bristle(1 ea)

Round

• 1/8” Small Sable (1 ea)
• 1/4” Med Sable or Bristle (1 ea)

Flat (hog or synthetic bristle)

• ¾” Bristle (1 ea)
• 1” Bristle MUST HAVE (1 ea)

Bright

• 1 ¼” Natural fiber or bristle (1 ea

Palette Knives:

• one small 3/8” 
• one medium ½”

Palette:
You need a glass (preferred), wooden or paper palette. In the neighborhood of 8x11 to 12x16. You also need a container to store your extra paint (and/or palette)

• For palette & paint storage Masterson Sta-Wet Palette Seal http://www.dickblick.com/products/masterson-sta-wet-palette-seal/
• For paint storage only Richeson Tray with Cover http://www.dickblick.com/products/richeson-round-10-well-tray-with-cover/

Paints: We will be using a full-spectrum chromatic palette. Old Holland, Williamsburg, Sennelier, Gamblin, M. Graham and Winsor Newtown are all good brands
**(try to at least have Professional, Artist or Studio grade paints, not Student grade)

Need:

• Titanium White or Zinc White
• Cadmium Yellow Light or Lemon Yellow
• Indian Yellow
• Transparent Red Iron Oxide (or Burnt Sienna)
• Cadmium Red medium
• Alizarin Crimson
• Viridian Green
• Ultramarine Blue
• Scheveningen Blue Deep (Old Holland Only) or Phthalo Blue

Add-Ons:

• Burnt Umber
• Quinacrodone Magenta (or Rose)
• Cadmium Orange
• Yellow Ochre
• Black, Mars or Ivory
• Phthalo Green

Substrates: Primed Cotton Duck Canvas or Sealed & Primed Panel/Masonite (We will need 3 to 4 for the semester; you can just buy one for the first class)
I recommend Blick/Utrecht Heavyweight or Artist Grade Canvas *No canvases or panels larger than 18” or smaller than 10”
*Not okay: canvas panels and boards (they look like canvas stretched over thin cardboard)

Oil Medium & Solvents
Choose one medium and one solvent

• Painting Medium: Linseed, Safflower, Walnut or Poppy seed Oil or Walnut Alkyd Medium (by M.Graham) 
• Solvent i.e. Odorless Mineral Spirits: Turpenoid, Gamsol, or Eco House (used to clean brushes and thin paints only)
• Small Glass jar with lid and small tin or plastic cups to hold solvent and oil

Brush Cleaner: Ivory Soap Bar (Cheap, and works beautifully) or the Masters Brush Cleaner cake or bar

Rags: You must have proper rags/paper towels!
I recommend VIVA or Blue Shop towels