Collecting Symbols

• In this lesson we’ll spend some time with our sketchbook beginning our symbol collection and then create a vibrant harmonious layered painting in magentas, pinks reds and oranges, embedding our symbols in various layers and learning about blending, glazing and other techniques.

Archetypal Symbols

• A quick google search for symbols brings up thousands of images; archetypal, cultural and historical. Drawing from these we’ll take several symbols that resonate with us and experiment with some small studies in a purely exploratory way. We’ll keep these mini paintings simple and see what we can create with just several contrasting moves on each.

Playing with Diana

• In this lesson we’ll be looking at one of my favourite apps, the Diana App. I invite you to paint along with me from the image I manipulate or manipulate some photos of your own to work from.

Good Jaguar, Bad Jaguar

• Today we look at abstracting something familiar from our personal surroundings; a chair, a carving, a sculpture. I choose a hand carved Guatemalan jaguar and show you how to work fast and loose, trying different mediums, overlapping images and watching for a sense of character to emerge.

Pattern, Rhythm, Harmony

• In this lesson we’ll apply some of the elements and principles of design in a simple piece which explores line, shape, color, space and value as well as pattern, contrast, balance, harmony and rhythm/movement. With nature as our muse we’ll create a beautiful layered painting that brings to mind for me both the rushing emerald green rivers of BC Canada and the turquoise tidal shallows of nearby Currambene Creek.

Nature Collage

• In this experimental lesson we’ll explore nature inspired mark making on tape and paper, how to successfully compose a layered collage using a more subdued color palette and revisit the importance of contrast. We’ll also look at the idea of choosing to keep our finished artworks as one piece OR finding greater aesthetic appeal in cropping in the image and presenting as several cohesive pieces within a series.

Still Life with Apps

• Working from an app manipulated photo we’ll dive into a dreamy and vibrant palette of purples, blues and magentas to create an abstracted still life that gives away just enough information to keep the viewer guessing a little. Using a variety of tools we’ll sponge, dab, brush and wipe our way through the layers, learning that “push and pull” is a huge part of the process in creating a successful work.

Nature Tools

• In this lesson we dive all in with nature not only as our muse but also providing the tools to paint with! We’ll explore the multitude of marks that can be created with twigs and seedpods, leaves and lichen, ferns and grasses, plus a few traditional tools thrown in for good measure! We’ll swirl, stamp, splatter, dab, dot and spray our way to a dynamic, colourful expressive abstract!

Reinventing the Old to Inspire the New

• So much fun in this lesson as we look at ways to take an old painting and use it as inspiration to create not one but two completely new and unique works! Be prepared to think outside the box, paint an “invisible” image and change perspectives and direction in this tutorial! The old saying that a picture paints a thousand words could be switched up here to say that a picture paints a thousand other paintings!

Photo Collage

• In this lesson we will create a dynamic and evocative abstract piece based around a central image. With expressive mark making and a limited but powerful palette we’ll try to convey a narrative to the viewer of the work. I’m using a vintage photo found at a second hand store. Old postcards, magazine images will also work! Find an image that makes you feel something and let this image direct the layered evolution of you painting.

Playing with Apps

• In this lesson we’ll be looking at strong vibrant color, simplified shapes and high contrast between darks and lights. I’m using an image of two women taken in the historic center of Oaxaca Mexico. Color is everywhere in this beautiful city and I was completely taken by the scene. The apps used to manipulate today's photo are Cleverpainter and Enlight. We’ll be building the image by laying down broad strokes and color shapes and gradually coming in with smaller shapes and more detail as the painting progresses.

Graffiti Venus

• Our inspiration for today's lesson is a photo I took In the beautiful city of Porto, Portugal. The area we stayed in was in the process of being revitalised and the addition of street art on old walls and buildings by talented young artists was one of the highlights of our trip! I loved this quirky figure with its simple line drawing and colourful scribbly face and knew I had to find a way to create something new in response to it.

Abstracting the Landscape

• In this lesson we’ll revisit our line and color studies from week one, choosing our favorite and allowing it to guide us in a vibrant imaginary landscape inspired by talented Scottish artist Archie Dunbar McIntosh. We’ll look at the use of dynamic expressive areas of color and mark making against more solid flat planes and how a balance of the two can make for a stunning successful abstract painting.

Playing with Apps

• Let’s visit the magical coast of Cornwall in this tutorial! The home of Merlins cave and Tintagel! The reference photos we’ll be using was taken when we visited this beautiful area in 2015 and I’ve been wanting to paint this landscape ever since! We’ll manipulate the image with the IC painter app and then use both acrylics and inks and a little soft pastel towards the end. The trick will be to stay loose and expressive in our translation of image to abstract painting!

Bonus App Streetscape

• In this lesson I’ve decided to use another image manipulated in IC Painter so we can all have another attempt at staying more abstract and not pushing it too far. We’ll use a slightly different approach today acknowledging the underlying “S” composition in this image, using masking fluid to block out the whites and focusing entirely on shape and color rather than the actual literal elements of the streetscape ie flowers, street, sky, houses etc.

Deconstructing the Landscape

• Taking it one step further, in this lesson I’ll show you how we can use the painting from the previous lesson and deconstruct it (literally!) even further to create a dynamic and expressive triptych abundant in texture and vibrant color. You’ll need a printed image of your painting from lesson 3 as we’ll be tearing it up and using the pieces to collage into our triptych. So much fun!

Going Big (will be yours as a free gift with the purchase of units 1-5)

• In this last unit we now get to take everything we have learnt and decide which parts we will bring to a large 30 x 30” canvas! Over the past 5 sessions we’ve explored line and color, compositional tools, texture, contrast, narrative and symbolism. We’ve looked at where inspiration comes from and how to add meaning to our art. This week we select several elements and combine them to create a striking large painting. A perfect culmination of our class time together and a gateway to many new possibilities in your art direction!