Tools for Making Impressionistic Paintings with Cynthia Rosen

This workshop will focus on the use of color and a variety of tools in creating impressionistic paintings. While some may go more representational and others more abstract the basic tenet of impressionism relies on broken color and most often a heightened sensitivity to color. I am known to rely on the palette knife to help generate highly colored images, but your tools will be of your choosing, be it palette knives, brushes, wedges or spatchers. I will make use of the technology afforded by Hudson River Arts to tie in historic references and concepts. Demos may also be used to illustrate specific skills.

Day 1: After a brief introduction to composition and a variety of forms of representation, we will spend the morning exploring color mixing to better understand color relationships. This will include a focus on how to elevate your use of warm and cool colors through premixing specific colors. This knowledge will help you broaden your color range and values, to draw focus where it is wanted in a painting. Such is imperative in making quality paintings. We will then use these colors to create a few different small studies from still lives.

The afternoon will be spent painting a still life to better study the uses of that which was explored in the morning as well as experimenting with possible new tools. This will help you move towards impressionism while providing me with a better understanding of your personal approach and voice and how to better help you maintain that gift as you move forward.

Day 2 will review a variety of tools and the various affects you can get from them while advancing image making, improving your use of broken color and color relationships. Weather permitting I will give a short plein air demonstration illustrating my approach to painting impressionistic paintings outside. I will introduce glazing (in acrylics) and scrumbling as well as a short tutorial on perspective for those interested. It will be a day enhancing the use broken color in the pursuit of impressionistic paintings with your painting tools of choice.

Subject matter for your paintings will be of personal choice on days 2, 3, and 4, be it painting outside on site or in the studio from still lifes, landscape photos, or paintings from art history. On day 3, I will provide a brief intro to the figure and how to block in figures in a painting for those interested in including figures in their work. I will also provide a quick tutorial on the structure of the face for those interested.

On days 3 and 4 we will focus on completing quality paintings using the tools and knowledge gained from days 1 and 2. Once again, subject matter is up to you. There are plein air options located right on the studio site ranging from buildings, a stream with a bridge, street views, and wood.

Day 4 is the last day of instruction and it’s goal to refine your range of colors and techniques in creating vibrant impressionistic paintings.

 

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About Cynthia Rosen

My work is a reaction and response to the quiet amenable youngster growing up.  It is the adult who found her passion for color, expression, and individuality portraying her own love of creativity and way of seeing the forever changing world.

In 2015 I picked up the palette knife in order to learn more about color; in doing so I unwittingly discovered a new visual language. More recently I have included new tools which still afford me the use of vibrant color but add to the range of textures in my work With the success this knowledge has afforded me and my passion for teaching, I look forward to helping you incorporate similar skills in your own work. The benefits of the palette knife and related techniques are the immediacy and application of clean broken color. My goal is to enhance one’s own artistic vision with greater understanding of color relationships and technique options. Through specific skills I work to help attendees bring excitement and sense of movement to their work.