Oil paint into collage: a point of departure
Four-week practical evening course
7 November 2017 6.30 - 9.30pm14 November 2017 6.30 - 9.30pm21 November 2017 6.30 - 9.30pm28 November 2017 6.30 - 9.30pm
The Learning Studio, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
£420. Includes all materials and a drinks reception at the end of the final session.
Matisse in the Studio
Terms and conditions
Figurative painter Andy Pankhurst leads both a techniques and ideas-based course working directly and perceptually from differing life models and poses each week.
“If there were no model, one would have nothing from which to deviate.”
Henri Matisse
The monumental work Large Reclining Nude (The Pink Nude) of 1933 by Matisse, painted directly from life, took him six months to complete. During the period of its making, 22 known photographs record its progress. These were to help inform him as to whether he was getting closer to or further away from his original idea, and to question if the image equated as a pictorial equivalent towards his feelings for the visual sensation before him, encompassing the design and form of the model's pose. Early photographs show a painting that most would suggest could be called lifelike, then as the picture progressed, a point of departure from literal reality developed as he strove to discover his essence of expression for what he felt. Anatomical, colour and spatial distortions take over, while his model for the picture and assistant Lydia Delectorskaya is quoted as claiming, “my pose did not change”.
The development to this work in oil paint on canvas came about not solely, but largely with the use and experimentation of painted forms and collages of coloured paper temporarily stuck onto the canvas to give Matisse a visual clue as to how to proceed. This method of working and thinking being the precursor to the famous paper cut-outs, his final great period of creativity up to his death in late 1954.
The art of the language of collage to glue can be sourced back to c.200 BC in China when paper was first invented. In more recent times it was hailed as a medium of modernism at the beginning of the twentieth century (c.1912) through the art of the originators of cubism Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso when they combined collage, including found objects, within their painted works. Collage today is still a popular choice of medium for many contemporary artists and painters, either working with it solely on its own, or often combined with paint as used by Jasper Johns Hon RA and Sir Peter Blake.
This exciting and dynamic mixed-media techniques and idea based painting course runs over four consecutive weeks under the guidance of painter and expert tutor Andy Pankhurst, with participants working directly from different life models and poses each week.
£420. Includes all materials and a drinks reception at the end of the final session.
Matisse in the Studio
Terms and conditions
About the course
A mixed-media based course where participants will have the opportunity to explore techniques and gain confidence in handling the mediums of both oil paint and collage with gouache combined with ways of thinking towards a visual and personal way of expressionism. Participants will explore a combination of languages and mediums for image making through the discourse of painting with oils and paper collage. This will be facilitated through working directly from a different life model and pose each week.
Tuesday 7 November
Painting what we see
Using the medium of oil paint to make a study directly from the life model
Tuesday 14 November
Introducing Collage
Perception and colour using the medium of gouache and cut paper
Tuesday 21 November
Thinking towards the abstract
Painting an oil study towards what we feel from what we see
Tuesday 28 November
Essence of form
Making a plastic equivalent from the observed world using the paper collage cut-out
This course is set in the purpose-built Learning Studio at the Royal Academy in Burlington House. All materials will be provided.
This course is suitable for all levels, preferably with some prior experience of drawing, painting or creative practice in general.
This course is for you if:
• You have some prior knowledge of drawing and/or painting and would like to extend your skills in the practice of working with oil paints and collage.
• You would like a new perspective in your approach to painting.
• You would like the opportunity to experiment with oil paint, gouache and collage.
Minimum age 18
The number of participants is strictly limited to enable detailed feedback from the course tutor.
Price: £420
6.30pm - 9.30pm for each session (four sessions in total)
Includes:
• An introduction to the Academy with particular reference to relevant works in the Collection
• All practical materials
• A drinks reception at the end of the final session
• A certificate of participation upon course completion
About the tutor
Andy Pankhurst
Upon graduation from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1992, Andy Pankhurst had won First Prize for the Windsor and Newton Young Artist's Award, and was represented by leading gallery Anthony Mould Contemporary Ltd. He was awarded the Richard Ford Scholarship through the Royal Academy in 1992 for travel in Spain to study the Old Masters within the Prado, subsequently becoming a committee member of the award himself in 2003, nominated by Christopher Le Brun, P.R.A, and alongside former Keeper of the RA Schools, Maurice Cockrill RA (1936-2013). Further travel undertaken through the Boise Travel Scholarship in 1993 to live in the Veneto area of Italy for the year, to study primarily Giotto and the Venetian School. As a figurative painter, Andy Pankhurst is known as an artist and teacher working from the life model. Andy has work represented in various public, corporate and private collections and museums in the UK and USA. Andy currently exhibits with Browse and Darby in London, with his most recent show of paintings and drawings in 2014. He is the co-author with Lucinda Hawksley of the book What Makes Great Art, published in 2012 by Apple Press.
Our courses and classes programme
Our programme of short courses and classes offers the opportunity to explore a range of subjects, led by expert tutors and practising artists.
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