With Alex Fowler NEAC
If you would like the recorded x4 videos of this course please buy the package
Alex looks at painters from Delacroix, through Cézanne to Matisse, and their contemporaries, understood that copying from the Old Masters was the most effective way to develop as a painter. David Hockney made Variations to explore his own interests. Below is ‘The Sermon on the Mount’, by Claude Lorraine, and an example of David Hockney’s work from it, intensifying the colour.
What to expect on this Course
You will be working from paintings by Poussin and then Monet because they are both masters of colour, but in different ways. Alex will approach each painting with some information about the artist and where this piece of work fits on a timeline. This will be followed by a demonstration and direction.
Use this opportunity to observe, and learn how to make this acquired knowledge work for you.
As you make your own version you will learn about the mechanics of a painting by studying it closely. The intention is not to copy the appearance but to transcribe in your own voice. In this way we can experience the works of a giant as if we were making it ourselves in our own time and our own method. The giants have done the hard work and made the decisions before you – your task is to explore what they have done and enjoy the discoveries.
By studying paintings closely you can fully experience the work, and learn how great paintings were put together.
It is quite easy to download copies of the paintings in question. Please make sure you do this to get the most out of the videos. The links are below:
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/nicolas-poussin-the-adoration-of-the-golden-calf
https://www.artic.edu/artworks/64818/stacks-of-wheat-end-of-summer
Nicolas Poussin, Adoration of the Golden Calf
In the first two videos you will be looking at the Poussin. Everyone will select a cropped section (see examples below) so it doesn’t take too long. Once you have done one section, if you have time and are feeling bold, there is no reason why you can’t work across the whole painting.
Drawing, Design and Composition
The approach you will be encouraged to follow will start with drawing. By focusing on the rhythms of the shapes you will achieve more accurate proportions. You will see how the painting is pieced together on an abstract level as a composition. This method of drawing is a great tool in learning to draw anything accurately.
Colour: Mixing and Understanding
As you move into colour you will break the image down into simplified, manageable shapes of colours. Exploring how those colours relate to each other, and can be adjusted in that relationship, will give you an experience of how colour can be tuned like notes in music. You will learn how colour relationships carry the painting.
You will learn a method of colour mixing that can be applied to painting any subject
Claude Monet, Stacks of Wheat Series
In the second two videos you will be working from paintings in Monet’s Stacks of Wheat series.
With Monet where the forms are less complex we will take on the whole painting working in paint over two weeks so we can work in layers to stalk the marvellous harmonies of colours Monet achieves.
You will explore the variations within the series by making small sketches of a few of the paintings. The series shows different light effects in varying weather, at different times of day, achieved through simplified arrangements of colour.
Materials
Specific materials don’t matter too much although a good range of colour would be necessary. Alex suggest you gather all the materials you would need to work in whatever media you are most happy to use. Alex recommends a large palette and palette knife for mixing.
Alex will be working in oil and drawing with pencils. If you’d like a recommended list we can provide it.