Welcome to Play Dates

Please keep the link to this page! This is where you will find links to videos as well as notes. You’ll receive the link to each of sessions Colour, October 17 by 10 am Pacific Daylight Time; our second session on creating rich surfaces by 10 am PDT October 19; our third on painting out to find compositions by 10 am PDT October 21.  The videos will be available until October 30. Don’t forget to pop into our Facebook group page to share the ride.

Link to our third video: Finding Form/Resisting Self-Judgement Vimeo YouTube

Link to our second video: Creating Rich Surfaces/Slowing Down Vimeo YouTube

Link to our first video: Colour/Beginner Mind Vimeo YouTube

accompanying notes:

Session 3:

Now that you have a rich active surface, what do you do with it?

So far we have been trying not to over control our process. We have to find some form though or we are left with a decorative surface, like a fabric—the trick is creating a composition, while staying open and intuitive.

One of the best ways to keep ourselves loose is to use the technique of negative painting. 

We are going to paint around our objects, paint negative rather than positive form.  Because we aren’t used to painting around things it’s hard to keep it accurate. That’s the beauty and the fun of it.

In my demo I choose a very simple subject (two lemons.) You can choose whatever you like. This process is experimental — it’s great to do it more than once, so I suggest that you tape off your paper into two or more sections and try some different subjects. If you are feeling brave you could even make a pure abstract.

Once we paint out our shapes we may have to build connections between the positive and negative forms. In my demo I show you how I lift paint, and pull elements from the positive form into the painted out background with mark making, printing, and using collage.

Or inner task is to try not to be too self judgemental as we dip our toe in abstraction by limiting our ability to draw realistically, through negative painting. 

Session 2:

SO much fun to see where your palette hunts have been taking you! In this session we are going to be using our palettes with different tools and techniques to create a rich surface. This is really a chance to experiment. We’re going to play with layering through mark making, printing, transferring, scoring, using resist, and glazing.

Remember that there are no mistakes and every layer makes it better. If it gets too dark, add some more light, if it’s too light, add dark, or glaze to change the hue of the light areas. 

When we create these rich surfaces, acrylic lifts from a flat medium to something exciting. 

Your inner task this session is to slow down. Don’t think too many steps ahead, pause between steps to consider what the next one might be. Respond to the painting as it evolves. This helps us to develop intuitive painting skills.

Session 1:

Fall is always a time for me of beginnings. Maybe like me, in summer you drift away from your studio or painting practice; it’s a time to be outside, to relax, to spend time with friends and family. Late Fall always feels like a time to get back to work. But as you may know, I prefer to say to get back to play.

I don’t think that art is all play. But if we can bring a sense of play to art it helps us show up. If you are just taking up painting it can help you to relax and get to know how the materials work. It’s crucial to learn how paint, brushes, different supports and mediums work before you can get them to work for you. 

If you have a painting practice, maybe this will help you jump back into it.  

My hope always in my instruction is to give you things to do: ways of easily engaging and maybe learning some new techniques and tools in order to bring them back to your own practice. Think of these sessions as a treasure hunt—or maybe a rummage sale—take the things you want and make them work for you! 

In Play Dates this year we’ll be exploring creating rich surfaces and then finding form by painting out.

Each session I’ll give you an inner and an outer task. Your inner task this session is to bring approach it with beginner’s mind. This is a concept from Zen Buddhism. It means having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying, even at an advanced level, just as a beginner would. 

It’s so important because, as painters it helps so much to stay open to what is happening in the space of the painting, to stay open to how to respond, and to stay open to new ideas and approaches in general. It’s the essence of the intuitive process, one which is so important even if you are a representational painter. 

Our outer task in this first session is to explore a palette. Last year we used a very limited palette, in order to concentrate on value and composition. 

This year we are going to expand our colour!

1. Choose 3 primaries, white and dark. You can use black, or you can use one or both of the coloured darks, paynes grey or burnt umber. 

-You needn’t choose the basic primaries of red, yellow, and blue. You can choose more complex primaries, like pyrrole, yellow ochre, cerulean blue.

2. If you are feeling adventurous, go on a palette hunt: steal a palette you love from a carpet, a quilt, nature, a photo you love, an artists work that you love. Then try to mix it. 

-The most important thing in this session, is to work with as few colours as you can. Choose a few colours (hues, or earth tones) then see what you can do with them, mix them together, add white, add a dark, mix them back into each other. Find out the whole range of what those colours can do before you reach for a new colour.