Color and Light in the Summer Landscape

Contemplating all of the possibilities of summer color, in this studio workshop students can explore fleeting moments of weather and light, as well as the classic blue sky + green ground of a bright and sunny summer day. These possibilities could include the deepest indigo dusk or a late, cool red sunset. For an early sunset, learn how to create a sky that graduates up from reds to salmon colors to a creamy off-white to blue without any greens within the transition. You can submerge yourself in a quiet misty/rainy day with radiant whites and soft greens; or create storms that sweep across the sky over mountains, fields or water.

The workshop will include discussion of monochromatic, analogous and complementary color and the dramatic use of value contrast and saturated color as well as the subtleties of tones and shades. Dynamic compositions are also a requisite part of the whole, inviting the viewer’s eye to move around the painting, savouring shapes, color, and detail. On the narrative side we will discuss the sense of place and mood suggested by possible photo references and integrate intentions into formal decision-making, bearing in mind that the success of the painting, wherever that leads us, is the goal.