Abstract Painting With Oil and Acrylic Mixed Media

Abstract Painting With Oil and Acrylic Mixed Media

with Sara Post

Register Online for this workshop!

Painting with mixed media is a powerful way to create abstract surfaces. Elements of drawing, printmaking combine with paper, raw pigments, sand or marble dust to enhance texture and depth.  Thin shims of color as well as densely textured layers, are applied with finger tips and brushes as well as brayers, scrapers and palette knives. Techniques apply to all painting media from oil to acrylic or gouache.

In this workshop we’ll use strong abstract compositions to underscore exploration of ideas related to landscape and architecture as well as other themes based in nature and culture. Students will work on paper for maximum flexibility. Mounting paper on wood cradled board for exhibit will be demonstrated.

The materials list offers ideas for additions to the materials you already use, as well as a list of materials specific to this workshop. This class encourages invention and experimentation with an eye to developing each student’s personal vision, employing what artist and printmaker Kathan Brown calls “strategies to create miracles.”

All levels are welcome. If you are a beginner, you will find this workshop challenging and rewarding. Experienced painters will be able to use ideas presented to break new ground, adding depth and excitement to their work.

NOTE: Students are asked to bring some supplies with them. That Materials list is here. In addition, there is a materials/supply fee of $20. This fee covers additional pigment sticks, paints, mark making materials and mediums.

Registration for most Gualala Arts Workshops can now be done online.

Follow the link to Brown Paper Tickets!

Draw, paint and print with oil pigment sticks as a primary medium or as added to cold wax, oil paint, alkyd and solvents. Richly pigmented oil sticks allow artists to draw and layer marks retaining intensity of color and integrity of line. Application of color may range from thin shims and transfers to densely textured layers applied with finger tips and brushes as well as brayers, scrapers and palette knives. Working on paper allows greater ease and flexibility. A variety of exercises in abstract composition will underscore exploration of ideas based in culture and nature central to contemporary abstract painting. We’ll work on various sizes of Arches oil paper for maximum flexibility. Instructor will demonstrate mounting oil paper on wood cradled board for exhibit. This class emphasizes invention and experimentation with an eye to developing each student’s personal vision, employing what artist and printmaker Kathan Brown calls “strategies to create miracles.”

“Abstraction is, for me, a natural language. It’s concentrated and challenging, mysterious and opaque. I love its ambiguities, that it often creates more questions than answers.

Sara Post’s paintings explore complex, sometimes contradictory worlds. Personal
experiences of nature and culture are represented in color drenched layers of loose geometry and freely drawn lines. Her materials range from oil paint and pigment sticks mixed with wax and solvents to more unorthodox combinations of charcoal, sand and cement, describing the etherial in concrete terms.

A lifelong artist, Post’s early ceramics work, sold and exhibited internationally, was followed by printmaking and, more recently, into layered mixed media paintings. Her work is featured in the award winning book, Cold Wax Medium: Techniques, Concepts and Conversations by Rebecca Crowell and Jerry McLaughlin. She teaches in art centers across the United States and at her studio, Art 26 in Davis, CA. She can be found at www.sarapostart.com.