Visual Gravitation and the Longing Place

Language the workshop will be taught:
English

We scheduled the workshop as follow:
Shift 2 - 14.00 – 15.30 &
Shift 3 - 16.00 - 17.30
Date: 29.07 & 30.07

Maximum number of participants:
10.

The needed artistic level of this workshop is:
Above average/Advanced/professional.

The skills criteria for participants to follow this workshop are:
Some drawing or painting experience.

Participants will have learned after doing this workshop:
Deeper levels in abstract painterly expression.

What materials/equipment/other things participants need to bring to be able to do this workshop:
Please feel comfortable to bring as much tools and materials you normally work with.
The general outline of the workshop is that everyone is invited to work with acrylics on smaller paper sizes: Possible are formats between postcard size (15 x 10 cm) and up to a maximum of 29 x 21 cm. You are going to create an extended series of abstract paintings, preferably in the same format and size, working and re-working them with several layers. Therefore I advice: a) small sized formats, and b) thicker paper or thin cardboard.  

You will want to bring with you: acrylic paints and if possible different mediums (glazing liquid, structure pastes, etcetera). Also some painting brushes in different sizes, colour palette, water bottles, tissues or rags, small sized paper (at least with a thickness of 250 up to 300 gr/m2).

If you rather like to work with other types of paint than acrylics (watercolor or ink) or on other materials than paper (for instance cardboard or canvas), you are welcome to do so if it doesn´t hinder you to produce a series of paintings, preferable same sized.  

Also very important: Bring your own protective clothing with you! 

Other things participants should know to be able to do this workshop:
You´ll be expected to attend all the sessions. The general plan is to stay indoors and in group, but if you prefer to work outdoors or elsewhere on your own, this should also be no problem; just tell me and we´ll work out an arrangement that suits you.

Describe clearly the content of this workshop:
This workshop is suitable for anyone working in any area of Art and Design or seriously aspiring to do so. Basically we are going to create some series of small sized abstract paintings in acrylics on paper. 

Phase One: We will start painting freely and spontaneously, but abstract. Then we´ll try to improve on our first results, enhance if possible their visual appeal and impact level. Evaluating them by means of some main principles of visual composition: 1) Visual Gravitation, 2) Field vs Linearity, 3) Color balance, 4) Whiteness vs Blackness, 5) Associative Emotional Resonance, 6) Associative Perceptual Resemblance. Don´t worry, this „checklist“ will prove very useful and make totally sense once explained and is actually simpler than it may sound here!

Phase Two: Lets try to imagine or evoke something of your inner world and longings unto paper through abstract painting. If we speak about the concept of some inner „resting place“, a dimension of wholeness and peace... What do you personally associate with that concept, feeling or dimension? Are feelings, sounds, movements, pictures, materiality, memories, colors, shapes or even actual 3D-places helpful to „locate“ it or project it? In what manner do you internally „perceive“ it and how would you want to visualize or translate it? Find out whether or not, or to which degree, it is possible for you to establish or trace some kind of visual-abstract association that actually evokes an emotional resonance within you to this inner „resting place“.

In short:
This workshop is about painting and emotional expression through the visually abstract.
Broaden your artistic skills in handling some main principles of visual composition.
Journey into your inner world and explore your own sense of a „resting place“, a dimension of wholesomeness.
Venture into painted compositions, visual intuitions and emotional projections, which hopefully, will gain you some new insights.