ABOUT THIS COURSE

In this workshop, we’ll explore the unending possibility and beauty of oil paint. Get inspired by objects and scenes around your house, learn how to take a messy bedroom and turn it into something that gets the butterflies going in your stomach. You’ll learn about the building blocks of solid paintings, how to tackle the “start” of a painting from different angles and find what suits you, learn how to set yourself up for success by finding a constant rhythm in your practice, and most importantly, we’ll focus on removing any obstacle between you and the canvas. Because, the most important part about painting is not whether you’re doing it “right” but that you’re taking that first step to put paint on a canvas. Learn to love your practice, the failures, the successes, and the process.

We’ll also be covering a lot of technical aspects of painting which help us achieve more success and get that real painting “rush”, such as: object modelling (spheres, cylinders, cubes), complementary colour mixing, how to mix blacks, whites, glass, metal, understanding how to “see” colour (value, chroma, hue), how to simply compositions using Notan studies, drawing when we paint, priming canvases, translucency of paint, different brush variety and why you might choose one over another, and mediums — the good, the bad, the ugly.

We'll be working through a number of exercises as well as our own paintings, including: black and white studies, colour swatch matching, medium testing, coloured sphere modelling, colour wheels, and others. Painters will get feedback on their homework over the last week during a portion of the class.

Materials needed

Paints

· Minimum: three primary colours + white
· Preferred: a warm and cool of each primary colour
· My pallette: Caribbean turquoise, ultramarine blue, dioxide purple, alizarin crimson, cad red, cad orange, cad yellow, lemon yellow, and titanium white. All colours are in the Sennelier brand of oil paint

Brushes & Tools

· A flexible palette knife for mixing paint on the palette
· A glass, disposable, or similar painting palette, I will be using a grey glass palette
· A medium-large sized flat brush, I will be using a short handle large flat (size 10) and a medium long handle flat (size 5) both from Rosemary & Co synthetic Ivory range
· You may optionally wish for a medium bristle brush, I will be using ultimate filbert from rosemary and co size 4
· Paper towels
· Protective glove for left hand

Canvas

· A stretched canvas or canvas panel
· My canvas will be oil primed using Gamblin oil primer in white

Meet kayla

Kayla lives and paints in the beautiful countryside of Wicklow, Ireland. She loves bringing to life the spirit and beauty of every day things on the canvas and each painting is a little conversation between her and those special characters. Kayla uses alla prima techniques in her work, and maintains dynamic and expressive brushwork.

Kayla’s paintings have been shown in exhibitions in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England, including The Royal Society of Oil Painters(ROI), The Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA), The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), Society of Women Artists(SWA), Dublin Painting & Sketching Club (DPSC), Graphic Society of Fine Art (GSFA), and others. 

Kayla is a member of the Society of Women Artists & the Dublin Painting & Sketching Club. 

Also see https://www.kmmartellart.com/about for any additional information