414-Morning Oil Landscape

This course enables students to explore their own creativity and the process of oil painting, emphasizing the elements of composition, light, color and accurate representation of form as they work from personal photos or sketches. The class will showcase master and contemporary artists’ works illustrating essential painting techniques, and ‘live’ demonstrations will help the student learn the painting process.
 
Students will share weekly progress of their own paintings with an individual critique during each class. Students should possess basic drawing skills and have experience mixing colors.

Special Notes

All students must comply with the Policies and Procedures found on The Center's website. There will be no refunds for students removed from class for failure to observe The Center’s Policies and Procedures.

Materials

Canvas - Prepared (store-bought) stretched canvas. (See below for suggestions.)
Size: any size in proportion to your source photo composition (A typical 4"x 6" photo does not easily fit the dimensions of a square canvas, for example.)
It is always a good idea to give a light sanding with fine sandpaper to any canvas that feels rough or scratchy, and is improved by an additional coat of acrylic gesso (Liquitex® Gesso is good). Please prepare your canvas at least a day before class. No cheap canvas boards, please.

Palette - Coated-paper block type (disposable), or wooden. 12"x16". ( Richeson Grey Matters palette is a option.)
Palette cups - Two small metal or plastic cups.

Brushes - Bristles - FLATS #1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 12 at a minimum. (Robert Simmons “Signet”)
Synthetic Sables - ROUNDS - #1, 2 and 3 - (for details). (Utrecht “Manglon” #2 round is fine.)
Synthetic Sables - FLATS - # 4 and 6 (and larger for skies)– for blended passages.
(Utrecht “Manglon” (orange stripe on handle) flats work well. Simmons “Sienna” & “Sapphire” are only made as “brights”, but are also good.)

Note* Brushes meant for oil and acrylic painting are long-handled; short-handled brushes are meant for water-media and will not handle the density of oil paint well.

Oil Colors - 37ml tubes - Gamblin, Windsor&Newton, Rowney, Utrecht, Grumbacher
(Avoid student grades. Example: ‘Winton’ is Windsor&Newton’s student grade.)
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Yellow Ochre
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Cadmium Red Light
Venetian Red (English Red is the same)
Alizarin Crimson Permanent
Dioxazine Purple (Windsor Violet)
Ultramarine Blue
Cerulean Blue Hue (less expensive and more saturated than pure cerulean)
Cadmium Green (Gamblin)
Olive Green (Gamblin)
Sap Green
Viridian
Ivory Black
Titanium White (150ml tube is advisable)

Solvent - Either Gamblin’s GAMSOL or TURPENOID - in the BLUE and white can. (Do not buy Turpenoid Natural in the green can.) (Gamsol appears to be a bit more refined than Turpenoid.)

Brushwasher – You must have one of the following: metal-type brushwasher with lid, or a glass jar with coil or a mayonnaise-size jar w/lid - large enough to hold 3 or 4 large brushes. This is to clean your brushes as you work. Palette cups are not appropriate for this.
Medium - Small jar cold-pressed linseed oil. https://gamblincolors.com/oil-painting/mediumsdrying-oils/

Pencils - A couple of 2B pencils are fine.

Paper Towels - paper towels are preferred to rags as they are easier to dispose of and are helpful for adding an initial tone to your canvas.

Shopping:
If you need to buy online, below are links to Utrecht Art Supplies, Dick Blick Art Supplies, and Gamblin Colors. (The Dick Blick and Utrecht sites are very similar as Dick Blick now owns Utrecht.) Gamblin only sells its own paints, oils, mediums, diluents (Gamsol), etc. but is priced similar to the other sites. If you have another favorite online art store, please feel free to use it.
Amazon is not the best choice for art supplies (expensive and confusing).

https://www.utrechtart.com/
https://www.dickblick.com/
https://gamblincolors.com/gamblin/

Canvas Suggestions:
There are a lot of different choices for store-bought stretched canvas and a number of them are of very poor quality. For most students, cotton canvas is a good choice because of price and availability. Advanced students might want to try a linen canvas for a more subtle
surface, although it is quite a bit more expensive. (Professional artists tend to buy rolls of linen (primed or unprimed) and stretch it themselves to their exact specifications. This is not required.
The best easily available stretched cotton canvasses are mid-priced. Avoid anything that is labeled “studio” or is the least expensive of all the offerings.

Here are three that are recommended:
Masterpiece Vincent Pro cotton canvas (listed on Utrecht as Masterpiece Sausalito and
Masterpiece Monterey). 7/8" Depth.
Frederix Pro Dixie cotton canvas. This has a deeper profile at 1 3/8".
Frederix Blue Label cotton blend canvas. This is a smooth canvas and the least expensive of the three. It has a traditional 3/4" depth.

About the Instructor

Gary Godbee

BFA in painting, Boston Univ.; studied at Brooklyn College and Montclair Univ. Taught at Art Students League and Montclair Museum School; works in corporate and private collections.

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Class Details

September 13 - December 06, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm

Days: Wednesday

Tuition: $375

Member Tuition: $350

Location: The Center for Contemporary Art

Semester: Fall 2023

Level: Adult (Intermediate)

Instructor: Gary Godbee