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Poetic Spaces

Learn to develop atmosphere and meaning through thoughtful composition, subtle details, and expressive use of composition, line, and color.

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Poetic Spaces

Poetic Spaces

Learn to develop atmosphere and meaning through thoughtful composition, subtle details, and expressive use of composition, line, and color.

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About

Thoughtful composition, subtle details, and expressive use of composition, line, and color can build the atmosphere and meaning of your work. 
This workshop blends technique and intuition to help you create evocative, poetically inspired mixed-media pieces. You’ll explore how famous artists created evocative spaces through drawing and painting. Guided exercises will introduce core concepts in composition, perspective, color, and the importance of the seven elements of art.

The first session includes looking at artwork that uses poetic space, practicing the rule of thirds, cropping and framing, making thumbnail sketches from personal photographs, contrast and tonal composition, layering and overlapping, preparation of photo transfer with matte medium, and creating color scales. In the second session, we’ll review the first session, complete the image transfer, and develop the final drawing. By the end, you’ll complete a dynamic mixed-media piece and gain a clearer sense of the creative process.

Details

  • You need to bring to class:
    • Three photocopies of a photograph of your choice (i.e. landscape of natural or city environment). Laser photocopy with high contrast must be made to complete the photo transfer project.
    • Graphite pencils: 4b, 6b and 8b.
    • Black or colored markers (fine and medium-tipped).
    • Blue or black ink pen (regular ballpoint pen).
    • Watercolor paint: Payne’s grey, titanium white, and one color of your choosing.
    • Four-oz. bottle of matte medium (for photo transfer project,  layering and adhering collage papers).
    • Your choice of collage papers (i.e. tissue, heavy card stock, newspaper, colored bond paper). The instructor will bring lots of samples!
    • Two watercolor brushes (small and medium). Michaels or other craft stores are better for purchasing single brushes instead of kits.
    • One pad of mixed media paper.
  • The instructor will provide water containers, paper towels, small palettes for watercolor paint, various collage papers, and drawing materials.

Class Policies

Ages 14 and up are welcome.

Instructor
Janice Tayler

Janice's paintings and collages are inspired by interactions of the built and natural environment. Photographs and drawings of landscapes ravaged by natural and man-made disasters, architectural skeletal structures including abandoned and decaying industrial sites, and partially completed bridges form the base of her compositions. These images are juxtaposed with abstract images of roots, trees, and rocks. Growing up on the Canadian Prairies and spending most of her life in cities, she developed an enduring fascination with demolished architecture and nature. Harmonizing the tension between serenity and instability alludes to a rupture or disruption in the environment. Her work attempts to challenge the traditional way people look at landscape painting as something pristine and untouched. As a former dancer, she started painting after being sidelined with a dance injury and was astounded by the similarities. Both employ themes such as space, force and shape. Both invest theatrical action with abstract form and color in space. She looks for the same qualities in painting as she did in dance.

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