Plein Air Painting In Coastal Maine 2010

ACADIA WORKSHOP CENTER
Shelli Robiner-Ardizzone
Oil, Pastel or Watercolor
July 26 - 30, 2010

PLEIN AIR BOOT CAMP

Painting outdoors is absolutely NOT like studio painting. There is nothing like being IN your painting, IN the physical world, IN sun, wind, fresh air and IN the MOMENT totally involved. You cannot get the feeling unless you do it, and Shelli can help you find your way.

This is for studio painters who wish to challenge their comfort level and plunge into Plein Air in the best possible setting - with expert guidance in COASTAL MAINE.

LEARN THE ESSENTIALS of plein air painting as Shelli Robiner-Ardizzone takes you through the basics of color mixing with a limited palette, values and color clues, and selecting great compositions on-site, in gorgeous Maine vistas.

This PLEIN AIR BOOT CAMP workshop will also include a combination of demos and individual guidance, quick and extended studies, and group critiques that will increase your color awareness and expand your painting skills and confidence.

There will be optional evening studio time in the excellent facilities of the Acadia Workshop Center and local seacoast dining.

SHELLI ROBINER-ARDIZZONE is a Studio and Plein Air Painter, garnering awards in both oil and pastel media. She has organized painting workshops in San Miguel de'Allende, Mexico, Taos, NM, and Tryingham, MA. Presently, she is teaching at The Newark Museum, NJ, and various Long Island, NY art centers.

ALL LEVELS OF PLEIN AIR EXPERIENCE WELCOME!
Workshops run 5 days, M-F, unless noted otherwise. SUPPLY LIST to come.

TO REGISTER AND FOR MORE INFORMATION, visit: www.acadiaworkshopcenter.com/Enroll.html

TO CONTACT Shelli Robiner-Ardizzone, visit: www.shellirobiner-ardizzone.com and at artzoneny@earthlink.net

FOR LODGING contact Jeannie at (718) 597-1414 or jrw.esptravel2@verizon.net


View a slide show from the 2009 workshop below:

Spring Upcoming Workshops

CUMBERLAND ADULT CENTER

Pastels: A Dynamic Approach with Super Results

Explore the radiant colors of soft pastel while experimenting with various papers and techniques. Learn the basics of composition and work with color, pattern, and light. Develop your unique artistic expression. Work from still life, figure, and reference material, at your own pace, in a very supportive atmosphere. Two models included in fee.

SHELLI ROBINER-ARDIZZONE

FA160-1 No Models. Seven Thursdays, March 11–April 29
(no class April 1), 1–4 p.m. Cumberland. RA $155 / SC $95.

FA160-2 Models. Four Thursdays, May 6–27, 1–4 p.m. Cumberland. RA $123 / SC $87.

Textured Surfaces NEW

Shelli will guide you through the process of making your own textured surfaces. These will make your pastel paintings richer because they hold more layers of soft pastel. Over the past few years, there have been many innovations in granular pastel surfaces, but finding a granular paper that pleases you can be expensive. If you would like to try an easy, economical recipe for making your own granular surfaces for charcoal, pastel, and mixed media, this class is for you.

SHELLI ROBINER-ARDIZZONE

FA196-1 Tuesday, March 9, 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Cumberland. $35. No nonresident surcharge.

Paint Like Van Gogh: Palette Knife, Limited Palette & Full Spectrum Color

Expand your technique, color perception, and vocabulary. In this workshop for oil and acrylic painters, learn to use the palette knife for applied textural strokes. You will get clean mixes and easy application of color using only red, yellow, and blue. With this limited palette and your palette knife, you can create a full spectrum of colors. Armed with new skills, work directly from observation of the still-life setup.

SHELLI ROBINER-ARDIZZONE

FA125-1 No Models. Seven Thursdays, March 11–April 29 (no class April 1), 5–8 p.m. Cumberland. RA $159 / SC $99 / HS $99.

FA125-2 Models. Four Thursdays, May 6–27, 5–8 p.m. Cumberland. RA $128 / SC $92 / HS $92.

TO REGISTER

Complete the registration form by visiting http://www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/GNPS/Pages/adult/adult.html. Mail: 30 Cumberland Avenue, Great Neck, NY 11020 Complete one registration form per person and mail with check(s), money order(s), or credit-card information in provided envelope. Submit separate check or money order for each course. Cash not accepted for payment. Does not apply to Great Neck Senior Center. Fax: (516) 441-4937 Fax completed registration form(s). Use MasterCard or Visa. Does not apply to Great Neck Senior Center. Phone: (516) 441-4949 Mon.–Fri., 9 a.m.—4 p.m. (July & Aug. 3 p.m.); Use MasterCard or Visa. Does not apply to Great Neck Senior Center. In Person: 30 Cumberland Avenue, Great Neck, NY 11020 The Cumberland Adult Center, is a block south of Northern Blvd. and 11⁄2 blocks east of Lakeville Rd. Does not apply to Great Neck Senior Center. Cumberland Office Hours: Mon.–Thurs.…9 a.m.–4 p.m., 7–8:30 p.m. Fri.…9 a.m.–4 p.m. Sat.…9:15–11:15 a.m. CLASSES BEGIN SOON. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Fall Upcoming Workshops

NATONAL ART LEAGUE DEMO NIGHT
OIL PAINTING DEMO
Friday, October 2

The evening is FREE, and ALL are invited.
*I will be offering a painting to be RAFFLED OFF to some lucky member of the audience.

I am invited to do an oil painting demo at the NAL from a flower set-up. I will be the FIRST Friday demo artist for October. I am looking forward to this evening and invite my students to attend what will be an informative and entertaining evening. I usually Demo in Pastel, however, as I also paint in Oils, I would like to offer this view of my Oil painting approach and direct painting techniques.

NATIONAL ART LEAGUE
OIL AND PASTEL WORKSHOP
Saturday, October 3rd
1-4 pm
ALL LEVELS WELCOME

I am excited to offer a Saturday class for those who are not available during the week. I am looking for new students NEW to me and NEW to NAL. If you have friends who are thinking of beginning to honor their inner artist, I will be happy to help introduce the concepts and joy of making art!

CUMBERLAND FALL CLASSES
PASTELS
Thursday, October 8
1 - 4pm

PAINT LIKE VAN GOGH-ALMOST
Limited Palette and Palette Knife Painting
DON'T FORGET TO REGISTER
Late afternoon class

ART LEAGUE OF LONG ISLAND
A COMMON THREAD:AN EXHIBITION OF PORTRAITS & FIGURES
MY SELF-PORTRAIT IS ON EXHIBIT
Opens Sunday, Oct 4
Reception 3 -5

For Information and to register email me at artzoneny@earthlink.net or call 917 723 3362

July 20-24 2009: Plein Air Workshop on Mount Desert Island, Acadia, Maine

There were wonderful facilities at Acadia Workshop Center, a variety of weather conditions and a group of talented and enthusiastic participants for this painting intensive. I loved the area, and it was an intensely green world due to the heavy rain fall this June and July.

Meeting this challenge head on, I devised exercises in color mixing (limited palette). The objective was to learn to love and differentiate the "greens," increasing one's color knowledge by limiting the accessible and obvious solutions. Students actually increased their color knowledge when working from a warm and cool primary triad of colors.The vast potential and fun of creating the colors seen on site, exemplified the spirit and practice of plein air.

The color palette used consisted of; Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Permanent, Ultramarine Blue, and Cobalt Blue/or Phthalo Blue, and Titanium White. The student's work in oils shows the variety of color developed over the course of the week.

Spring Palette Knife Painting

After my first exposure to a limited palette via this workshop with Morton Kaish, I have tried to keep my paint colors to a minimum and mix as much a possible. It is liberating to me.

I designed a class to teach this approach and have been teaching "Paint in the Manner of Van Gogh" at Great Neck Adult Education Center and The Newark Museum. My intention is to inspire direct strong strokes with the use of a palette knife and challenge the learning process as you learn more about mixing colors.


This is a special workshop taught by Mort Kaish at the National Academy in 2009. The triad of colors is Cadmium Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson and White. I am using acrylic paint on Masonite board toned with Ultramarine Blue acrylic.


Portrait of a Model, Over-Sized Head, Palette Knife, Limited Palette.

The charcoal sketch is painted over in black acrylic paint to facilitate fast drying. We are told to think of stained glass leading, where one area attaches to another, and is clearly outlined.



This is my finished outlined, leaded head.
The board is 24" x 18".

Beginning by premixing the paints for the skin tones, I begin to apply the strokes. It is an "apply scrape off the excess stroke". As one works the face, the under layers are drying and allowing for
additional color applications. There is a see thru effect, due to the scraping off of the excess paint. This is not about frosting a cake.

The "leading" allows you to separate the areas of the image. This provides clarity and acts as a road map. It also guides you toward selecting distinct colors and avoid too much blending. This is a new tool to most and a helpful approach to applying color.

Texture will inevitably occur as the under layers have been scraped. Acrylic paint allows for a lot of layering in 2, 3 hour sessions. You can see the variety of colored layers on the surface as they continue to build the form over the 2 sessions on this model.


The dark areas are mixed from the limited palette. I did not get to the background other then to make an outline.



The object was not a real likeness, but the color interaction and liberation of using the primary triad of color to develop all the colors needed. The "darks" are the most challenging because the value and color has to be deep.

I love this theory so much, it is my second time taking the workshop. Mr. Kaish has incorporated both the knife and brush in his own wonderful work.

Palette Knife Painting Demo

I have been using knives to mix paint, deliver clean color to a canvas, and sometimes along with brushes in paintings.The approach to this painting was:

(1) A very complete charcoal drawing of Jason on the18 x 24 board, pre-primed with Cobalt, or Ultramarine Blue/Shocking for a ground.

(2) The drawing and the patchwork quilt background were painted in black so that it appeared as the leading in a stained glass window or paint-by-number drawing. The color story was a limited palette of Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cobalt or Ultra Blue, White, and later on Black.

I LOVE THIS TRIAD OF COLORS and enjoyed the huge vocabulary of primary, secondary and tertiary colors AND, premixing the colors, allows one to work very FAST and the colors stay BRIGHT AND CLEAN.



The application is to put on the color and remove, apply and remove, allowing for lots of under layers showing through, and immediate reapplication as the color is thin enough to keep going , on and on. I love to work fast, I love color, and I got very taken up with the movement and the multi color layering which was happening before my eyes.



Parts of the drawing fell away, and the portrait emerged. Additional colors and layers seemed easy, and the complexity of the surface was very gratifying. The drawing, and outlining, color mixing of the palette, and the paint application took two, three hour sessions. Not a lot of overworking, as the results seemed to say "finished" with no second thoughts on my part.



A fellow student took this one of me in process. I am so psyched with the Limited Palette that I plan to teach, and use it in the Taos Workshop, in June.



Here is an interesting shot, of the model (very warm colors) which really pops on this intense blue ground. Painting on grey grounds, makes for grey paintings, in my view.

This crazy approach kept my colors in a vivid, lively range, and I will be doing more with this approach for plein air landscape. Alternating with brush and knife is a totally awesome arsenal.



Coming into the homestretch, just adding color everywhere, and staying true to the fun and spontaneous nature of the application.

I will most likely push the background back a bit, as it is too close in value and intensity to the portrait. This had all the elements I needed to keep me challenged, and gratified and
NOT frustrated, or bored.



1) Clarity of drawing, and an armature to guide me, or to hide as I went along

2) Color that stayed clean, and lively, and allowed for multiple layers in a short period of time without causing mud, or overworking the surface. Can’t wait to pass on my new skills, and develop the premise further.

Plein Air Paint Along Demo

Painting in Sullivan County, in the rolling hills near Callicoon. Perfectly lovely late Aug.day to be outdoors in this sea of green. Looking up at the trees at the left, the sky, and hills beyond. The challenge is the greens, and the fast moving clouds.

Limited Palette

- Warm and cool red Cadmium Red Medium and Alizarin
- Warm and cool yellow Cadmium Yellow Medium and Cadmium Lemon
- Warm and cool blue Cobalt and Ultramarine and White.

My beginnings are about gesture, and color spotting, with awareness of darker areas. Working on a toned surface this is my blueprint, sketch, layout of the painting. As I am outdoors, I hope to paint it in about 3 hrs on my 16" x 20" canvas. No bugs, no wind, clouds keep changing. I will have to capture them later, when I am ready to add all that white.

Perfect!

Moving the foreground into prominence, developing the hills. This palette allows for mixing a lot of greens - everyone’s favorite! The two blues and yellows in different combinations, and then additions to those mixes was great fun and offered a lot of variety. What a great color lesson.


Still developing the push/pull of the colors trying to and some of it back, with value, and temperature (warm/cool light/dark). This dance is my way of inching into my lightest lights, and darkest darks. My clarity develops along with the canvas.

Things start to look fuzzy and tonal, and then I have to re-draw and look for the elements of importance that define the painting. It is about finding the lights, and darks that tell my story. I do not make these determinations early in my work, only when I really SEE them. As I study and develop the color, and will clarify divisions of foreground, middle ground, and background.

My fun in mixing the color variety has overtaken my focus. Mid ground, needs to be cooler. Time to develop the sky. The heavy clouds are fast moving and very much a factor in the painting, which I have not addressed. Oops, and, where are the darkest darks?

The resolution of the sky, points up the need and strength of lights and darker areas of the painting. Finally, it happens only when I SEE these areas clearly as the painting develops.The graceful calligraphy of the trees adds height, and adds needed areas of darks for drama and clarity. Not too much needed.

My expressive brush stroking, as well as the variety of color in the strokes are techniques which interest me greatly. The impression is one of movement, freshness, and personal interpretation. This one practically painted itself. What fun is this!