Landscape Drawing and Painting from Photographic Sources

Course Dates May 8^th -  10^th  (Wed - Friday) 2024

On this three day practical course we will explore how digital photography can be used as a valuable resource for landscape painting. Unless you are a plein air painter it is likely that you are making paintings in a studio away from the landscape, in this case photographic sources can help with what can be a visual deficit. One of the great advantages of digital photography is the ability to zoom in, and to be able to explore the subject in ways that are rooted in its image. By zooming in and cropping the photograph we find image possibilities of which were unaware at the time we took the photograph. Bolder, simpler compositions may often be found, but also the experience of entering into the image has its own rich reward.

So much of our experience of the world is now lens and screen based that exploring how to return this back into the realm of the physical and tactile raises interesting questions for the landscape painter, particularly one excited both by the direct experience of outside space but also by its culturally mediated expression. To this end we will be particularly focusing on materials handling, touch and gesture and how the artists body is in itself an active force within the work.

Please take a large number of landscape photographs in preparation for the course. Be profligate and playful in your photography, good photographs rarely make good paintings and anyway you will be likely working with just tiny elements of your photographs, things that you were unaware of at the time of shooting. If you have a laptop or tablet please load them on to that to bring with you.

This is an experimental course where we will make a large number of works on paper. We will be exploring how through the use of composition, gestural handling, colour and dramatic tonality we can leave the photographic source trailing in the wake of our boldly evocative paintings and drawings.

• We will be drawing with charcoal on paper on Day 1
• On days 2 and 3 we will be working with acrylic paint on paper.
• Each day will begin with a slideshow of relevant contemporary artists. Such as Elizabeth Magill, Hurvin Anderson, Gerhard Richter, Karin Mama Anderson and many others.
• Please bring with you a good selection of acrylic paints and brushes as well as charcoal and erasors