Colour on Colour - Light and Expression - Pre-recorded

Online Course:  Once registered, students have access to the films for as long as you need

This 3 day course is all about becoming more knowledgeable and confident when mixing and using colour in your paintings. For the purposes of this workshop Emily demonstrates with a range of good quality acrylics and mediums on paper, but all of the principles are relevant for oils too. We will be working with a selection of 3 or 4 of each of the primary colours, plus white. With these we will mix an infinite range of colours.By exploring the light and value of colours we will create combinations that pop and shimmer. Layering and floating one on top of another activates an optical reaction, making it seemingly glow from the inside, but also stimulates an emotional connection. As we come to the final stages of the course we move from understanding the technical and practical issues connected with understanding colour onto making compositions that harness the expressive potential too. We will make studies that allow you to play and improvise and perhaps challenge your ‘taste’. We will create simple compositions that allow you to orchestrate and manipulate the focus and attractions in a painting. Play with balance; deliberately creating jarring and clashing combinations. Then sooth them with quiet notes to hold the space. Syncopate the rhythm as the eye lands; phrase and accent the composition to arrange colours that sing, pulse and glow like flickering qualities of light. Artists to look at: Rothko, Patrick Heron, Ivon Hitchens, Paul Klee, Albert Irvin, Elisabeth Cummings, Gillian Ayres, Julian Brown, Biggs and Collings, Bridget Riley, Sargy Mann, Bonnard.

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"So many teachers focus on theory and endless colour charts. On this course we explored what REALLY matters – how colours interact with each other. I carry this course around in my head constantly –the difference colour combinations make is truly amazing."

Frances Ross

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