Shelburne Craft School

“Working out of doors your eye will be brought up to color – it has the effect of shaking off the shackles or your mind, showing you that you can do anything you please, making you dare”. Charles Hawthorne

The early 1900 summer art schools of William Merritt Chase (Shinnecock on Long Island) and Charles Hawthorne (Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown MA) taught artists the Impressionist practice of painting plein-air, or in the outdoors, seeing how sunlight effects color. These schools were the influence of many American painters, encouraging them to see the true color of objects in nature.  “Block Studies” and the “Outdoor Still Life” are two teaching tools used to simplify and practice seeing lights effect on color and a way to prepare for the more challenging work of landscape painting.

In this class we will be painting simple still lifes outdoors with oil paints, learning how to see lights effect on color and how to mix and apply paint. We will look at examples of past and present painters who are “capturing the light” in their work.  This is a class for all levels or painters, those who have never painted before to the experienced painter looking to explore something new.

This class skips May 13th