Joan Fullerton Workshop: Intuitive Explorations with Acrylic and Collage

Brushes:  Inexpensive 2” hardware brush and a 1” synthetic flat brush, no need for good brushes!

Brayer, hard rubber one any size

Acrylic Paint: a handful of colors plus black and white. I use gesso for white, and my most used colors are Golden Fluid Acrylics:  Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, Turquois (Phthalo), Quinacridone Crimson. Other colors often used are: Cobalt Blue, Green Gold, Yellow Ochre, Hansa Yellow Light, Titan Buff, Pyrrole Orange, Oxide Green, Naphthol Red, Red Oxide and Raw Umber; but feel free to bring YOUR favorites! (Heavy Body paint is okay too.)

6 or more large substrates. Your choice: 140 lb. or 300 lb. watercolor paper and/or stretched canvas and/or cradled wood panels.

(I will use w/c paper and Cheap Joe’s ¾” unprimed cradled panels or stretched canvases)

Soft lead pencil

One or 2 oil pastels

Small travel-size spray bottle (from Target, Walmart, Dollar Store)

At least one water-soluble colored pencil, I like Intense Pencils by Derwent

Vine Charcoal: one stick

Small amount of Rubbing Alcohol for lifting and blooms.

Xerox copies (not inkjet)-I use black and white images of metaphorical textures, seed pods, flowers, raindrops, cracked asphalt, trees, etc.

Alternative papers: If you wish (optional), you can bring a very small amount of printed pages from books, textured rice papers or sewing patterns.

Adhesive: 16 oz (or larger) of regular gel medium or soft gel, either gloss or matte. This will be used for collage and texture

Palette: Anything to mix paint on…I’ve been using newspaper and then using it later for collage material.

Stack of Newspapers or lifting, printing and creating a stencil.

Plastic bag for garbage

Water container for brushes

Paper towels

Small piece of Sandpaper

Hand Protection: optional, latex gloves or barrier cream

Apron or a smock

Journal/Notebook: for notes, ideas, drawing, etc.

The most important thing to bring is an attitude of play!

Here is what you can expect:

Participants will unleash their spontaneous, imaginative, intuitive selves, with a series of dictated exercises that encourage and allow the logical/thinking mind to take a break. We will approach the results of this dynamic process with child-like curiosity, and then edit these works during the course of the workshop. Some non-objective paintings can be left as they are, but others will lead to inventive florals, abstracted landscapes or figurative compositions.

Demonstrations will commence each morning with studio exercises to follow. After lunch we’ll do a timed 20-minute painting or collage as a warm-up followed by a brief critique. One-on-one studio time will complete the workshop day.

My art techniques are quirky and unforgettable, and will offer new dimensions to your established studio process. I will encourage you to paint with appreciation for your own unique voice, and to become more comfortable with inevitable doubts and frustrations when they occur. A ‘mind-set’ curiosity is the most valuable tool you can have!

Students can expect to have 5 or 6 paintings at the end of the workshop, not necessarily all of them resolved. A truly creative process sometimes leads to quickly finished work, yet other times it takes years. This is not a cookie-cutter class, with everyone finishing similar paintings. This will be “an experience” designed to spark new ideas, encourage you to trust the unknown, and paint creatively!

http://joanfullerton.com