Description
Christopher Gallego
Single Object Still Life Painting
3 Day Workshop
September 13 – 15, 2019
10am – 5:30pm
ONE SPOT LEFT!!
WAITLIST Available. Email: info@alia-fineart.com
It’s easy to think of painted still lifes as images of draped tables overflowing with fruit, flowers, and ceramics. Compositions that have preoccupied artists for centuries. But why can’t a still life be of a solitary object? Some ordinary thing we come across every day but don’t expect to find in a work of art? Painted with passion, a single object surrounded by space can have more power than the most elaborate composition. It can have a hypnotic effect on anyone looking at it. Because of the way it triggers the imagination. With less to absorb, viewers will project their feelings and experiences onto the art and connect with it in a deeply personal way.
But the single object still life also presents a greater challenge for a painter. Because there’s no context to fall back on. A glass of wine sitting next to a hunk of cheese, for example, is easy. One item explains the other. Try painting a hunk of cheese by itself and get ready for a challenge. Every inch of the form has to be “described” in paint.
But here’s the good news…
Challenge is what makes you grow. In fact, there’s really no other way for you to grow. In this three-day workshop, New York realist painter & draftsman Christopher Gallego shares insights, tips, and techniques gathered from 35-years of teaching and painting. Most of it based on his fascination with humble objects.
Techniques that can apply to any subject. To name a few…
Paint with your eyes, your mind, and your intuition. Technique comes second.
Paint directly, use a knife, and load it up.
Think abstractly. Don’t label anything you paint.
Pay lots of attention to the space.
Focus on the process more than the outcome.
Don’t imitate.
Watch your state of mind while you work.
Have some fun & don’t obsess.
Instructor Bio:
Christopher Gallego (b. New York 1959) pairs intense observation with direct technique to bring simple everyday objects and spaces, typically his surroundings, to life. He was trained at the School of Visual arts, the National Academy School of Fine Arts and the Art Student’s League, all in New York. Fellowships include the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Rathbone Family of Art Historians.
A partial list of exhibitions includes OK Harris, Seraphin Gallery, Hirschl & Adler, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Arkansas Arts Center, the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, and the Rockefeller Fund. His work has been enthusiastically reviewed by New York Times, Art in America, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the New York Sun.
Gallego’s monthly blog posts are read by tens of thousands of artists and non-artists worldwide.
http://www.chrisgallego.com/
