Summary: This course offers instruction in painting the human figure from a live model. Students will explore color, anatomy, and expressive technique to capture the vitality and form of the human body. No experience necessary.
Full course description:
Learn to paint the human form in oils. In this 5 day workshop, students will be led through a series of exercises aimed at breaking down the complexity of the human form into its constituent visual parts - gesture, color, and form.
The first sessions will introduce students to the materials of oil paint, and the concept of gesture. Gesture is the movement, kinetic energy, and direction of the body in space, and its relative parts to one another. Beginning with short poses, students will learn to capture the essential elements of the figures movement and vitality via rapid sketches of the model, starting with 2 and 5 minute poses, to 10 and 20 minute poses, eventually culminating in a long pose where students will slow down and paint a single image of the model over an afternoon. With more time, students will have a chance to steer their gestures into a more accurate depiction of the individual in front of them, learning basic structure and anatomical landmarks.
As the week progresses, students will be introduced to the full spectrum of pigments on their palette via color study. With colorful fabrics and different lighting scenarios, students will learn to see the model as an abstraction of color shapes, shapes which track onto the substrate of their drawing method learned in days prior. This scaffolding supports their investigation into the beautiful variety or colors present in flesh, and how they interact with the light sources that illumines them.
Lastly, students will integrate the underpinning of their grisaille drawing, with their insights into color and light, to investigate concepts of 3 dimensions. We will explore the tactile potential of both paint and color to express solid embodied form.
These methods and ideas support an organic and wholistic approach to seeing and painting, no matter the subject matter. By breaking down vision into different perceptual modes, we go beyond the surface level into a deeper understanding of seeing where true creativity and artistic freedom is unlocked.
MEET THE ARTIST
Alex Soukas
Alexander Soukas is a classically trained painter and draftsman working and teaching in Denver Colorado.
His education spans across several institutions including UPenn, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Studio Incamminati where he apprenticed under world renowned painter Nelson Shanks.
His work explores the human figure and psyche, theology, and myth.
An instructor at the Art Students League of Denver for nearly a decade, he is also the founder of Studio Metaxú, a painting studio collective dedicated to studies in contemporary realist art.
EXAMPLE ITINERARY
Day 1:
2pm welcome to the Chateau through the grand gate an gardens
3pm welcome in the Salon, introduction to the retreat instructors, Rosé on the Terrace
6pm Dinner at the Villa
Day 2:
Art Studio Session:
Morning session, Intro to materials, demonstration of gestural painting, short pose in open grisaille. Afternoon session, long pose grisaille, structure, anatomy
8:30am optional chateau seafront arcade walk, yoga
9:30am breakfast
10:30 - 1:00 Art Studio Session
1-2pm Lunch in the Villa by Chateau Chef
2-5pm Art Studio Session
5:30pm Private LNAF Museum Tour
7:00pm self led dinner
Day 3:
Art studio session focus: Introduction to color mixing, color study demonstration, painting the model as color abstraction. Optional attendance to portrait painting demonstration in the gardens at 5 pm
8:30am Yoga
9:30am Breakfast
10:30-1:30 Art Studio Session
1:30pm Lunch at the Villa Chez Ray
3:30-5:00 free afternoon
5:00pm optional portrait painting demo
7:00pm self led dinner
Day 4:
8:30 am Sound healing session in the tomb tower
9:30am breakfast
10:30 leave for excursion
2:00pm Lunch in St Paul de Venice
3:30pm museum visit at the Maeght Foundation
7:00pm Group dinner in Theouie
Day 5:
Art studio session focus: long pose with the model integrating all the skills learned over the week into one painting fusing color with drawing and form.
9-10am breakfast
10-1 morning art studio session
1-2 lunch Chez Ray
2-5pm afternoon art studio session
5-7pm optional water sports and beach lounging
7 pm Farewell dinner in the Gothic Dining Room
9:30 Digestive at the Villa Chez Ray