Abstract Painting for Improvers - Ravenshead Library - Community Learning

About this course

This course has been created to show you how gestural brush-strokes and mark-making gives the impression of spontaneity in your compositions. You will benefit from this course as your style of painting will become looser, full of energy and colour. Experiment the pure joy of mark-making by playing with colour and texture using a combination of different art materials and techniques on a single work.  The painting course is suitable for Improvers

What will be covered on the course? 

• Artist research 
• Working out innovative, dynamic compositions  
• Using a bright, colourful palette, with an expressive application of paint and responsive mark making 
• Painting techniques: collage, impasto, scumbling, sgrafitto and blending 

What will learners achieve by the end of the course? 

• Learn how to compose an abstract image and  how  to manipulate the acrylic paint by using different techniques to create abstract compositions. Learners will know how to work in a spontaneous manner often using large brushes to make sweeping gestural marks and different painting techniques like dripping, scumbling or pouring. 

What skills or knowledge do learners already need to have to attend the course? 

• Colour mixing (colour theory), art material selection, surface preparation, painting principles  

What should leaners bring?

• 40 x 50 cm Stretched canvas/ Canvas board, acrylic paper/sketch pad, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, and Titanium and Zinc White acrylic paint, white acrylic  gesso, palette, glycerin, spray bottle, a range of synthetic paint brushes, graphite pencils,  metal palette knife, silicone spatula, baby wipes, cotton rags, charcoal, inks, coloured pencils, pastels

Suggested Reading for the course - 

• Abstract Painting: 20 Projects and Creative Techniques in Acrylic by Petra Tholken 
• Realistic Abstracts By Kees van Aalst 
• Expressive Abstracts in Acrylic by Anita Hörskens 

Booking your place and fee information

If you are in receipt of certain benefits you will be offered the course for free, however if you have a financial barrier which may prevent you from enrolling on the course  please visit our webpage for further information  https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/skills-learning/funding-your-courses/

To secure your place on the course BOTH the following must be done:

• Complete the EVENTBRITE BOOKING.
• Complete our INSPIRE ONLINE ENROLMENT FORM for each person attending the course.

You should be redirected to the Inspire Online Enrolment Form after completing the Eventbrite booking.  If you are not redirected, please use the link supplied in the Eventbrite booking confirmation email.

To book and enrol on one of our courses, you must have been living in England and have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years.

Some exceptions may apply if you are living in England with evidence of the right to remain and are from an EEU/EEAU country (completion of a questionnaire will be required).

As we no longer receive funding for our ESFA-funded courses for learners living in the devolved areas listed below, full cost fees would apply to these courses if you live in these areas:

• Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield 
• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
• Greater London
• Greater Manchester
• Liverpool City Region
• Newcastle Upon Tyne, North Tyneside and Northumberland
• Tees Valley
• West of England
• West Midlands
• West Yorkshire

Any questions?

Check the FAQs page, or get in touch:

• By phone: 01623 677 200
• By email: learning@inspireculture.org.uk

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