Painting Workshops and Classes with Mitchell Albala

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Online Recordings: “Technique Takeaway” Mini-Workshops

Winslow Art Center offers weekly online mini-workshops called “Technique Takeaways.” I’ve given four of these. $40 gives you access for two months. See all Technique Takeaways.

2024

NEW: True Light: The Contemporary Impressionist Landscape

IN PERSON: ONLINE: Begins May 3, 2024 | Mastrius.com

Keys to Atmosphere: Building Mystery and Mood in Landscapes

IN PERSON: June 8–9, 2024 | Pacific Northwest Art School

Through the Picture Window – 7 Essential Keys for Improving Your Composition

IN PERSON: August 9, 2024 | Winslow Art Center

Real World Composition for Landscape Painters

IN PERSON: September 11–13, 2024 | Dakota Art Workshops

You are the best workshop instructor I have ever had. Terrific handouts, example boards, demos, exercises. You are a gifted and generous teacher and I hope to attend a class with you again. – Lisa Richter

True Light: The Contemporary Impressionist Landscape

ONLINE: Fridays, 10 am –12 noon PST | bi-weekly: May 3, 17, 31, June 14, 28 | Mastrius.com | Registration

It is often assumed that any painting with bright, chromatic color and loose brushwork is impressionistic. In practice, the Impressionist strategy for depicting light and color is more complex than that. In the Impressionist strategy, value plays a key role (as it does in all painting), but the suggestion of light relies more on color interactions than strong value contrasts. The maxim “painting is a lie that tells the truth” is no truer than when applied to Impressionism. The paradox of Impressionism is this: the colors chosen are not what are directly observed, yet the results create an impression that actually comes closer to the truth of natural light. Color is highly interpretive. In this class, be prepared to depart from the values and colors found in your subject.

We will take our lessons from contemporary Russian and American Impressionists. Working from photographs (or plein air, if you are able to do so), and through a series of exercises and paintings, you will learn the essential keys of the contemporary Impressionist approach. Whether you aspire to be an Impressionist or not, the lessons explored in this class will alter your understanding of how value and color saturation work together to suggest light. 

  • how value can reveal or suppress a color’s innate hue identity
  • how light can be suggested more through color contrast than value contrast
  • the role of color saturation (chroma) and how to control it
  • the critical importance of color temperature and hue interactions

Media: Oil, pastel, acrylic

Homework required: minimum 3 hours per week, 6 hours between bi-weekly sessions.

Level: Intermediate to advanced. This is not a class for beginners. The Impressionist strategy is challenging. Participants should have a command of value and an ability to regulate color saturation, as these are the primary controls at play in the Impressionist model.

Bi-weekly: This class meets bi-weekly, so as to allow you extra time to complete the practice exercises and paintings.

You are a skilled, supportive, and inspiring teacher. Your clear intention and presentation make challenging material both digestible and intriguing; I forgot to be afraid. I was impressed with your ability to connect with each student’s creative process during the exercises and move us each forward in a supportive way. – Alison Till, Abstracting the Landscape, 2019

Keys to Atmosphere: Building Mystery and Mood in Landscapes

IN PERSON: June 8 – 9, 2024 | Pacific Northwest Art School | Registration: (360) 678-3396

for oil, acrylic, pastel, and watercolor painters
Atmosphere is a quality unique to the landscape. In our paintings, it is one of the most effective ways to suggest mood and mystery, as well as depth. Suggesting atmosphere requires a sensitivity to, and the control of three factors: values, colors, and edges. Through a series of presentations, demonstrations, and your own painting, Mitchell will walk you through all the strategies for building atmosphere.

  • Learn how to work within the narrower range of values used in atmospheric painting
  • In atmospheric paintings, color tends to be very cohesive, often ruled by a dominant hue. How does this work?
  • Sharp edges work against the suggestion of atmosphere and depth. Learn the importance of edge control.
  • How do you select suitable reference photos for atmospheric paintings?

Level: Intermediate to advanced. This is not a workshop for first-time painters, those who don’t have a command of value, or have not painted or mixed color at all. However, it is ideally suited for intermediate to advanced painters who want to better understand how to create and control atmosphere in their landscapes.

Medium: There won’t be time to offer specific instruction on how to work with your chosen medium, so the expectation is that you have facility in whatever medium you are working in. Acrylic painters should know how to manage its rapid drying time, how to blend with glazing and/or scumbling, and have a Sta-Wet palette and know how to use it.

I am at a loss to find adjectives to describe the workshop. Fabulous,  well thought out, organized, tight curriculum, and insightful inspired teaching … I will long remember the three days as being a major contributor to my growth as an artist.  –  Jeffrey Kremen

Through the Picture Window
7 Essential Keys for Improving Your Composition

Special 1-½ hour Technique Takeaway at Winslow Art Center
ONLINE: Friday, August 9, 2024, 2 – 3:30 pm | $40  | Registration

Our first act of composition occurs when we impose a “picture window” around our subject. We look through our viewfinders or crop the subject on the computer — but what are we actually looking for when we do that? Is there more to it than “don’t put things in the center?” Are we relying strictly on instinct to tell the difference between “weak,” “better,” and “good” compositions? There are, in fact, several practical and easy-to-identify compositional considerations we can look for. The greater awareness we have of them, the greater control we have over our compositions, which in turn allows us to make more informed choices. Mitchell will present examples from his own compositional process, and then take a deep dive into each of these considerations, by developing several compositions through the picture window. Working with various source photos, Mitchell will demonstrate how each of these considerations can be used to make your compositions more interesting and dynamic:

  • variation of shape size (large vs small)
  • complex vs simple shape arrangements
  • balance between light and dark
  • placement of the horizon line
  • movement
  • picture format – horizontal, vertical, or square
  • “active” vs “inactive” negative space

Real World Composition for Landscape Painters

IN PERSON: 3-day workshop, September 11, 12, 13, 2024 | Dakota Art Workshops | 
$395| Registration information available in late 2023

Media: Open to painters in all mediums. For acrylic painters, the expectation is that you know how to manage acrylic’s rapid drying time, how to blend with glazing and/or scumbling, and have a Sta-Wet palette and know how to use it.

Level: This is not a workshop for first-time painters (those who have never painted or mixed color at all); however, it is ideally suited for intermediate to advanced painters who want to understand and take greater control of their compositions.

For many artists, composition remains the most elusive area of their practice. This is because its energies are often abstract or hidden beneath the narrative story of the painting. The goal of this workshop is to expose these energies — and by doing so, take greater control of your composition. The workshop takes a “real world” approach to composition: rather than learning a checklist of theoretical design elements and principles, you will work with aspects of composition that are directly observable within your subjects. You’ll learn what choices practically affect your compositions, and be able to implement what you learn immediately. Working from photographs, with practical exercises in both black-and-white and color, critiques, and analysis of master compositions, this workshop will cover:

SHAPE IDENTIFICATION – To take charge of your composition, you must be able to see it in terms of foundational shapes. Learn how to use the 3-value notan to define the primary shapes of your composition.

VARIATION and DIFFERENCES are the key to dynamic and interesting compositions. How do various shapes differ from one another in their “pacing and spacing,” size, weight, and orientation?

THE PICTURE WINDOW and FORMAT applied to the subject has a profound effect on the composition. What will be included, what will be left out, and how do the primary shapes relate to one another? How does format — horizontal, vertical, or square — affect the composition?

MOVEMENT animates a composition. Learn about movement through diagonals, the difference between “direct” and “implied” pathways, circular movement, and how to diagram movement in your subjects.

ACTIVE NEGATIVE SPACE – Negative space presents itself differently in landscape than it does in still life or figurative painting. Negative space is often the sky, large bodies of water, or wide open fields. Learn four methods of “activating” these spaces, to ensure that they are fully integrated into the composition.