Diving Into Abstraction 1-Day Workshop with Kelley MacDonald

Curious about Abstract Painting? Do you love to work with color for its own sake? Has a strong abstract painting ever stopped you in your tracks at a museum or show? Have you ever searched an abstract painting, following each mark, hidden or revealed, and let your eye trail around a canvas, captivated by colors and their supporting shapes? 

In our class we will follow a method which builds, layer upon layer, a story on a canvas. We will explore color and how to manipulate it to its highest purpose (to support and showcase a different color? To shine on its own?) And to use marks which are uniquely our own, as well as collage if you like and all kinds of mark makers.

Kelley has been painting and making art for 40 years. She has won numerous awards and loves being a painting instructor. She was a watercolor painter first, then an oil painter and now has found her joy in the acrylic medium. Until 3 years ago she was strictly a representational painter, but discovered the world of Intuitive Abstracts and is enthusiastically exploring this exciting method every day. Kelley loves to travel and paint plein air as well, and has painted in Holland, Canada, numerous times in Mexico as well as across the United States. She will be bringing plein air students to San Miguel de Allende, along with her friend and fellow artist Paula Villanova in February on a painting workshop. An Art History major at Wheaton College, she fell in love with the actual making of art. Living presently in Providence RI, she is an exhibiting member of the Providence Art Club and a devoted member of the North River Arts Society.

Materials List for Kelley MacDonald’s Abstract Painting Workshop

All, or as many as you can manage:

Disposable palette of any size  - but bigger is better!

Artist’s Tape (Painting tape OK too!)

Substrates: 

• Paper to paint on - watercolor or Canta-paper from strathmore, Bristol paper, etc. 
• Assortment of  canvases (12x12 to 18x18 – shape, size does not matter)
• one or two larger canvases - from 16x16 – 30x30 canvas or panel

Paint (Acrylic):

• one large tube of any kind of black paint, can be of a lesser grade than professional
• Gesso or large tube of white paint
• warm and cool of red, yellow and blue (ex. Alizarin or rose and cad red light, ultramarine and cerulean or pthalo blue, cad yellow medium and cad lemon)
• any other colors you like

Brushes and Mark Makers:

• 1-inch, 2-inch and 3 inch flat brushes if you have them
• a liner brush (from watercolor) and/or a small, tiny brush of your choice
• as huge a brush as you dare to bring!
• Any carving type item, credit card, (that you no longer use), Catalyst – Blick and Michaels sells them 
• Shapers, goo spreaders and palette knives

And (any of these):

• Stabilo pencils, vine charcoal, charcoal, derwent watercolor pencils, graphite pencils, any pastel sticks you like.  As long as you have SOME of these – you certainly don’t need all.  Pencils, yes, then some colored type pencils and/or pastel sticks, If you happen to have Neocolor or Neocolor II crayons, gel pencils or markers, colored or black and white – 
• Any type of gel medium for exploring collage, and any thin paper or colored paper to incorporate (NOT strictly necessary)
• Sprayer to keep acrylics moist
• Bucket or big yogurt/ricotta tub for water

BASCIALLY bring what you have - don’t go spend a fortune - we will have things to try~!

FLEX YOUR IMAGINATION

If you have taken an abstract class from me you probably already have everything you need!