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Summary

In the Landscape Painting class students will develop critical thinking skills about thematic issues in art by exploring the subject of landscape through drawing, painting, discussion and readings. The class will consider the issues surrounding the use of landscape in art by examining different cultures’ attitudes about space and place. Using Florence and the surrounding countryside, the class will consist of several sessions of on-sight sketching and painting. Students will also have studio time to develop a long-term project using landscape as the subject.

Full Description

Students will develop critical thinking skills about thematic issues in art by exploring the subject of landscape through drawing, painting, discussion and readings. Students will look at the issues surrounding the use of landscape in art by examining different cultures’ attitudes about space and place.Using Florence and the surrounding countryside, the class will consist of several sessions of on-sight sketching and painting. Students will also have studio time to develop a longer term project using landscape as the subject.

Prerequisites

Beginning Painting

Instructor

Water, Oil on Panel, Instructor Louise LeBourgeois

Louise LeBourgeois attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison (BS, 1985), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA, 1990), and Northwestern University (MFA, 1994). Her work investigates the role that culture and imagination play in how we look at landscape.

Louise LeBourgeois has exhibited her paintings and drawings throughout the United States. Her gallery representation includes Lyonswier in New York City, Gescheidle in Chicago and Graystone in San Francisco. She was a recipient of a 2001 Artadia grant and a 2003 Illinois Art Council Finalist Award. In 2004 she received a commission from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs to install her artwork in the new 17th District Police Station.

She has held an adjunct faculty position at Columbia College Chicago from 1994 to 2004, where she taught painting and drawing. During the 2001-2 school year, she was an Artist-in-Residence in Columbia College’s Art and Design Department. She lived in Florence for a year in 1995-96 and has returned to the city several times since then.

Louise LeBourgeois' Statement About Her Work

Stones, Oil on Panel, Instructor Louise LeBourgeois

For the last several years I have explored landscape as my primary artistic concern. Although I paint from my imagination, the images I create are informed by what I have already seen.

In my work, I investigate the role that culture and imagination play in how we look at landscape. Most of the time, our thinking about our environment is aligned with the conventions of our time and place, and our perceptions are formed by what our senses are able to tell us. Yet within these limitations, the possibility exists for a shift in awareness. We transcend what we have known before, and the world looks completely different.

I engage this idea by observing the environment around me, then distilling the imagery through time and my own memory. What remains is an idea about a place. By forgoing the details of a real place at a specific time, the images become spare and dreamlike, hovering between what we consider “real” and certain romantic notions about landscape.

Quick Paintings/Drawings/Sketches

During the first two weeks of the term, students will visit a different site in or around Florence each class period. Students will have the choice of drawing or painting, and of working on several quick studies or on one piece for 3-4 hours.

On Site Painting or Drawing

Students will return to a single site three times so that they can develop a more complex work, either drawn or painted, on location.

Final Project

Throughout the term students will discuss possibilities for the final project, which will be based on the student’s experiences of the Florentine landscape/cityscape. By the beginning of the third week, the student will develop a concept for the final project and begin working on it outside of class time. The fourth week of class will be devoted to completing the final project in the studio.

Facilities

A student practices her technique in the "Limonaia"

The painting and drawing studio, the "Limonaia", is a 600 sq. ft. studio with skylights, storage area, and direct access to the courtyard. Depending on the classes given it is configured with either large work tables or easels. Classes in drawing and painting are also held in the annex space on Via Santa Reparata. All studios at Santa Reparata are fully air conditioned and heated.

Required Supplies

Painting supplies are not included in the tuition. All supplies can be purchased in Florence (approximately 150 Euro). Students may wish to bring some supplies with them as well:

Below is a suggested materials list:

Paints:
Titanium White, Mars Black or Ivory Black, Cadmium Red Medium, an earth red such as: Venetian Red, Light Red, Indian Red, or Red Oxide, Alizarin Crimson, Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue, Cadmium Green Pale or Permanent Green Light, Viridian Green, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Orange, Burnt Siena, Burnt Umber.

Media and Solvents for Oil Paint:
Odorless mineral spirits, Refined Linseed oil, Alkyd Medium (Liquin or Galkyd), Brush Cleaning Tank. There are various brands to choose from. This is the most efficient way for cleaning oil paint off of brushes. It is inexpensive, and it prevents you from having to dump solvents down the drain, which is environmentally unsound. Media for Acrylic Paints, Acrylic medium (matte, gloss, gel, etc…).

Supports:
You may use canvas, board, paper or whatever other material you want to create your supports for your painting. The only requirement is that your support is well made and is primed well with gesso (this applies to both oil and acrylic paintings).

Other Materials

Acrylic Gesso:
Gesso is the Italian word for plaster. It is used to create a barrier between whatever you paint on (canvas, paper, etc.) and the paint itself. The oil in oil paint will eventually rot the support, so it is necessary to have layers of gesso to protect it.

Gesso Brush:
It is a good idea to keep one brush separate for your gesso. I recommend a 3” or 4” brush.

Brushes:
Get about 8-10 brushes to start out. Get them in a variety of sizes from fairly small to about a 1” size, making sure that you have some flats and some rounds.

Palette:
There are a number of different kinds of palettes available. Either the disposable kind or the non-disposable kind is fine. Palette knife, Jars These are for your medium and your brushes.

Soap:
To wash the brushes, you may use regular dish soap or bar soap in a soap container.

Rubber gloves:
Rubber gloves are recommended for cleaning up. They will protect your hands from the toxicity of certain pigments and from the solvents used with oil paint.

Paper towels:
Or rags, either are fine. For rags, any absorbent cloth will do (old socks work very well).

Sketchbook, Pencils, Eraser