You don’t have to have Picasso’s imagination to create an abstract art painting. This course aims to help you unleash your spontaneity as you explore creative approaches to abstract painting. Start with subjects from everyday life and learn how to abstract the motifs in various ways. Concepts of figuration, abstraction, non-objective representation and semi-abstraction are discussed and put into practice in this course suitable for students of all levels.

Materials

• Pencil (2B)
• Bristle brushes (cheap from hardware or $2 shops, including 1 small round / 1 very wide flat)
• At least 4 stretched canvases OR canvas boards (cheap from most $2 shops); plus optional canvas pad
• Acrylic Paints: white, burnt umber, burnt sienna, yellow oxide; plus both cool/warm of each: yellow, red, blue, optional viridian
• Palette knife
• Scrapers (variety of widths, plastic or metal, usually found in tools section of $2 shops)
• Large Palette (eg. large piece of Perspex or multiple plastic ice-cream lids) or paper palette pad
• Water Container (eg. large glass jar)
• PVA Craft Glue (small tube)
• Scissors OR Cutting Knife
• Sheets of White A4 typing paper or Sketchbook
• Plastic Tablecloth ($2 Shop) OR old Magazines
• Rags
• Paint Shirt
• Optional: Charcoal (Willow or Compressed)
• Chalk Pastels/Conte Crayons
• Impasto Acrylic Medium

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course students will have:

• painted a series of abstract paintings that demonstrate an exploration of various media and techniques; and
• learned to develop and explore a style of their own through experimentation with various media and techniques.

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