Summer Courses

Beginning Painting

Credit hours: 3--Contact hours: 90

Course # 22-2220 SR

Dept: Art and Design

Course Description:

In this course students will:
Learn the fundamentals of painting with oils, including how to prepare supports, select and apply appropriate grounds, mix colors, use mediums, and use the equipment.
Experiment with a variety of techniques to achieve different effects
Practice observational painting
Analyze & Control the way formal elements work with our ideas and concepts to make paintings that are resolved
Observe, Evaluate, & Critique our own and others' painting in order to learn how to use the medium to best express our ideas and visions
Attend exhibits of paintings at galleries and local museums

Students will learn the basic techniques of pictorial representation: color mixing, color composition, the depiction of light and form through painterly means, alla prima painting, underpainting and glazing. Through studio assignments, students will explore a variety of approaches to oil painting and gain competence using these techniques and materials. Studio assignments will be augmented by discussions, critiques, illustrated lectures, museum visits and the analysis of historic and contemporary paintings.

The course instructs students in the traditional techniques of accurately rendering representational images in the medium of oil paint. It builds students’ observation and rendering skills, furthers their understanding of light and color, and develops skills in the manipulation and control of painting media.

Assignments include elementary exercises in color mixing and color matching; still-life paintings executed from life in grisaille, monochrome, limited palette schemas and full color; and paintings of various subjects (still-life, figure or landscape) executed using alla prima techniques and underpainting/glazing techniques. Students will also maintain a sketchbook in which preparatory studies and compositional sketches will be done.

Instructor:
Steven Carrelli received his MFA from Northwestern University in 1995 and his BA (cum laude) from Wheaton College in 1990. He currently teaches painting and drawing at DePaul University and Columbia College Chicago. His recent exhibits include solo shows at Corpus, gescheidle, Chicago in 2003,and Spectrum, Friesen Galleries, Judson College, LyonsWier Gallery, and Adams Hall Gallery in 2002. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions over the past 10 years. He received a Fulbright Grant for Florence, Italy in 1995-96 and a Ruth Chenwen Foundation grant in 2001. Mr. Carrelli has taught at Santa Reparata previously and is fluent in Italian.

Schedule: Studio courses meet for a total of 80 contact hours for 3 optional credits. Studio, Art History, and Italian classes meet 4 days per week. On Fridays instructors may schedule field trips to surrounding cities and museums. Studio classes meet 4 hours per day alternating mornings and afternoons.
Note: Final schedule of class times will be available when students arrive in Florence.

Prerequisites: Drawing I and Color Strategies