Wild and Free Abstracted Florals

Jumo into the deep end of vibrant color and expressive marks. Through multiple layers of oil paint and cold wax, we'll delve into texture and explore a variety of design elements, creating strong compositions. Focusing on painting lively and colorful abstracted florals—be it single blooms, flower-filled vases, or wild meadows of color—we'll work intuitively, constantly challenging ourselves with the question, "What if I do this?" and then daring to do it. Adopting a playful approach, students will bring to life several pieces, fostering creativity and spontaneity in the process of creating vibrant and dynamic abstract floral artworks.

Dayna's fiery red hair sets the tone for how she makes her art and lives her life. She is an energetic, intuitive, abstract painter working in oil and cold wax. She loves experimenting with texture, layers and color, likening her paintings to going on an archaeological dig.

She paints intuitively and abstractly, laying down bold swaths of color in oil paint mixed with cold wax, then going back in, scraping, layering, adding, subtracting, refining the composition and finally discovering the story buried in the paint. She loves making marks using oil pigment sticks, graphite, or by scratching into the surface with a sharp object, each mark reflecting her eclectic personality. She is an energetic teacher and provides a safe place for students to experiment and learn new techniques.

6-8 wood substrates no larger than 12x12 inches works best; we work on several boards at once to allow for drying time. NOTE: I like to use cradled wood substrates. These work well because you have sides you can either tape off to keep clean, or you can paint the edges for added variety. You can also use flat wood panels. Substrates need to be wood. Arches Oil Paper can be used exclusively if you prefer not to use wood substrates. (Wood substrates allow us to be more aggressive with some of the techniques, so if you are working exclusively on paper, you may want to bring at least one wood substrate to experiment with.)

16-oz. Gamblin cold wax

Squeegee Press silicone scraper(s)

2 or 3 palette knives in a variety of sizes

3 or 4-inch putty knife with flexible blade

12x16 inch pad of Arches Oil Paper

A small assortment of oil paints in colors you love, including Titanium White. With red, blue, and yellow, we can mix a lot of colors. (I bring lots of paint colors to share.)

16x20 inch pad of palette paper

2 rolls of paper towels

Roll of painter's tape

Optional:

A variety of texture-making materials: stencils, corrugated cardboard, old rubber stamps. Be creative and bring what you have on hand. I bring a lot of texture materials to share.

Mark-making tools: skewers, clay tools, nails, metal dental picks. Again, be creative with what you have on hand.

Galkyd medium

Gamsol

Galkyd Lite

Citra-Solv

Mineral oil

Marbe dust

Large variety of oil paints to share

R&F Pigment Sticks

Stencils, brayers, and scrapers to share

Texture-making tools to share

Charcoal and graphite (pencils and loose)

Fancy crayons and markers (Marabu, Sakura, Woodies, china markers)

Tissue paper and newsprint

Pan Pastels

Steel Wool

Sandpaper

Plaster

Wax paper

Gloves