The Heart of Painting : A Week-Long Masterclass

A painting is a field of visual forces. Over time, practice grows into competence with the foundational elements of successful painting. Tangible skills like drawing, composition, color mixing and brushwork come together along with the intangible, the sense of meaning.

How do we explain compelling works by artists with little or no training? What reflective process could bring depth to our painting? How might you paint as freely as a bird sings, or as patiently as a riverbed rests? This five-day workshop is for experienced painters. Any subject. Any style. Any medium. Any process. You are skilled already. Now what?

A Northwest native, Jef Gunn studied drawing and painting in California through the 1970s and held residencies in Barcelona and Paris in the 1980s. Since the mid-1990s he has engaged in a passionate study of Asian art and related views on life. With a balance of humor, broad knowledge and helpful insight he is able to draw from each student their own natural way to paint, while bringing to bear practical instruction through contemporary and historical examples from many periods and world perspectives. He’s been teaching for 24 years.

Note: You already have a developed way of working, so we will each work with our own media. Any medium. Any process. Any subject. Almost any scale. We will find your leading edge, and you’ll work that edge. Bring whatever you need for your current way of working. Also come prepared to expand on that or to limit it, if that turns out to be your challenge.

There are easels and tables in the studio. There’s a floor but no walls to work on.

Media can include oils, acrylics, water-based media, charcoal or graphite drawing, ink, collage or encaustic. (We can accommodate up to two encaustic painters. For encaustic painters please communicate with me ahead of the workshop)

Slide shows

Handouts of inspiring readings

Online critique and review platform

A big heart