Blue Mountain School of Landscape Painting 2025
We are happy to be bringing you our programme for 2025! You will see some of your favourite instructors from previous years including Sam Paonessa and John David Anderson and we welcome the highly recommended Harvey Walker for the first time! This year Brian Buckrell will be starting off the series with a studio class and Andrew Sookrah will be sharing his watercolour skills.
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN FOR 2025!
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BRIAN BUCKRELL
May 26 - 30 • Studio • Acrylic. $400
brianbuckrell.com
Following retirement Brian began painting seriously in 2004. He has studied with acclaimed artists in Canada and the USA. His paintings reflect his love of the outdoors, agriculture and rural communities. Brian has won many awards for both his studio and plein air work and has been chosen by a number of plein air organizations to participate, teach and be interviewed.
This five-day studio acrylic workshop is designed to help you strengthen your acrylic work. It is built on the fundamentals (knowledge) with supervised painting (technique). Notes will be provided in advance.
Each day will begin with a presentation/discussion of one of the fundamentals: shape, value, colour, linear perspective, aerial perspective and composition. It will be followed by an instructor demo and supporting exercises.
The rest of the day the student will plan and develop a painting using the references provided. In addition you may bring a few of your own paintings for critique and/or to work on them with supervision.
Lots of learning; lots of fun.
NOTE: this workshop is not suitable for painting in oils.
HARVEY WALKER
June 2 - 6 • Plein Air • Oil/Acrylics $400
Harvey is an enthusiastic, four season fan of plein air painting. When outside, he puts the emphasis on capturing the feeling and mood of his surroundings and not just the facts of what he sees. Outside one can engage most of the senses, with the result being a finished piece or a sketch with a collection of notes that can be translated into a studio work later. In order to grow as an artist one must enjoy the process, not just the finished product.
Harvey holds weekly classes at his studio in Haliburton as well as workshops which keep him busy when he is not out on the road or at the riverside with his paints.
He has won awards at plein air events and travelled to paint with 100 other plein air artists in the Adirondacks as well as attending the workshops at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Mass.
Workshop – The demonstrations will be in oil but acrylic painters will be accommodated.
Mornings will start with a demo that focuses on the topic for the day.
Plein air painting: supplies, looking for and seeing shapes, composition and how to simplify/modify what you see, getting a solid start and staying motivated.
The rest of the day will be for you to paint while Harvey circulates and answers your questions or offers suggestions.
The day will end with what Harvey likes to call “Show and Tell” versus “critique”, which sets up a 2- way dialogue of what the artist likes and what could be improved upon.
So, PLAY, PRACTICE, EXPERIMENT, REPEAT.
Click on the button below for a 7 minute You Tube video lays out Harvey's core philosophy.
SAM PAONESSA
June 9 - 13 • Plein Air • Acrylics/Oil $400
Sam Paonessa is a professional, award-winning artist who has enjoyed a creative career spanning over 40 years. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and then worked for various professional art companies.
Recently he was awarded Best Over 65 category in the July 2023 monthly Plein Air Competition and had a piece in the Best of Acrylic Fall 2024 issue.
He is inspired by great art, artists, loved ones, the ever-changing seasons of the landscape and endless life subjects. Over several years Sam has been sharing his knowledge leading workshops regularly in the Toronto area and several cities and communities across Ontario. He has also led plein air workshops in Morocco and Italy. As a plein air artist, he finds the challenge of plein air painting especially gratifying as he expresses his admiration and reverence for the magnificent beauty of every season designed by the Creator’s hand
This plein air painting course will provide students with the challenges of outdoor painting focusing on core principles of painting; composition, value, colour, and edges. Students should have some painting experience and be able to carry their materials. Sam will demo each day sharing his plein air painting techniques using traditional and less traditional tools in a fun and friendly environment. Constructive critique is shared at the end of each day for all. The demonstrations will be in acrylics but oil painters will be accommodated
JOHN DAVID ANDERSON
June 16 - 20
John is an award winning and entertaining teacher who demonstrates and lectures from his own experiences. He applies the basic techniques used by generations of artists to his unique way of seeing the landscape. Like many artists before him, the quality of light in anything he sees becomes the focus of his thinking as he works through his painting. Plein air painting is painting like no other method. Dealing with real information in a real and constantly changing environment necessitates letting go of detailed rendering and just going for an impression of what you are seeing.John builds his composition by starting with large shapes of value and then refining it with the elements of value and colour. Movement and drama are created by the skilful use of light and shadow, lost and found edges and warm and cool colours. John will focus on an approach that will give you both historical and contemporary techniques used in plein air painting. You will gain compositional skills, learn colour theory and colour mixing as applied to the light story on location.Through demonstrations, personal attention and critiques you will come away with a better handle on the joys of plein air painting.The demonstrations will be in oil but acrylic painters are easily accommodated.
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