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Visual Arts Program - Painting

Reality & the Dream State:

Transforming Emotions into Visual Form

Instructor: Gregory Perkel

Session I: July 1 - July 13, 2009

The primary goal of this course is for students to visualize their emotions and spiritual state. Through their body of work, their depiction will be based on landscapes, urban surroundings and the historical settings of the Amalfi coast, enriched by the music festival, mixing reality and dream emotions. Analyses of art concepts and compositions will give students a sound base for establishing their own style or method in realizing themselves as true artists.

Through digital photography and color prints students will produce visual references which will be reviewed and discussed for conceptual and compositional ideas. During the execution of their work, students will be approached with advice and instructions carefully crafted for his or her experience in art and personal preferences.

New assignments will be presented on a daily basis with sufficient time and parameters for completion. Students will work with the painting or drawing medium of their choice. As a master class, students will

have the benefit of observing the instructor's process of creation.

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Landscape Painting En Plein Air:

Villas, Villages & Classical Ruins of Southern Italy

Instructor: Ross Merrill

Session I: July 1 - July 13, 2009

The Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival provides participants a unique experience of music and the visual arts enriched by the setting of Vietri sul Mare on the beautiful Amalfi Coast of Italy. Surrounded by ancient historic ruins, monuments, and Renaissance arts and architecture, it is an adventure into history where you will discover the foundations of Western culture.

In this course, artists are welcome to use the painting media of their choice. Painting instruction will be based on personal assistance, group critiques, and a series of lectures and painting demonstrations. Lectures will include topics, such as The History of Plein-Air Painting, American Painters in Italy, Color & Composition, and Landscape Painting Techniques. Each day Ross will give a painting demonstration in one of the various media. Alice Merrill will do a presentation on enhancing your travel sketchbook by combining watercolor, colored pencils, and pastels, to bring your open-air studies to life.

In addition to the spectacular sites of the Amalfi Coast immediately outside of our hotel and in the village of Vietri sul Mare, we will paint in such locations, as the ruins of the lost city of Pompeii, the temples of Paestum (the ancient motif for painters such as Frederick Church and Thomas Cole). We will have the option of visiting the Isle of Capri with its Villa Jovis built by the Emporer Tiberius as well as taking in the stunning vistas of the mythical gardens of Ravello, high on craggy bluffs above the sea.You'll fill your sketch book with wonderful memories and make plain-air paintings of unforgettable historic sites.

 

After Image: Painting & Photography

Instructor: Lisa Blas

Session II: July 13 - July 25, 2009

Utilizing the collection of ephemeral material and visual data, we will investigate the collision of the historical and modern-day landscape.

The camera will be a central component to this course. During regular field trips, we will document our environment--paying close attention to the color and spatial relationships as they exist in local markets, graffiti, alleyways, shadows, neon signage, billboards and other spaces that suggest modern and daily life. In addition, rubbing transfers of both the surface and textures of historical sites will be taken, using vellum paper and pencil. Building upon this information of present/past, we will construct works based on the post-modern landscape. This could take the form of a series of photographs or paintings, depending on each artist’s medium/material specificity. Discussion on contemporary art practice, composition, local and artificial color, paint applications/techniques, the photographic image and point of view will be part of our daily sessions. Group critique and interaction in the studio will provide a rich source of feedback, fostering new modes of thinking and methodologies.

With Italy as a stand-in for Western civilization, what could be a more fascinating backdrop to examine the interstitial spaces----otherwise neglected, yet rich in possibility.

Click here to see examples of Visual Arts faculty work.