The Bonny Studio... Paint Your Passion!, Composition Workshops

Please email or check back for upcoming workshop dates in 2011!

Learn techniques for spontaneous and responsive drawing in order to develop composition, abstracting from and pushing the boundaries of Realistic, Abstract and Non-Representational Art!

Develop a means for direction and personal expression!
with Bonny at The Bonny Studio!

Scheduled Saturdays To Be Announced for 2011

We'll be taking a fabulously successful approach to creating smart compositions; breaking up space on the paper and canvas, combining, enhancing and abstracting imagery, assigning color, texture and a cohesive sense of movement! Learn how all areas of the canvas play important interactive roles to one another.

Please bring one or two canvasses 16x20 or 18x24, your paint, palette knives and brushes. All papers for compositional sketches and tonal washes will be supplied along with great lunch sandwiches and snacks! If you'd like to bring some goodies to share, please do!

Due to the attention I would like to give each participant as we work through these concepts, we'll have just 10 people in the class.

Many thanks for furthering your skills! Bonny

Here are some concepts we will cover:
Abstract Composition; utilizing non-representational elements and / or abstracted recognizable imagery

Seeing, articulating and breaking up space on the canvas; developing relationships between small busy areas, large expansive areas, medium size areas and working them to intertwine, overlap and transition in ways that best bring the piece to successful fruition while expressing the self.
     (why we know a Rothko or a Pollock when we see one for instance)

form
line
spatial relationships
balance
rhythm
action
proportions; small busy areas, large expansive areas, medium size areas and working     them to intertwine, overlap and transition
tone
color
Texture

Abstraction can be the subtle shift of color, a strong proportional shift or a broad expressive splash of movement to express mood and emotion!

Abstraction can look like the work of Monet who “zoomed in” on the pond a close look at a particular state of being and of course; color and light

Abstraction can look like Matisse utilizing representational elements; or Hans Hofmann utilizing non-representational elements; yet both are concerned in part with spatial and color relationships on a surface.

To me; Abstraction is personal expression. To create art; one is composing a thoughtful symphony of energies, conceptually, technically and visually to bring the work to successful fruition, including the utilization of the unexpected.

Getting started:

There are many ways to approach but we’ll choose a few here:

1 Working from another artist’s abstract for inspiration; do a thumbnail sketch outlining the shapes. You can use the acetate and marker to help you. On your next thumbnail sketch; elongate, shorten and basically abstract those shapes in new ways; perhaps turning the sketch up-side down to see in new ways. Continue to abstract further n successive sketches. Be sure you have defined interesting varied shapes that speak to composition in flattering ways. Be careful of tangents and employ overlapping areas. Once you have established a composition you are pleased with, you can go to tonal choices, color and texture by designating each area these qualities before approaching the canvas. This can be done on the sketch paper and or washed onto the watercolor paper.

2. Keep these sketches and a library of printouts and tear sheets to reference in the future. Find colors and techniques you are attracted to and try to employ them.

3. Use your viewfinder everywhere to find interesting compositions in nature, in photography and in other abstract images including your own.

4. As time goes by, you can attach meaning to your shapes and line work that speak to mood and life in interesting ways. Read about what artists have to say about their work and why they make it. Assigning meaning; intertwining your art and life can be an enriching experience. Perhaps your work is purely about visual quality that resonates with you or perhaps it is about war, personal struggles, happiness, spirituality; whatever the case; it’s YOUR journey and you can make it as exciting as you like. Your natural way of making a line, employing composition, use of color etc will shine through naturally and the more you work, the more you will begin to see patterns that are yours alone! Enjoy! B

Bonny Leibowitz    www.thebonnystudio.com    bonnyfineart@aol.com

Learn techniques for abstracting from and pushing the boundaries of Realistic, Abstract and Non-Representational Art!

Develop a means for direction and personal expression!

with Bonny at

The Bonny Studio!

Saturday, July 31st 11:00 to 3:00

$75

We'll be taking a fabulously successful approach to creating smart compositions; breaking up space on the canvas, combining, enhancing and abstracting imagery, assigning color, texture and a cohesive sense of movement! Learn how all areas of the canvas play important interactive roles to one another.

Please bring at least one and perhaps two canvasses 16x20 or 18x24, your paint, palette knives and brushes. All papers for compositional sketches and tonal washes will be supplied along with great lunch sandwiches and snacks! If you'd like to bring some goodies to share, please do!

Due to the attention I would like to give each participant as we work through these concepts, we'll have just 10 people in the class. Please sign up asap with a $25.00 deposit to hold your space. Many thanks for furthering your skills! Bonny

n gearing for our next great big Abstract Composition Workshop here at The Bonny Studio! We'll be taking a fabulously successful approach to creating a smart compositions; breaking up space on the canvas and assigning color, texture and a cohesive sense of movement! Learning how all areas of the canvas play important roles to one another, responding to color, texture and form is a great learning experience even if your focus is mainly realism!

Abstract Composition Workshop

Saturday, July 31st 11:00 to 3:00

$75.00

Please bring at least one and perhaps two 18x24 canvasses, your paint, palette knives and brushes. All papers for compositional sketches and tonal washes will be supplied along with great lunch sandwiches and snacks! If you'd like to bring some goodies to share, please do!