Derbyshire Arts


Tutor info - Course Details, Dates & Prices Michael Porter Michael Porter was born 1948 in Derbyshire, a county renowned for its rugged natural beauty, as a child and youth he made the most of his surroundings, walking the dales and climbing the local grit stone. At the age of 15 he attended nearby Nottingham college of Art and later Derby College of Art completing both under-graduate and post-graduate studies at Chelsea School of Art, finishing his academic training as Fellow in Fine Art at Gloucestershire College of Art in 1973. From 1974 he worked in the same studio in Hackney, East London until his move to Cornwall in 1997 during this period he lectured in most major Art Schools in London and the provinces as well as several throughout Europe . His work has been regularly exhibited in museums and contemporary galleries in London , Europe and America and has been the recipient of numerous major awards e.g.. The National Gallery Artist in residence, The Lorne Award London University, The Odin Award RWA, Honorary doctorate from Derby University . For the past 20 years he has worked exclusively from the landscape, always using locations that he has been familiar with over long periods of time as the paintings incorporate both time past and time present. Quote: “He respects the native tradition of landscape painting whilst reinventing it by means of his innovatory techniques and personal vision......his prolific technical experiments have been harnessed to a radical form of realism resulting in works that are equivalent to natural phenomena and which take the viewer into metaphysical realms” , Clive Phillpot. New Book: Pictures and Places ...... www.michael-porter.co.uk Close this Window - Back to top	Highlight Through Trees, a major new work recently acquired by Derby Museum and Art Gallery will be hung for the first time in the Exhibition Imagining Landscapes, opening 25th April 2009.

Course Details, Dates & Prices

Contemporary Painting - Landscape

15-17 June 2010

Accommodation

Double or twin bedded all rooms en-suite.

Single Occupancy: £485 for full board, 3 nights with 3 days tuition.

Sharing £425 each, including tuition.

Tuition and lunch only: £245 (3 days)- for those who do not need accommodation or evening meals.

Please arrive afternoon of day before start of course for residential students for introductions and evening meal. Course 9.30 a.m. for 10.00 a.m. start to 4.00 p.m. or 4.30 p.m. stay as long as you wish in the studio.

Description

A three day course concentrating on aspects of landscape painting, collecting source materials through the use of photographs and sketches. This information is subsequently reviewed back in the studio and studied to determine how this can be usefully interpreted using the natural characteristics of differing mediums on a variety of grounds.

The course will explore how different types of paintings materials can be combined to express equivalents in the real world. Each student will bring with them their own landscape preference from the expansive views into the distance to more intimate close up of the objects at ones feet.

Painting should be an exciting and imaginative persuit.

I have always believed that if it is not exciting to produce then how can it be exciting for someone to look at.

This short course will introduce you to an imaginaive and unconventional approach to not only how we see the world around us but how we can manipulate conventional artist materials and discover inventive methods of discribing this, using the landscape as subject matter.

Bring your ideas and enthusiasm and we will work together to create an inspiring and meaningful work that will hopefully will give you a basis to use in the future.

As the idea is to cover as much ground as possible in a short period of time we will be mainly using waterbased paints on paper. Much of the materials are provided, however, it might be useful to bring additional materials along with brushes and mixing containers.

You will also need some photographic reference material from which to base yourwork although working directly from the landscape is always an option.

Remember to bring plenty of rags and mopping up materials.

Although this is an artist led workshop it is very much tailored to individuals needs and expectations as each participant will bring with them their own way of looking at the world and unique way of interpreting this.

Objective: The translation of a specific location using photographic source material in a none illustrative manner which emphasizes the inherent characteristic of place.

Method: Using some of the natural qualities of traditional art materials e.g. various water based paints, oil paints on different grounds we will attempt to make equivalents to the landscape by the use of unfamiliar combinations of these materials.

This workshop concentrates on the use of paper rather than canvas as it enables the group to produce work quickly and consequently cover several ideals and investigations over the three days.

Procedure It is important that members of the group bring with them an image that can be used as a starting point.

First Day After an initial introductory talk about how materials can be used to describe different natural characteristics and how, in order to emulate the three-dimensional effect of the landscape, the group will be encouraged to lay down a preliminary layer of under painting which will be subsequently over painted in order to create depth. It is possible that more than one work will be started on the first day. This will be produced in acrylic and other water based material.

Second Day As the first days works should dry over night, this will be reworked in its present state or stretched and worked over without destroying the previous days painting. The intention will be to produce an image that one can physically observe three-dimensionality as one looks into the surface of the painting using the photographs or sketches as a means of analysis.

Third Day A further third or fourth over painting of the image takes place describing more elements from the source material.

At this point some participant might wish to use oil paint, mixing different types of paint as a means of suggesting different qualities of surfaces, shapes, weights etc in their chosen subject matter.

It is important to note that all the different methods of laying down paint and unconventional techniques are used in order to interpret real things in the landscape and not simply used as abstract decoration even though the outcomes may turn out to be none illustrative.