David Sharpe - The Emotional Landscape (Online); Mondays, January 9-30, 2023

Date: Mondays, January 9-30, 2023
Time:  9:30 AM-12:00 PM Pacific Time (12:30-3:00 PM Eastern Time/5:30-8:00 PM London Time)
Level: All – some drawing experience strongly recommended
Medium: Oil or acrylic

In this 4-week class, contemporary Impressionist painter David Sharpe will teach techniques for painting the landscape poetically, instead of realistically, guiding participants to understand the core principles of light, form and color- while sharing ways to convey mood, atmosphere, and an atmospheric sense of place. He will emphasize the importance of strong design shapes and the use of a limited palette.

Sharpe believes that using the imagination can be far more powerful and engaging than trying to paint every detail that we see with our eyes. His ultimate goal is to teach students “to emote in their work, to try and paint what they ‘feel’ about what they see, not just paint what they see.”

Participants will paint from photo reference. Some drawing experience highly recommended.

“I believe a painting shouldn’t have to shout to be heard. It should have an ‘elegance ‘of design and subject matter. I try to leave something for the viewer’s imagination- not give it all away. Hold some mystery in it.

A collector once said to me ‘David your work is more poetic than picturesque.’ And I’m totally fine with that. I believe it’s not what you put in a piece, it’s what you leave out. But the last word goes to jazz giant Miles Davis who said it so well. “Don’t play what’s there. Play what’s not there.”- David Sharpe

Canadian artist David Sharpe describes his influences as the American, British and Russian Impressionist painters of the 20th Century, with a special affinity for the American Tonalists of the 20th Century. He moves fluidly between tonalism, his own brand of impressionism and expressive non-representational abstraction.

An Honors graduate in illustration from the Alberta College of Art and Design, Sharpe taught Drawing and Design at The Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU), Concordia University, and Capilano College in Vancouver. A skilled art instructor, he lectured extensively at Queens University, St Lawrence College and Humber College where he sat on the College’s Advisory Board.

David Sharpe’s work has won numerous awards at plein air events and exhibitions and is actively collected in Canada and the USA. He is a founding member of the Ontario Plein Air Society and is the only Canadian member of the prestigious and exclusive American Tonalist Society. He lives and works in Cochrane, a small ranching town in the foothills near Calgary Alberta, Canada.

Sharpe is represented by Mountain Galleries in Banff, Jasper and Whistler BC and Village Studios in Stratford, Ontario. www.sharpegallery.com