Jane Davies – Abstract Composition Bootcamp (Online); Fridays, April 9-May 7, 2021

Date: Fridays, April 9-May 7, 2021
Time: 10:00 AM-12:00 PM Pacific Time / 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern Time
Level: Intermediate to Experienced
Medium: Mixed Media

Supply List PDF

Our live online classes are taught via Zoom. Students have the opportunity to interact with the instructor and other participants, watch live demos and receive feedback and instruction. You will have access to a class chat forum on our website where you can share work, comment and ask questions. You will also have access to recordings of the class that will expire 60 days after the final day of the course.

You may be carrying around assumptions about composition that you are not even aware of. Rules, principles and guidelines that you think you know might be the things getting in your way, rather than being the things that facilitate your art making. I often hear composition put in opposition to spontaneity or improvisation, or even in opposition to simply following a particular direction I give in a workshop: “Are we supposed to do this freely and spontaneously, or are we supposed to make a composition?” My mind goes blank: where do I start with this? The question assumes something about what a composition is and what it isn’t. Show me a painting that is not a composition, I want to say.

In this workshop we will open up the concept of composition to examine possibilities – of scale, value, color, arrangement, etc. We’ll take a look at what we do by habit and by assumption and put those into a context of broader range of options, of conscious choices. In order to become fluent in visual language, you need to become aware of what you do by habit and what you can do by choice. The more fluent you are, the more spontaneity and freedom you can bring to your art practice. Compose as you go like an improvised jazz solo.

We will be using acrylic paint, collage, and drawing materials. The workshop is for intermediate and experienced painters, not beginners. Though I will demonstrate some techniques, this is not a technique workshop; it is about seeing and compositing, so you should be reasonably comfortable with your materials.

Jane Davies is a full time artist working in collage, painting, and encaustic. She offers workshops at her studio and nationwide, focusing on helping people to find a personal and playful approach to art.

Beginning as a potter in the early nineties, selling her colorful hand-painted ceramics at craft shows, Davies gradually transitioned into freelance art, designing tableware, fabric, paper goods, stationery, and other products, using painting and collage as her medium. For the past several years, Davies has put most of her efforts towards teaching, writing, and making art.