Mastering The Concepts of Alla Prima Painting
Learn to paint Alla Prima with total confidence. Express your own unique vision by learning how to simplify shapes, color and values effectively. Find out why each mark on the canvas needs to count and how to achieve that goal.
The term Alla Prima means 'At One Go'. In his remarkable treatise 'In Praise Of Painterly Painters', the late artist, author and teacher, Charles Movalli wrote; painterly painters are surrounded by seeming contradictions. They finish by not finishing, include by leaving out, paint more by painting less. Their means are easy to see, the results, immediately felt. But how such seemingly insufficient means lead to these results is a mystery.
In this three-day workshop, let us take the mystery out of this painterly approach. Economy of stroke is within every painters grasp if they are willing to approach the painting process with a 'Less Is More' mind set. More than half the battle is a willingness to load the brush with enough paint and to make each stroke count. Over the course of the three days, we will strive for this.
In my plein air demonstrations, I will stress the importance of first learning to visualize and organize your subject matter into large shapes in a few simple values. Using just one color and white, I will show you how to come up with your best plan possible by first painting a very simple 5-10 minute value sketch. With this sketch in hand, you essentially have your finished idea. This is extremely freeing to the overall process. I will show you how to then quickly interpret your subject in color and how to mix up a few large piles of color that pertain to the big shapes from your sketch. From here, you have what you need to cover the canvas quickly and with enough paint. The painting can then be brought to any degree of finish that suits your own individual expression. In each demonstration, I will show you what 'finish' means to me and how I achieve it.
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To read 'In Praise Of Painterly Painters' by Charles Movalli in its entirety CLICK HERE
To read ‘Color Palette Notes’ CLICK HERE
This class is appropriate for intermediate through advanced levels.
Location: Art League of Ocean City, 502 94th Street, Ocean City Maryland 21842
Time: 9:00 - 4:00 each day
Cost: Contact the Art League of Ocean City at 410-524-9433 Class size is limited to 12 students. To register please contact the Art League of Ocean City www.ArtLeagueofOceanCity.org