It wasn’t a dark basement filled with nervous criminal forgers, but the studio at The Colour Jar certainly had enough excitement to make the process nearly illegal.
Eyes were vente viagra cialis maroc squinting, and heads were tilting in discernment. Paint was applied in thick strokes. Nine copies of Van Gogh’s “Wheat field with cypresses” emerged to the delight of everyone present.
Painting Art History is a new workshop series offered by Durham Art School, one that is possibly unique in Canada. Students learn the methods and secrets of artists like Vincent Van Gogh, or Tom Thomson by studying one of their paintings, and then reproducing them as accurately as they can. Participants learn how these great artists composed their paintings: what pigments they used, and how they chose their subjects. Copying masterworks is a time-honoured European approach to learning to paint.
Movie screens have been full of art-flicks lately, from Mr
Turner, to Tim’s Vermeer, all exploring the deeper corners of the artist’s mind and creative process. Historical investigations like this can tell us a lot about the materials used and personal lives of famous artists, and this informs our understanding of what made them remarkable.
So far, students have reconstructed paintings by Monet, Manet, and Van Gogh. In March, participants will paint three works by the Canadian Group of Seven artists, including works, by A. J. Casson, A. Y. Jackson and Tom Thomson. The teacher, Rhonda Abrams, is a painter, university instructor, and art history lover. She designed these step-by-step courses to benefit the absolute beginner to the advanced painter. Everything needed is provided, including high quality artists’ paint, brushes and wrapped canvas. At the end of each jam-packed two hour session, students leave with their own carefully painted reproduction of a masterpiece, and lots of insight into the art work.
Call it “honouring the masters”, or call it forgery, but it sure is fun.
