Capturing the Complexity of Coastal Scenery…How to Create Strong yet Simple Paintings!     

What better place to paint then beautiful Mid-Coast Maine! A fun and informative workshop designed to help clarify how your choices of subject, shape, value and color can work together to simplify your vison.

Ann Larsen’s approach to the landscape is to simplify, making a bold statement with brushstrokes and color that conveys how she feels about the subject. She will help you sort out what to include and how to speak about it in your own visual voice.
Ann has designed this workshop for the student wishing to loosen their style, capture light, color and the emotional moment in their paintings. She will emphasize making visual choices to fit your concept, how to use composition, value, color and edges  to support that, and provide a step by step approach to building a painting, beginning with the when, where and why of plein air painting.Starting with a focal point and large mass simplification as a way to design a painting, Ann will next focus on seeing the color and temperature of light as it affects the scene and mixing the right color and value to convey that. The third step is the importance of edges to move the viewer visually through a painting. Next, she’ll teach paint application and brushwork and lastly, she’ll cover pulling all these elements together to make an emotional statement about your subject.Ann will utilize exercises, lectures, historical and modern references, demos, and many discussions around what each student hopes to achieve and how to get there. Both beginning and more advanced painters will benefit from her understanding of how to choose what to include and how to use light, color, edges and brushwork to create paintings that speak to them and to their viewers.

You’ll visit a variety of painting sites, the choices weather-dependent this being Maine, that will  provide challenges for practicing what you’ll be learning; you’ll find the principles will apply regardless of the subject.Ann will teach you to understand how color can trick the eye into thinking values are correct and how to recognize and correct those values. She’ll emphasize the use of color temperature to create harmony in your paintings, also advocating the importance of good drawing skills. . Each morning Ann will do a demonstration that covers the concepts for that day. Ask your questions! Ann will address them as well as discuss and review work by historically recognized artists to help inspire and energize you for the day ahead. Each afternoon will end with a critique of the day’s paintings, enjoying a lively exchanges of ideas and knowledge about painting, art history and life in general! This week will exercise your brain and your brush!

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Ann Larsen was born in Louisville, Kentucky and began traveling and living throughout the United States at the age of 18.   Having studied at Indiana University, the Rhode Island School of Design and finally receiving a Bachelor of Art degree while living in Oklahoma, her family relocated to Denver where for the next 5 years she painted across the west from Colorado to California. Her love of landscape continued for the next 20 years while living in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Although, living in a beautiful part of the country where plein air painting is a challenge almost any time of year, Ann also spends time painting on the coast of Maine and Massachusetts.  One of her most memorable trips was a week of painting on iconic Monhegan Island, Maine. She states that, “being able to walk in the footsteps of some of the country’s greatest painters was incredibly inspiring.” Northlight Gallery in Kennebunkport, ME states, “Ann’s work exhibits the careful, thoughtful hand of an artist deeply committed to both her medium and her environment.   Ann is able to suggest the power, grace and mood of her subject as she captures the essence of New England in her landscapes and seascapes.”

Visit Larsen’s website to view more work, www.annlarsen.com

Education:

University of Central Oklahoma – BA Painting

Rhode Island School of Design, Indiana University, Denver Art Students League

Workshops: Skip Whitcomb, Randall Sexton, Kim English, Frank Serrano

Plein air events: Grand Canyon Plein Air on the Rim; Sedona Plein Air Festival; Wayne Plein Air; Cape Ann Plein Air; and Finger Lakes Plein Air( 2^nd Place award.)

Memberships: Signature Member of Oil Painters of American; Signature Member of American Impressionist Society; and an Out of State Artist Member of the California Art Club.

Larsen has been in over 90 exhibitions and museum shows in which her awards include two Awards of Excellence from OPA Eastern Regional Exhibitions; Silver Medal as a Master Signature, American Women Artists National Exhibition and Best Landscape, American Women Artists; Dickenson Signature Member Award, American Impressionist Society National Exhibition 2021.

Exhibitions (selected- group)

Studios on the Park, Impressions of the Middle Kingdom, May/June 2021

Oil Painters of America, 30^th, 2021 National, Escondido Museum, Escondido, CA Be

Oil Painters of American, Eastern Regional, Beverly McNeil Gallery, AL 2019

Virtuosos of OPA, Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, St. Augustine, FL 2018

Oil Painters of American, Eastern Regional, McBride Gallery, Annapolis, MD 2018

83^RD Annual National Exhibit of the Cooperstown Art Association 2018

Artists for the New Century, Invitational by Editors of Art of the West, Southwest

Art, & Plein Air magazines, Bennington Center for the Arts, Bennington, VT

Oil Painters of America, 27^th Annual National, Steamboat Springs, CO 2018

Oil Painters of American, 26th Annual National, Eisele Gallery, Cincinnati 2017

Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional, Eisele Gallery, Cincinnati 2016

Oil Painters of America, 25th Annual National Exhibition, Southwest Gallery 2016 Oil Painters of America, Eastern Regional, McBride Gallery, Annapolis, MD 2014

Oil Painters of America, Salon Show, Crooked Tree Art Center, Petosky, MI 2013

Oil Painters of America, Spring and Fall OnLine Showcase 2014

American Impressionist Society National 2020, 18’, 17’,16,’15,’13,’12,’11

America Impressionist Society Small Works Show, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2016

American Women Artists Master Signature & Signature Members & National Juried Exhibition, 2019-2005

Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters, National Exhibition, Grand Teton National Park, 2016- 2011

Laumeister Competition, Bennington Center for the Arts, VT 2017, 2015, 2010

Paso Robles, CA, Signature Invitational 2015, 2014

Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, “Best of Plein Air” Randy Higbee Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA 2013

Randy Higbee Gallery 6×6 Show, Costa Mesa, CA 2012, 2011

Outdoor Painters Society, Southwest Gallery, Dallas, TX 2017, ’16,’15,’14, ’13, ’12

Celebration of Art, Plein Air on the Rim, Kolb Gallery, Grand Canyon 2010

Sedona Plein Air Festival, Sedona, AZ, 2011, 2010

Salon International, Greenhouse Gallery, San Antonio, TX 2010

Nomades del Arte, Southwest Gallery, Dallas, TX 2010, 2009

Sage Creek Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, Winter Miniature Show 2010

Bennington Center for the Arts, VT, “Visions of America”, AAWA Invite. . 2007

Bennington Center for the Arts, VT, “Small Works” Exhibition 2008, 2007                                                  Bennington Center for the Arts, VT, “Impressions of New England” 2012, ’09-’07

 

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Some General Class Information:

2023 is a Covid unknown at this point. We will make sure you know any  protocols well ahead; please be assured that we will do everything we can to provide a safe environment for you! Compliance with our protocols is required. We’ll decide on carpooling class by class depending on necessary protocols.

• Do bring layers for 3 seasons and rain gear…Maine weather changes in a blink and we really never know with any certainty from day to day! We’re fairly informal most everywhere tho, depending on where you eat out…many times, students just clean up in the studio, then head straight to a restaurant…

• We‘ll process your payment after we get your online Registration and will email you a receipt. A $300 deposit will hold your space. Cancellation and Refund info is at the bottom of the Registration Form…(please do read the Policies before you check that you have!)

• We’ll send a Supply List and more detailed info after you Register, and again about 2 weeks before the class. Print and tuck into your painting kit…It has the answers to most of your questions!

• If you will need mediums etc, let me know and I will have them here for you to buy when you get to class. You are also welcome to ship materials to arrive the week before…ask about details!

• The first day, the Studio will open at 8:15 AM… Classes run M-F usually between 8:30-4:30, but the exact hours are at the Instructor’s discretion…always an average of 6 hours/day, but starting and ending times may vary according to your instructor and painting site location.

• We always have a 1 hour lunch break, to use or not, it’s up to you…and a lunch plan. You’ll order in the AM; we’ll deliver to your location…you pay in cash please, on your last day!

• We no longer provide bottled water: bring at least one refillable water bottle! Tap water is fine to drink…

• Our Studios are large, with good light, Rockland has waterviews and access; you’ll have your own table space and are welcome to leave equipment etc. there for the duration of the class.