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Paint With an Artist: Abstraction (Online Course) Fall 2026 w/ Ash-Bob
December 7 to January 11 (Mondays) 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM Eastern Time
**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.
Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite. Our business hours are 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM. All course information and email correspondence will be sent during business hours. If students purchase a course, workshop, demo or recording outside business hours or during the weekend the course information or recording will be sent the following business day.
Course Description
Be inspired to create original Still-Life paintings though demonstrations, slides and discussions. Investigate a sequence of techniques informed by Susan Ashworth’s artistic practice. By looking at other artists’ work explore ideas to create a series of exciting responses to a Still-Life set-up.
Course Outline
Week 1: Color (December 7)
Learn how to mix colors by identifying them from life and mixing colors from a limited pallet. Each students will learn how to mix paint to match a color swatch, an item in the room, and then a color in a photograph.
Week 2: Form and Negative Space (December 14)
Each student will creat 5 individual 5x5 inch paintings. Each student will choose 5 colors to mix and choose a feeling, thought, person, or idea to assign to each color. Then each student will paint a full sheet of paper with each color and cut them into shapes, organizing them with the negative space (the white of the paper) being considered as a color as well. Each square will seek to answer the following prompts:
#1. Who are the most important people in my life?
#2 What do I hope for the future?
#3 What is something vulnerable about me that I am willing to share?
#4 What is a dream I have? How will I achieve it?
#5 Create a self-portrait in color
Making art is about being honest with ourself and figuring out how to share it with others.
*Course skips December 21st and the 28th
Week 3: Line, Opacity, and Value (January 4)
Choose one of your previous 5 paintings compositions and recreate it 3 times, with each one increasing in opacity. Then recreate it 3 times increasing in value. Once you have your 6 works, use your paint markers to draw lines on the clear acetate sheets and hold them over the paintings until you find an application that you like, and recreate it on top of your shapes. As you create, ask yourself the question: what parts of my life would I like to become more visible? What parts of myself would I like to connect to others? Once you’ve drawn your lines, consider taking a color of a darker or lighter value and adding it to each piece; take a more transparent color and float it on top of the work. Ask yourself: what in my life needs to intensify or be let up on? Create with all these questions in mind.
Week 4: Create a Full Abstract Painting (January 11)
Take one, 22x 30 inch piece of Rieves BFK and implement each technique we’ve used in class so far. Choose your colors, mix them, add opacity and variety of value to the work. Ask yourself what you want to communicate to the viewer? How open do you want to be? Who is this work for?
Course Materials List
Materials:
4 sheets of Rieves BFK
5 sheets of Drawing paper
2 sheets of 8.5x11 inch clear acetate
Pallet knife
5-10 paint brushes
Ranging in size and shape (round, flat head, filbert)
Small hand held squeegee
Printed photograph of your choice (still life, objects, landscape, or urban landscape). Try to get a high quality image with clear colors.
Acrylic Paint (Golden or Liquitex brand)
Naphthol Red Medium, 2oz
Alizarin Crimson Hue, 2oz
Burnt sienna, 2oz
Cadmium Orange Hue, 2oz
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, 2oz
Indian Yellow, 2oz
Green Gold, 2oz
Permanent Green Light, 2oz
Ultramarine Blue, 2oz
Clean Blue, 2oz
Phthalo Turquoise, 2oz
Dioxazine Purple, 2oz
Quinacridone Magenta, 2oz
Carbon Black, 2oz
Titanium White, 5oz
5 paint markers:
your choice of exact colors but try and get a red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Thickness is also up to you but a variety of thicknesses is also beneficial.
December 7 to January 11 (Mondays) 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM Eastern Time
**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.
Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite. Our business hours are 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM. All course information and email correspondence will be sent during business hours. If students purchase a course, workshop, demo or recording outside business hours or during the weekend the course information or recording will be sent the following business day.
Course Description
Be inspired to create original Still-Life paintings though demonstrations, slides and discussions. Investigate a sequence of techniques informed by Susan Ashworth’s artistic practice. By looking at other artists’ work explore ideas to create a series of exciting responses to a Still-Life set-up.
Course Outline
Week 1: Color (December 7)
Learn how to mix colors by identifying them from life and mixing colors from a limited pallet. Each students will learn how to mix paint to match a color swatch, an item in the room, and then a color in a photograph.
Week 2: Form and Negative Space (December 14)
Each student will creat 5 individual 5x5 inch paintings. Each student will choose 5 colors to mix and choose a feeling, thought, person, or idea to assign to each color. Then each student will paint a full sheet of paper with each color and cut them into shapes, organizing them with the negative space (the white of the paper) being considered as a color as well. Each square will seek to answer the following prompts:
#1. Who are the most important people in my life?
#2 What do I hope for the future?
#3 What is something vulnerable about me that I am willing to share?
#4 What is a dream I have? How will I achieve it?
#5 Create a self-portrait in color
Making art is about being honest with ourself and figuring out how to share it with others.
*Course skips December 21st and the 28th
Week 3: Line, Opacity, and Value (January 4)
Choose one of your previous 5 paintings compositions and recreate it 3 times, with each one increasing in opacity. Then recreate it 3 times increasing in value. Once you have your 6 works, use your paint markers to draw lines on the clear acetate sheets and hold them over the paintings until you find an application that you like, and recreate it on top of your shapes. As you create, ask yourself the question: what parts of my life would I like to become more visible? What parts of myself would I like to connect to others? Once you’ve drawn your lines, consider taking a color of a darker or lighter value and adding it to each piece; take a more transparent color and float it on top of the work. Ask yourself: what in my life needs to intensify or be let up on? Create with all these questions in mind.
Week 4: Create a Full Abstract Painting (January 11)
Take one, 22x 30 inch piece of Rieves BFK and implement each technique we’ve used in class so far. Choose your colors, mix them, add opacity and variety of value to the work. Ask yourself what you want to communicate to the viewer? How open do you want to be? Who is this work for?
Course Materials List
Materials:
4 sheets of Rieves BFK
5 sheets of Drawing paper
2 sheets of 8.5x11 inch clear acetate
Pallet knife
5-10 paint brushes
Ranging in size and shape (round, flat head, filbert)
Small hand held squeegee
Printed photograph of your choice (still life, objects, landscape, or urban landscape). Try to get a high quality image with clear colors.
Acrylic Paint (Golden or Liquitex brand)
Naphthol Red Medium, 2oz
Alizarin Crimson Hue, 2oz
Burnt sienna, 2oz
Cadmium Orange Hue, 2oz
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, 2oz
Indian Yellow, 2oz
Green Gold, 2oz
Permanent Green Light, 2oz
Ultramarine Blue, 2oz
Clean Blue, 2oz
Phthalo Turquoise, 2oz
Dioxazine Purple, 2oz
Quinacridone Magenta, 2oz
Carbon Black, 2oz
Titanium White, 5oz
5 paint markers:
your choice of exact colors but try and get a red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Thickness is also up to you but a variety of thicknesses is also beneficial.