Nancy Tankersley, D’Art Center Workshop 2023 

*Three-day Workshop

• Saturday, September 16th
• Sunday, September 17th
• Monday, September 18th

9AM - 4 PM (with 1 Hour Lunch Break)

FREE Artist Talk/Demo on Saturday, September 16th 9-10AM

Can't take the class but want to attend Nancy's artist talk and demo? Attend her free and open to the public artist talk and demo 9/16/23, from 9am-10am! Please RSVP here.

In this workshop, Nancy will take you from painting still life to landscape and even figures. Concentrating on understanding basic shapes and light source, you will learn that most representational painting is based on these two concepts and there is no need to limit yourself on subject matter! Drawing is important and she will show you simple ways to check the accuracy of your drawing. You will explore ways of gaining information for your paintings through observational painting, working with photographic reference, journaling and memory exercises. 

Nancy works in both oils and acrylic, has years of experience with pastels, and is open to working with artists in any medium including watercolor and gouache. She believes that technique is an ever evolving journey (and best learned though personal experimentation) , but understanding the underlying principals of how to observe and translate your observations to a 2-D surface is key to becoming a good painter. You will work with a limited choice of colors so that you gain mastery over your paint mixing before adding extra pigments to your palette. 

Supplies:

• Paint
• 3-4 canvases or paper 9 x 12 up to 16 x 20, have at least one square
• Brushes
• Mineral spirits. Please bring odorless.
• Water or Turps container
• Medium: anything you have available. A quick drying medium would be good for this workshop, such as: Liquin Light or Gamblin Solvent Free Gel. Not needed for acrylic.
• Ruler
• 5-10 reference photos. Ideally you will have several shots of the same scene, from which you can pick and choose the elements you want in your painting. I will have some photos available as well. These can be printed on regular computer paper, no need for prints on photo paper. We will be borrowing from the photos, not copying! They can be landscapes, or figures in the landscape.
• EASEL: The art center has a small number of easels but if you own a plein air set-up, please bring it. If you need to reserve one of the center’s easels, please let Cheyenne know ([email protected])

Paints

I encourage the use of a limited palette containing a warm and cool yellow, warm and cool red, and warm and cool blue plus a white and burnt sienna (for underpainting). You may use your own colors as long as there is a distinct difference in the warm and cool version of each primary color.

Any professional quality brand may be used, avoid the student grade. They don’t have enough pigment, make it harder to mix color and may end up being more expensive in the long run. The most important thing is to have both a warm (moving toward orange on the color wheel) or cool (moving towards blue) version of each of the primary colors red, blue and yellow.

Here are my typical choices:

• Hansa yellow light
• Indian Yellow or Cadmium yellow ( or any warm yellow) (Make sure the two yellows are very different)
• Cadmium red light (warm red), Fanchon Red (Williamsburg), Naphthol Red
• Alizarin crimson permanent or Quinacridone Red
• Ultramarine blue
• Cerulean blue, manganese blue or pthalo blue
• Titanium white (large tube), Flake White Replacement (Gamblin)
• Burnt sienna - convenience mixture, not essential

Brushes

Most people work with brushes that are too small. For this workshop, push yourself to use larger brushes than usual. At minimum have:

• #12 white hog bristle filbert or long flat
• #8 white hog bristle filbert
• #6 hog bristle flat
• One medium flexible palette knife for both painting and scraping the palette. Or you may buy one for each purpose. I like the long diamond shaped best.