In this intensive 10-day class, students will learn how to apply fundamental concepts of figure painting to a long pose. The goals of the painting workshop are to develop the student's eye, to deepen the student's feeling for light and the human figure, and to enable students to learn how to apply these principles to their own painting practice.
The first day, through short exercises, we will explore major concepts of the direct painting method: how to key a painting and how to make the illusion of volume with opaque paint. Additional topics covered the first day will include: review of drawing methods, transitioning from drawing into painting, lectures on the principles of light, palette organization, general guidelines for mixing color, and a discussion about painting materials and techniques.
The long pose, with the same model will begin the second day and will last until the end of the workshop. During the long pose students will explore human structure, study portraiture, and learn how to create the illusion of form with paint. The long pose will provide students the opportunity to work toward finishing a painting.
Each class will begin with a brief lecture and/or demonstration followed by one-on-one instruction at each student’s easel. Demonstrations will reveal the direct painting method practiced by Dennis Cheaney as taught to him by the master-artist Ted Seth Jacobs.
This course is open to students of all levels. Dennis will work with each student to assist him or her in taking his or her art practice to the next level. Little or no painting experience required and previous drawing experience is recommended but not necessary. Students with more advanced training will find this approach to painting as well as the review of the fundamentals rewarding.
Dennis Cheaney has studied at the Ecole Albert Defois with the eminent artist and portraitist Ted Seth Jacobs, in New York at the Water Street Atelier with the noted artists Jacob Collins and Michael Grimaldi and at the Art Students’ League of NY with Deane Keller. He carries a MFA (1998) from the New York Academy of Art in New York City and a BA (1995) in Mathematics from the University of Southern California.
Mr. Cheaney has taught drawing and painting from life at the New England Realist Art Center, MA, which he founded in 2003, and figure drawing workshops and still life painting at the Copley Society of art in Boston. Dennis is scheduled to teach classes at the Academy duCret in New Jersey as well as at the New York Academy of Art in 2008.
Dennis’ paintings have earned him several awards, including a Director’s Choice Award from the Copley Society (2006), the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant for figure painting (2000) and an Andy Warhol Foundation Scholarship (1997 & 1998) to the NYAA. Dennis has exhibited in Boston, San Francisco, New York City, Texas, Canada and France. He is represented by the Copley Society of art and the Brigham Galleries on Nantucket.
Parial Payments are not accepted.
