Arts on Main

Community Arts Center in Gloucester, Virginia

Two-Day Portraiture Workshop with Abigail McBride

Abigail McBride will teach her unique approach to the portrait. This workshop is designed to help you not only paint and draw what you see but also to have a deeper understanding of your subject. Work in Oil or Charcoal. Class size is limited to ten to promote plenty of one-on-one attention. First come, first serve.

Scholarships are available for this workshop, please email airdirector@gloucesterarts.org for more information.

 




 

About Abigail

Compelled to chronicle the life and world around her, Abigail Faye McBride paints with the heart of a poet. Her oil paintings and charcoal drawings bear witness to a time, person or passing glimmer of light. Abigail paints landscape, figure and still life working interchangeably with brush and palette knife. Collectors, nationally and internationally, appreciate the color, mood and elegance of her work.

A consummate Cape School colorist, the draftsmanship in her work is born of an academic interest in the portrait and figure. Her work blends traditional subject matter with modern design sensibilities. She is part of a new breed of perceptual painters working from direct observation be it plein air or in the studio. Though often free of narrative, her work is grounded in the present day as a contemporary interpretation of genre painting.

McBride has developed a reputation as a dynamic teacher. She teaches at the prestigious Chesapeake Fine Art Studio, Anne Arundel Community College and selected workshops. She is advancing principles of visual understanding acquired from years of study.

Early national recognition by American Artist Magazine helped launch Abigail into gallery representation. Using skills gleaned as one of the founders of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association and the Paint Annapolis plein air competition she launched Paint the Town, the first plein air event in Chesapeake City MD. Her work is featured in the 100 Plein Air Painters of the Mid-Atlantic large-format book by Gary Pendleton, Shiffer Press.  She is represented The Station Gallery in Delaware, Berkley Gallery and Stewart Gallery in Virginia,  Benfield Gallery and McBride Gallery in Maryland and The Egeli Gallery in Massachusetts. Abigail also shows her work in institutions and museum exhibitions.

Andrée Tullier, shares a few thoughts from her first week in residence.

October 21st: Studio Set-Up

Setting up my studio was effortless!

The taboret (a small portable stand for holding supplies) on the far right is furnished with a glass palette (for mixing paint). A table for my computer and an amazing easel plus a stool makes for a great working environment. I am working from high-resolution photographs of subjects that I am photographing here in Gloucester with a Canon digital SLR. I view the photos on my iMac which I brought from my Maryland studio.

October 22nd: Gallery Talk

The gallery talk took place on Tuesday, October 22 at Arts On Main Gallery in Gloucester, VA.

I shared about my path as an artist from my interest in art as a young girl to my areas of concentrated study with my amazing teachers. I have been teaching for over 10 years at an art center in Annapolis as well as my studio. And, I also travel outside of Maryland for workshops. My foremost interest is in portrait and figure work, which keeps me busy and doing what I love.

October 23 – Sketches of Gardener at Goshen Farm

These rough charcoal sketches show my process of working out the design ideas from the images that I select. The gardener is shown in three different photographs. I like the one where it shows him taking the cart back to the garden shed. It tells a clear story. The top right design presents the gardener in a more contemplative state. As he gazes down the lane he surveys the work that is required to keep the garden healthy. The bottom right is the same image which was cropped and the perspective was changed to fit into a more vertical format. 

I chose the image of the gardener in his more contemplative state. The size is 12″ tall by 16″ wide and is oil paint on linen. This is my initial lay-in of paint. I am blocking in colors using the most basic abstract patterns. The decision to include the large crepe myrtle tree to the gardener’s right has not been decided. I like how the painting looks without it — giving the garden a more expansive feel. If I included the tree, it would act as a boundary and nestle the gardener within the scene.

This palette includes: French Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean, Turquoise Blue, Cobalt Blue, Veridian, Permanent Green Light, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Orange, Scarlet Lake, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red Deep, Permanent Rose, Permanent Magenta, Caput Mortem Violet, Indian Red, Yellow Ochre, Purple Madder Deep, Titanium White

The Artist in Residence (AiR) Program is generously sponsored in part by the Cook Foundation.

Nancy McCarra, shares a few snippets from her first week in Gloucester.

October 21: Painted a cloudy day from the pier at Goshen Farm in the afternoon.

October 22: Gave my presentation and talk at Arts on Main relating my artistic journey. Also brought 6 paintings to be displayed at the gallery through November.

Late afternoon I painted another cloudy day scene at Goshen. Avoided the rain by standing in the garage.

October 23: Up early to capture the sunrise.

October 23: Painted the same scene as Monday, this time a sunny day.

October 25: I was able to further develop this sunny day landscape in the morning. The water was very calm and smooth with a brighter reflection on the surface so I adjusted the color to show that.

The Artist in Residency (AiR) Program is sponsored in part by the generosity of The Cook Foundation.