Arts on Main

Community Arts Center in Gloucester, Virginia

“Light & Shadow” with Carole Böggemann Peirson

“Light & Shadow” with Carole Böggemann Peirson

Are you struggling to capture a beautiful sunset? Are you trying to paint a gorgeous landscape, but the painting does not seem to WOW anyone? Do your paintings look “ok”, but you are not sure how to take it to the next level? Then this workshop with Carole Böggemann Peirson is the right one for you!

This workshop, for beginning and intermediate students, will discuss the importance of values (versus color), how to see the right values in nature and how to create a value pattern (“notan”) in artwork. The workshop explains how to translate complicated scenes into simplified value compositions and how to use gradations effectively. We will also talk about the effect of light, and shadows, in a painting and how to use them properly.

The goal is not to go home with a finished masterpiece, but to study and practice through a demo, examples, exercises and hand-outs…oh yes, and lots of personal attention! Bring your work for a (private) critique if you like.

Saturday, November 9 from 10am – 4pm)

Cost: $125 (supplies not included)

About Carole

Carole loves to paint outside to use plein-air studies as inspiration for larger studio works. She uses various techniques to create illusion of light in still life, landscapes and flower paintings. Carole sells out of her studio, through galleries and at art shows. Carole teaches plein-air (outdoor) painting, and workshops.




Plein Air Still Life Demonstration

As part of our continuing Artists in Residence program, we are pleased to offer a Plein Air Still Life demonstration by Andrée Tullier and Nancy McCarra during their residence in October.

Coming from the Impressionist tradition of painting, Andrée and Nancy  have studied with many of the same artists and continue to fill their paintings with light and color. They will be doing a demo of an outdoor still life-painting side by side but each expressing their own individual style of how they start a painting,how they see color and their individual thought processes as they paint. Questions are welcomed as they work.

Free & open to the public

Andree Tullier
Nancy McCarra

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.