Nancy Colellas class

I took a "back to basics" class with Nancy Colella at the South Shore Art Center.on Cohasset. I learned a lot about  values and painting- something I do struggle with. Nancy is a great teacher! Very organized, lots of clear information and handouts . She is funny too! Each week had a different theme.  She gives demos at  every class. It was so fun to meet the other students and we all had a blast!


Week one- still life- painting in the darks first. ( I was using acrylics.)

Week two- painting from photos- again- seeing all the dark shapes and laying them in right away.

Nancy taught us about what photos work best for paintings- she took this one.

( I missed a week when I was away)

Week three- we used our own photo( still working on this one- portrait of my kids)

Week four-

Again using her photo

On the last week we did"pattern " painting and used a still life set up as well as a photo of Nancy's poppies. The concept is to use flat color, strong outlines and no light and shadow.

We talked about Milton Avery and other western artist who used Japanese woodblock prints as inspiration.

I highly recommend this class to any level of painter.

I am still painting my gratitudes-but my commissions are taking president over them at the moment- and I am very grateful for the work!