COLD WAX/OIL WORKSHOPS 828-545-2451 or email: gcarolbomer@gmail.com for more information.
I will be teaching techniques using oils with cold wax which is plenty challenging. However it is the imaginative mental demands of creating a process-driven, intuitively developed painting that are the most powerful and so fun!
Scheduled Classes for 2021
October 7-8 (9:30 – 3:30) Thurday-Friday
September 20-21 (9:30 – 3:30) Monday- Tuesday
July 6-7 (9:30-3:30) Tuesday-Wednesday
February 17-18 (10:00 -4:00) Wednesday-Thursday
-Two day workshop in wax and oil $300.00
March 22-23 (9:30-3:30) Monday-Tuesday
(Paypal below but email me first to see if there is room)
Private lessons: One on one instruction/critique — 200.00 per day
Please feel free to contact me and I will see when we can work out a workshop for you.
Above is a 12 x 12 inch piece done in an earlier workshopWill You Dream With Me… (http://gracecarolbomer.com/artwork/3872233_Will_You_Dream_With_Me.html)
Many of my classes are private and thus created on demand. Email me on the form below if you are interested or would like to work out a date. Necessary supplies listed below.
In my TWO DAY Cold Wax Intensive we produce a minimum of two pieces integrating text and image using cold wax and oil and learning about various techniques. Depending on size and how quickly you work you may be able to produce many paintings. Come prepared to make as much art as you can!
(Below I have listed supplies)
gessoed panels (12’ x 12” or smaller or larger) preferred but you may work on canvas. The smooth hard surface IS best for cold wax. Birch cradled panels are available at most art supply stores. But if transporting them is a challenge bring flat panels.
oil paints
powdered pigments
cold wax medium
palette knives (at least two) for mixing paint and cold wax,
oil sticks
flexible scraping tools/ dough scraper (by Wilton- has a soft edge) Wilton dough scraper .
paper palette (large)
Galkyd medium (speeds dying)
brayers and sponge rollers
drawing needles and tools (I use my clay tools)
string, lace, and things to add texture — cardboard, dead leaves and twigs, stencils, rags, wax paper
blue masking tape to protect sides of a cradled panel
personal images that “speak to you” or poetry and prose that inspires you!!
Workshop cold wax demo pieces that are 12 x 12 inches.
Cold wax painter, Rebecca Crowell’s, blog posts are so helpful. Here is an excerpt from a 2011 post
“I’m starting to see that while the technical stuff I teach is plenty challenging, it may be the emotional and mental demands of the class that are the most powerful–at least for artists unaccustomed to process-driven, intuitively developed painting.
For example, I often hear in class how hard it is to submit to the process of painting, to abandon preconceived ideas in the beginning, and to allow each step in the painting to reveal itself. For many people, this is a daring leap into trusting intuition, and requires a flexibility that feels out of character. The saving factor is that cold wax is a very “forgiving” medium, and changes can be made quickly and as thoroughly as the artist desires. This fact seems to be the biggest factor in allowing people to loosen up and try things out, and the rewards for being flexible and intuitive become very apparent. In this type of painting there really are no mistakes–nothing ugly, muddy or otherwise disastrous that cannot be corrected.
A related challenge is to push past initial stages of the painting, to be ruthless in non-attachment to precious areas of paint, until the work acquires enough color interactions and textural layers to be rich and exciting. Trying to build a painting around one area that works early on is a sure recipe for a stiff, overly controlled end result. In my opinion this speaks of a lack of confidence, because efforts to preserve those “happy accidents” are due to the artist’s belief that once this special bit is buried, nothing equally lovely or better will happen later in the process. In fact, although exciting areas of paint may appear early on in the thinner layers, the most magic happens when there is plenty of paint, lots of layers—when there is deep potential built into in the work. (Here I can see parallels here to relationships, to meaningful work, to anything in life that is rich and non-superficial.)
With practice, many seemingly random or accidental effects can to some extent be predicted and pursued with intention. But knowing this requires practice, a lot of patience, and mental discipline. Taking the first steps in a workshop can be a revelation, but true understanding of this process happens over time, and patience with oneself in the learning process is part of the big picture.
The issue of wanting finished paintings by the end of class also comes up often—again, this is a challenge to patience, and the need to stay with a painting until it is resolved in its own time. I don’t encourage the idea of finishing paintings in class, because this shifts the focus away from experimentation, and fully exploiting the possibilities of the medium (some of which will become evident only when the painting dries more thoroughly than it will in a 3-day class.) But I acknowledge that for some artists, being able to take a completed painting home is important, and I stand by.
Here’s what tends to happen, though–even after spending considerable time trying to come up with a finished piece, the artist will often abandon the effort– perhaps in frustration. The point of letting go of the preconceived goal, though, can be a breakthrough. It allows the artist to return to trusting the process, letting the painting unfold. Sometimes a painting does reach a finished state in class, but when this happens, it seems to come out of grace rather than striving…another lesson that relates as much to the bigger picture of life outside the studio as it does to painting.” http://rebeccacrowellart.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html
grace carol bomer 