Thinking More Before Painting More with M. Shawn Cornell: 10/05/2024 - 10/06/2024
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2 Day Workshop
When: Saturday, October 05, 2024, through Sunday, October 6, 2024
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Lunch: You’ll have an hour for lunch (noon-1:00). You can bring your lunch or visit any of the good eateries around town.
The workshop is scheduled from 9:00 to 4:00 on both days, but Shawn is happy to hang around a bit longer for any addition discussions or questions you might have.
Participants are encouraged to show up 15 minutes early to set up.
Location:
The two-day workshop will take place in Kirkwood Park except for the last 90 minutes of the second day which will take place at The Galleries of Heartland Art Club.
Kirkwood Park
111 S Geyer Rd, Saint Louis, MO 63122
We’ll park in the Kirkwood Recreation Station (close to Monroe Ave). If Mother Nature decides to make our workshop more challenging with rain, we’ll still be outdoors, but at a different (close by) location.
The Galleries at Heartland Art Club
101A West Argonne
Kirkwood, Missouri 63122
Fee: $275 for Non-Members; 10% discount for Members
Course Description:
Thinking More Before Painting More with M. Shawn Cornell
This all outdoor, plein air workshop will touch on many things, including:
• TM-PM - Focusing on Thinking More before Painting More
• Explore increasing the creativity of your painting through the concept of “Elevate the Imagination”
• Tips and Tricks in dealing with painting outside in Mother Nature’s ever changing conditions
• The fine art of talking to yourself and constantly asking yourself questions: What is the purpose of this painting? What is it that I want my audience to see? What would make a more interesting composition? What if...? and so on.
During the workshop, we’ll be having lots of fun doing lots of thinking and painting. During the first day we’ll talk a little, I’ll demo a little, and you’ll be painting and sketching a lot. The second day will be a bit of the same in the morning and then you’ll have several hours to create your masterpiece (no pressure). At 2:30, we will pack-up and go to The Galleries at the Heartland Art Club for more conversions and your painting’s critique. We’ll also have some drawings for any of Shawn's demos that survive the weekend.
All of Shawn's demos from the workshop will be up for "the luck of the draw" at the end of the workshop.
What to Bring:
Important: The brushes and paints listed below are only a suggestion; if you feel more comfortable with your particular choices of brushes and paints (or media other than oil or acrylic paints), then by all means, please use them.
• Easel: Any light-weight portable easel will do.
• Brushes: I like flats - sizes no. 2, 6 and 10.
• Paints: Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Scarlet Lake, Cadmium Yellow (Daler Rowney Georgian) and Transparent Red Oxide. These are the colors I currently use on my limited palette.
• Palette: Wood, glass or plastic are fine but please: no paper palettes (these will blow around).
• Painting panels: Any type will do - bring at least 6 panels. I strongly suggest nothing larger than 6x8s or 8x10s for the first day. The second day for your masterpiece, you can bring whatever size you desire.
• Other: Small sketch pad and pencil (important); odorless thinner, paper towels (suggest Viva, Bounty or Brawny), metal palette knife, and trash bags (plastic grocery bags).
About M. Shawn Cornell
M. Shawn Cornell is primarily a plein air landscape painter. His paintings are neither cutting edge nor deep in metaphorical meaning, they’re simply stories about brief moments that he experiences and witnesses during his outdoor excursions. Hopefully the images connect with the viewer, sparking a fond memory, a sense of familiarity, a bit of humor, or maybe they’ll just think it’s pretty. The back of each painting is documented with its location, date, time of day and weather conditions.
Oil is his medium and he works with a very limited palette: Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow. His work is characterized by strong brush strokes that are freely and rapidly applied to the canvas - I want the viewer to see the use of the medium, the thicks and thins of the brush strokes, the spontaneity and the confidence. Certain passages will be left loose and undefined, providing the viewer the opportunity to interpret and finish the image.
“For me, painting “en plein air” is more than just creating two dimensional representations. It’s my wife’s companionship as she illuminates the canvas with a flashlight so I can paint the full moon. It was my dad and me sharing a thermos of hot cheesy tomato soup while we paint a frozen, snow covered stream. It’s spending time to see the extraordinary in things many would call ordinary. It’s a brief moment of life, captured on canvas.”