Dates: July 31 - September 4 (6-weeks)
Time: Sundays, 1:00 - 4:00PM (3 hours)
During this 6-week intro to acrylics course, students will learn to develop their own acrylic painting from initial concept to final piece. In a small class setting, students will be introduced to a variety of painting techniques and principles instructed by a professional artist through a series of demos, tutorials, and one-on-one guidance. Direction will be given on composition, use of artist materials, and many other aspects of the artistic process.
Students will procure their own supplies, as suggested on a supply list provided below. Securing their own materials equips students with the tools needed to continue exploring their practice at home, and expand on their projects outside of class time.
Because of the limited space in this course, slots will fill up fast, so be sure to sign up soon to snag a spot!
Artist Bio:
Tara Krebs is a Toronto-based artist and storyteller whose work addresses themes of nature, identity, magic, and narrative. Though Tara’s visual language extends to a number of creative media, she is best known for her intricate pop surrealist paintings, and as the author/illustrator of the interactive storybook "You'll Distract the Boys!": A Choose-Your-Own Compendium of Female Existence
Tara earned both her BFA and MFA at OCAD University, and exhibits her work locally and internationally. With almost two decades of experience teaching art to students of all ages, she’s looking forward to sharing her craft with you, and can’t wait to see what you create!
Location: Northern Contemporary Gallery (420 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto ON)
Class Size: 8-10 people
Cost: $300 per participant (Adults and late teens, age 16 +)
** All classes are final sale and non-refundable once we've reached the minimum number of registrants required to run the class. However, they are transferrable to someone else if you are no longer able to attend the class.
Supply List:
Students are required to come to class with their own art supplies on hand. Due to limitation of storage space at the gallery, there will not be extra materials on site for students to use/purchase. Depending on your individual project and how many supplies you may already own, you can expect to spend around $100-$300 on art supplies for this course and use afterward (again, it really depends on what you choose to paint, the colour palette, painting surface, whether you're an art store shopaholic like me who can't resist all the colours, etc). Some examples of great art supply stores around the city are Aboveground Art Supplies, Curry’s Art store, and Deserres.
Drawing Supplies:
- Kneadable eraser
- White eraser
- HB pencil
- Sketchbook or sketching paper: As the course will begin with in-class sketching, students will require either a bound sketchbook or loose paper(s) of their choosing to create their preliminary drawings to plan out their painting composition.
Painting Supplies:
- Primed painting surface: This will be the surface that your final piece will be painted on! Examples are primed stretched canvas, primed wood cradle, Gessobord, etc. The size of your canvas should be minimum 8x10 and maximum 16x20 (Students are also welcome to work on irregularly shaped sizes, depending on their concept for their project. Your instructor is open to all kinds of ideas, and will offer feedback on feasibility in terms of materiality logistics and parameters within the course.
- Gesso: Only needed if priming your own surface - This can be decided on a case-by-case basis after the first class, depending on the student's individual project vision and what type of surface they choose to paint on). Your instructor will tell you more about priming paint surfaces in class, and why it's an important part of the painting process.
- Container for paint water (to rinse brushes): For example, an old mug, small glass vase, tupperware or washed-out sour cream container, etc.
- Acrylic paint: Because students will not be using paint until the second or third class, you will not need to have a full selection of paint on hand on the first day. Because the colours needed for each project may vary depending on the individual needs and colour theme of each project, you will not have a specific list of pigments to buy. If you are unsure which colours to buy for your project, your instructor is happy to discuss this with you and offer direction. Examples of commonly used colours are: Titanium white, mars black, cadmium(-free) red medium, cadmium (-free) yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium(-free) orange, chromium oxide green, hooker's green, ultramarine blue, dioxazine purple, violet, phthalocyanine blue, burnt umber, raw umber, burnt sienna, and raw sienna. There are also some great starter sets you can purchase with a variety of different colours to start you off. Tara mostly uses Liquitex Heavy Body acrylics. It is not recommended to use "student" quality paint, as the pigment isn't as high quality, and it's always best to learn with quality materials.
- Paint brushes: A selection of brushes in different sizes with pointed and "filbert" shaped bristles.
- Photo references: Photo references are the images you will be using as subject matter for your painting. They can be printed out on paper, digital (laptop, tablet), or they might be physical (an object you bring to class). I do not recommend using your phone to display your photo reference, as the screen will be too small.
Other Supplies:
- Comfy clothes that you don’t mind getting paint-stained!
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Face masks: In order to protect our pregnant and otherwise immunocompromised staff and friends, masks are mandatory for this course and required to be worn at all times while inside the gallery throughout the duration of this course. Please do not come to class if you are feeling ill.
- Drinks and snacks (I consider this essential painting materials!). There will be a 10-minute break in the middle of each class where students can stretch their limbs and eyeballs. There are lots of great coffee shops and food options nearby. Please only bring drinks with lids that close up tight to prevent any spills around your work area, and to avoid the tragic yet inevitable mix-up of beverage and paint water (trust us, it happens!)
- You are also welcome to bring along any further sketching materials you may already be comfortable with or find essential to your creative process (such as pencil crayons, pens, markers, etc.)