Thinking About Landscape

June 22 – June 28

Alan Bray

Thinking About Landscape

This workshop will be open to all painters and draftsmen at all levels of experience. We will work with any water based media you prefer as well as drawing. My primary medium is casein tempera but any water based medium is fine. The emphasis will be on the process of determining how an idea can ripen and change as it matures and evolves into an actual work of art.

I am very interested in the interregnum between the first inklings of an idea and the actual execution of the work. Preparatory drawings, readings, study and imagination can slow you down a bit and provide a space for the artist to discover more of what the painting wants to be about. It is often the changes from the pristine and shiny imagined idea and the thing you have emerging in front of you that makes art exciting.

As a daily exercise I would like to borrow an idea from the naturalist David Driscoll, author of “The Hidden Forest”, who staked out One Square Meter of land and went there each day for a year to study its secrets. We would take a walk on the first day and you would choose a spot to spend an hour or so each day of the workshop engaging with it in any way that suits you. Then you could return to the studio and pursue your own interests.

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Materials

You should plan to bring your own paints, drawing supplies, paper, panels, canvasses, and what tools you may require. I will have a supply of casein paints, dry pigments, pallets, some papers, and some additional emergency paints, and brushes.

Alan Bray, a Maine native, grew up in Monson, Me and currently lives in Sangerville. He is a graduate of the University Of Southern Maine and the Villa Schifanoia Graduate School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. He has exhibited throughout the U.S. and his work is in numerous private and public collections including the Portland Museum of Art, and the Farnsworth Museum.

A review in the New Yorker states “Alan Bray’s casein-on-panel landscapes are cool, elegant, and blessedly devoid of prettiness… [They evoke nature’s majesty but drain away its wildness, suggesting something of the poise and repose of Giotto or Mantegna.”] Alan Bray , a Maine native, lives in Sangerville. He is a graduate of the University Of Southern Maine and the Villa Schifanoia Graduate School Of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. He has exhibited throughout the U.S. and his work is in numerous private and public collections including the Portland Museum of Art, and the Farnsworth Museum.

He is currently represented by Garvey/ Simon Gallery in N.Y.C. , the Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland, Me. And Seis Gallery in Los Angeles. His work can be seen at alanbray.com or garveysimon.com or caldbeck.com

Lodging and Meals

Monson Arts offers on-campus housing in a private (single) or double (shared with one other person) room in a house with shared bathroom and kitchen. Houses are comfortably furnished with linens provided. If you do not need housing, you may register as a day student and pay only for meals. All meals are prepared by the The Quarry, a fine-dining restaurant in downtown Monson and recent James Beard award winner.

Includes tuition, room and board

Single Room: $1610

Double Room: $1370

Day Students:

All meals $1130

Lunch Only: $875