PAINTING THE TRUTH IN THE LANDSCAPE

3-Day Workshop by Bruce Peil

Dates: March 27^th to March 29^th, 2025  

Student Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Fee: $500 (members) | $550 (non-members)

This 3-day workshop will teach you how to truthfully represent the landscape.

I am a landscape painter working in oil, but the concepts in this workshop work for any subject matter and any medium if your goal is to truthfully represent the subject.

The workshop starts with a lecture about how and what I think about while I am painting. To emphasize these essentials, various charts with examples are shown about values, color, composition, contrast and edges. This leads to students asking questions that lead to other topics. 

In the morning, color mixing is discussed and demonstrated. I show how to mix any color using only three primary colors. This covers the whole morning. In the afternoon students paint color and value mixing exercises immediately following my demonstration. 

The next two days we look at subject matter and start painting. I encourage everyone to bring several photos to paint.  I will also have several photos for students to use. 

My easel stays set-up to provide examples and answer student questions. I go to each student to help with questions. I encourage everyone to paint small because we will paint several starts in this workshop. The goal is not to work on one painting during the 3-day workshop until finished. I believe one can learn more by painting several starts to learn the process of an accurate foundation for the painting to build on. Most paintings fail due to an inaccurate start. The goal here is to capture the essentials – the masses while ignoring the clutter and needless details that only distract the eye from the important elements. The feeling of light and air.

What you see in my paintings is what I teach.  Learning to paint well is like learning to play a musical instrument. It does not happen overnight, and only comes with endless practice and dedication. Visit my website at www.brucepeilart.com  

Supply List

The colors listed below are the ones I use. You may bring whatever colors you prefer. I will talk about how a simplified palette like mine will work to your advantage. 

My Oil Palette

Ultramarine Blue

Cerulean Blue Hue--(not Grumbacher brand for this color) 

Alizarin Crimson 

Cad. Red Light 

Cad. Yellow Medium 

Cad. Yellow Lemon or Pale 

Titanium White—(large tube) 

Paint palette

I suggest not using a white palette, as the extreme value contrast when mixing colors on a white surface makes it hard to judge color mixes. 

Brushes 

Flat Bristle - long handle #2,  #4, and #6 

Palette knife

Paper Towels

Painting Surfaces

Several inexpensive white painting panels as we will paint small studies during the workshop – 6x8 to 8x10 to 9x12.

Odorless paint thinner

I only use Sunnyside or Crown found at hardware stores. Most other odorless thinner brands are too strong for studio use.