ONLINE: The Art of the Mark: A workshop in Abstraction

with Laura Shabott and Alana Barrett

Friday, December 18th | 10am – 3pm
$125 Members/$160 Non-members

 
In this online course, we will discuss how mark-making is a fundamental part of abstract painting. You will study Hans Hofmann’s theory of push/pull, the precursor of Abstract Expressionism in a slide presentation, demonstration, and guided exercises that transform your range of mark-making. In the afternoon, we will move to hard-edge abstraction, with a slide presentation of contemporary artists, a demonstration, and guided exercises to learn this essential abstraction skill.

About the Blue Chair Series:

The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown is down the street from me. I was a week-long returning resident in a large bright studio with a huge roll of Fabriano paper and water-based paints. I made these abstracts prompted from a still life on the floor with cleaning equipment dipped in paint and wide brushes duct taped to broom handles. Later, I found out the room was a studio that Hans Hofmann used when he lived in Provincetown.

  ABOUT LAURA SHABOTT

Artist Laura Shabott received a studio diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at TUFTS in 1995. Concurrently, she discovered Provincetown and settled there. About her art, Emily Mergel writes in Artscope Magazine “Shabott continually draws inspiration from abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann and breaks forms into their most evocative essentials…She seizes the opportunity to burst the gallery walls, speaking with intentional gesture in visual vocabulary all her own.”

Shabott has shown with Berta Walker Gallery, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Ely Center for Contemporary Art, Four Eleven Gallery, Provincetown Art Association and Museum and Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. She is represented by Berta Walker Gallery.

   ABOUT ALANA BARRETT

Artist Bio: Alana Barrett is a recent graduate of the University of Miami, and she has a degree in Studio Art and a minor in biology. She is a multidisciplinary artist that works across a variety of two-dimensional and three-dimensional mediums, including painting, woodworking, electronics, and fabrics. Her work spans a variety of subject matter from robotic sculptures to hard-edged abstract paintings. All of her work, however, is united by playful spatial relationships and whimsical perspectives, as well as a re-engagement with an almost kindergarten style of learning through her curious nature and willingness to experiment. She is currently teaching at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, as well as the Lighthouse ArtCenter.

Artist statement: I paint to experiment, play, and discover. My studio practice is process-driven – in that I am more concerned with the process of discovering something new on the canvas than the end result. Teaching art has recently become a large part of my practice as well; it has helped me develop a sort of consciousness and vocabulary to the typically intuitive decisions I make as I paint, thus empowering me to dive deeper, play harder, and take bolder risks as I work. Her work can be viewed at: www.alanacbarrett.com Instagram: alanacbarrett

Art of the Mark