Landscape Painting Workshop at Sant Martí Vell

Project location: SPAIN, Sant Martí Vell, Gironès, Province of Girona
Project start date: September 2016 - Project end date: October 2016
Project number: 2016-034
Beneficiary: Cercle Artístic De Sant Lluc

 

Sant Lluc is an artistic activity centre located in Barcelona, firmly rooted in its citizens because of its activities and its history. It was created at the turn of the twentieth century in one of the key moments, and probably the most significant,of modern art and culture.
Since its inception, it has made drawing a tool and an instrument of awareness and reflection. The experience of the perception of the environment, each other and of things, of the relationships established through the study and interpretation of the reality around us, as well as continuous work, enhances creative skills and develops artistic and social touchstones.
One of our great riches is that users of our services come from very diverse walks of life.

Interest in the proposal comes from the scenic quality of the location of Sant Martí Vell, which makes it quite inspiring as a subject. Therefore, this proposed initiative aims to provide a better understanding of the site and increased social recognition. It has received a grant from The Nando Peretti Foundation, Delegació a Catalunya.
Moreover, the richness and particularity of the site is a great opportunity to work on a pictorially interesting landscape and, on that basis, experience every stage that goes with the creative process outdoors. Thus, the painters involved, currently studying at the Centre Artístic de Sant Lluc, can improve their skills in the representation of the landscape and master the technique.
It is important, in order to understand the proposed single-subject discourse on landscape painting, to note that the life of an artist is usually surrounded by the need for a certain introspection involving the very pursuit of creativity. So, being able to work intensively over three days on a site with renowned scenic qualities, offers excellent opportunities for the pursuit of their own pictorial expression of the landscape. Furthermore, in this case, the existence of the village of Sant Martí Vell allows for the visual fusion of nature and architecture, giving rise to a pictorial dialogue outside of strict measures, including colour, nature-architecture integration, and everything perennial in permanent transformation.
The aim to be achieved in this project is twofold. Firstly, to generate and consolidate an interest in the figurative representation of a landscape beyond specific styles by deepening the invited artists’ pursuit of their own pictorial expression and, therefore, their own visual training and, secondly, dissemination of the results of the painting workshop allows for a better general understanding of the remarkable urban, environmental and landscape features of the Sant Martí Vell location.
The history of humanity cannot be explained without the history of art. Painting has allowed us to understand, not only the environment and customs of bygone eras, but also the characters beyond their social class. However, most importantly, we have been able, through a keen eye, to also intuit their feelings, passions, joys and sorrows. It is important in contemporary art, even allowing for the advantages and opportunities that new technologies and performances put within reach of the artist, to continue claiming the role of oil painting as a visual means of conveying realities, feelings and sensibilities.

Single-subject or intensive discourses serve as a concentrated source of learning, but also a meeting point between artists enabling the exchange and enrichment of their resources.
The methodology used is that of a tutored class, made up of a group of seven student painters plus an artist who will establish the viewpoints and graphically guide the various works. The classes last for three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. At the midday break and in the evening, the emphasis will be on technique, method and application adapted to the style of each participant in order to make the most of the available time and peaceful location of Sant Martí Vell.
All participating artists are students or members of Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc, who already enjoy a certain level of pictorial representation and whom are provided the opportunity to intensively develop the experience of personal pursuit in the field of landscape representation. In this regard, the role of master painter connects with the classic method of learning, where the is student led, corrected and tutored through particular cases, evaluating both the process involved in the development of the artwork and its outcome.
The painting technique used will be oil on canvas and/or cardboard. The reason for choosing this technique is not only its long tradition, which is established as the technique generally used by ordinary artists past and present, but also for its malleability and the ability to be retouched, which give it very suitable properties for learning and the visual exploration for studying landscape painting such as proposed here.
At the end of the day, there will be a session of constructive criticism on the work done, so it would be altogether desirable to have for the time of the stay a space suitable for displaying and discussing the paintings made.
This last point is extremely interesting because it allows comparing the fruits of person pursuit against the critical view of other participants who have also worked on similar and nearby scenes. So the variety of results on closely-related scenes helps stimulate the creative and self-critical skills of the workshop participants.

The project takes place over three days: Friday 16, Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 September 2016.

On the first day, it is planned to arrive at the site and for the rest of the morning settle on the locations of possible “scenes” to represent in order to then realize, in morning and afternoon sessions of three hours from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning inclusive, the chosen viewpoints

This project is a collaboration between Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc and the The Nando Peretti Foundation, Delegació a Catalunya. By working together, new ways are sought to value both the dedication and the richness provided by the practice of painting outdoors and, at the same time, stimulating the creation of various forms for understanding and approaching the village of Sant Martí Vell.

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