Over the course of the academic year, students create three paintings per trimester, progressing thematically in subject matter, the figure, composition & style.

Each trimester focuses on Drawing in the first month, the Monochrome Underpainting in the second month and the Completed Colour Painting in the third month, following the traditional stages of the Mischtechnik, a historical painting technique of the Old Masters.

Full-time students create 9 ‘minor’ Diploma Paintings over the course of the first year (three per trimester) and 3 ‘major’ Diploma Paintings over the course of the second year, following thematic studies in The Humanist Style (the ‘Western’ Canon of Classical Greek & Renaissance Art) in the Fall Trimester, The Hieratic Style (the ‘Eastern’ Canon of Ancient, Islamic & Hindu-Buddhist Art) in the Winter Trimester, and Combining the Humanist & Hieratic Styles in contemporary Visionary Artin the Spring Trimester.

These thematic Full-time courses are open to all students registered that trimester. Single Trimester students leave with 3 finished paintings on the given theme for that trimester.

Students also practice their skills on smaller works through Two-week Intensives and Special Part-time courses with Guest Lecturers.

During this time, select students may also work in the Master’s Studio to make paintings based on Ernst Fuchs’ designs.

Dates

• 2013
September 16 – School begins
September 16 – Dec 6 – Fall trimester (12 weeks)
October 14th – 25th – 2 week intensive with David Heskin & Aloria Weaver
December 7 – January 5 – Christmas break (4 weeks)

• 2014
January 7 – March 21 – Winter trimester (11 weeks)
February 24th – 28th – 5 day intensive with Timea Tallian
March 22 – April 6- Spring break (2 weeks)
April 7 – June 13 – Spring trimester (10 weeks)
June 9th – 13th – 5 day intensive with Amanda Sage
June 13 – School ends

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Curriculum

• Fall Trimester theme – The Humanist Style: The ‘Western’ Canon of Classical Greek & Renaissance Art

• Winter Trimester theme – The Hieratic Style: The ‘Eastern’ Canon of Ancient, Islamic & Hindu-Buddhist Art

• Spring Trimester theme – Combining Humanist & Hieratic Styles in Contemporary Visionary Art

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Fall Trimester

September 16, 2013 – Dec 6, 2013

Theme: The Humanist Style: The ‘Western’ Canon of Classical Greek & Renaissance Art

Instructors: Laurence Caruana, David Heskin, Aloria Weaver

Guest lecturers: Kuba Ambrose, Vera Aichinger, De Es Schwertberger, Otto Rapp, Emma Watkinson

Fall – Full-time courses

AF.1

THE FIGURE I – Western Humanist Style

Instructors: David Heskin, Aloria Weaver and Laurence Caruana.
• Rendering figures in the Western Humanist style of Classical Greek & Renaissance Art
• Rendering from Casts in class and Statues in museums (three times per week)
• Rendering from the live model (two times per week)
• Refining the life drawing, through knowledge of the statue and cast drawings, to achieve stylization, harmony and beauty
• Special topics: Artistic anatomy, proportion, the pose (symmetry, contrapposto movement)
• Rendering drapery, animals, plants and minerals
• Part I – Rendering in dark pencil on a white ground
• Part II – Rendering in dark pencil plus white brush on a tinted ground
• Part III – Quick colour rendering in gouache, watercolour or oil wash

AF.2

THE SACRED CODES OF ART: A HISTORY OF MYTHS, SYMBOLS AND STYLES
– PART I – The Western Humanist Tradition, from Classical Greek and Renaissance culture to Modernism

Instructors: Laurence Caruana, David Heskin and Aloria Weaver; Guest lecturer: Emma Watkinson
• Introduction to the Humanist and Hieratic styles
• Archaic Greek to Hellenistic Greek art
• From the Italian Renaissance to Mannerism
• The Academic tradition and individual genius
• From Neo-Classicism to Modernism (with emphasis on Vienna’s Jungendstil and Secession movements)
• Surrealism, Fantastic Realism and Visionary art

Special two week Fall Intensive

 

• David Heskin & Aloria Weaver – In Quest of the Inner Image •
Dates: October 14th – 25th 2013

– Evoking Subject Matter for Painting through Visualization, Active Imagination and Visionary Healing Modalities – to clear the path to creative freedom, inspiration and the emergence of inner visions. With special Workshops by Kuba Ambrose & Vera Aichinger.

Fall – Part-time courses

 

Part I – DRAWING: To decide on the subject matter of the paintings and draw their compositions while integrating figures, armature, sacred geometry and perspective.

AF.01

COMPOSITION – Western Dynamic Composition

Instructors: Laurence Caruana and Aloria Weaver; Guest lecturer: Emma Watkinson
• Visible and invisible lines
• The bounding shape: static vs. dynamic rectangles
• The armature (trama or charpente): the harmonic division of space in the West
• Symmetrical vs. dynamic composition
• The circle and square as hieratic; the golden rectangle as humanist
• Drawing curves

AF.02

SACRED GEOMETRY – Classical Greek Harmony

Instructor: David Heskin and Aloria Weaver; Guest lecturer: Emma Watkinson
• Applying sacred geometry to the composition
• The squared circle, vesica piscis
• Golden proportion
• The 5 Platonic Solids
• Harmonic intervals
• The flower of life
• Geometric forms in Nature

AF.03

PERSPECTIVE AND SHADOWS – Western Rectilinear Perspective

Instructors: David Heskin and Laurence Caruana; Guest lecturer: Emma Watkinson
• Applying a perspectival grid and projective shadows to the composition
• Cartesian rectilinear perspective: one, two, and three vanishing points
• Non-Cartesian rectilinear perspective: zero, four and infinite vanishing points
• Other systems of perspective: oblique, aerial, foreshortening
• The limits of perspective: point-source, viewing angle and distortion
• Circles and squares: curvilinear vs rectilinear perspective
• Combining multiple systems of perspective harmoniously
• Projective geometry and shadow-making

Part II – MONOCHROME UNDERPAINTING: To prepare the panels and painting media, then transfer the drawings. To complete the monochrome underpaintings, based on studies of volume, light & shadow. To begin the first glazes of the apprenticeship paintings.

AF.04

INTRODUCTION TO THE MISCHTECHNIK

Instructors: David Heskin, Aloria Weaver and Laurence Caruana
• Mixing the media for the apprenticeship painting (egg tempera, oleo-varnish medium, etc)
• Understanding binding media – oil, varnish, egg emulsions etc
• Controlling the viscosity of glazes
• Understanding the optical properties of water-based whites (egg tempera and casein) through stippling (Stumpfen), hatching and cross-hatching (Strichtechniken)
• Understanding colour pigments – natural earths, artificial pigments, minerals and dyes
• The history and chemistry of colour pigments
• The Mischtechnik – its history and variations

AF.05

VOLUME, LIGHT & SHADOW

Instructor: Laurence Caruana
• Monochrome underpainting for the apprenticeship painting
• Strong contrast vs. colour (disegno vs colore)
• Translating greys to colour values
• Luminescent effects (haloes, transparencies)
• Light in shadow (the penumbra, solarized shadows)
• Increasing the volume of a face or figure
• Approaching the figure in multiple dimensions

Part III – COMPLETED COLOUR PAINTING: To gradually build up the paintings in alternating layers of white egg tempera and colour glazes, until unified and complete.

AF.06

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISCHTECHNIK

Instructors: David Heskin, Aloria Weaver and Laurence Caruana
• Building up the apprenticeship painting in alternating glazes of white egg tempera and oleo-resinous colours
• Understanding Optical Greys and the interaction of colour glazes
• Preferred pigments for glazing: lakes, dyes and the unique properties of historical pigments
• Opaque lights and translucent shadows

AF.07

COLOUR

Instructors: Laurence Caruana, David Heskin and Aloria Weaver
• Colour wheels or systems
• The optical mixing of colours through layered glazing and through laying colours side-by-side
• Moving through the spectrum: saturated colour and ‘colour space’
• Colour harmonics
• The role of semi-neutrals and the complimentary colour hierarchy
• Fluorescent colour (black light) on a black ground
• Colour in relation to light, sound, movement and energy

Fall – Special Part-time Courses:

 

BOGOMIL’S UNIVERSE
INSPIRATIONAL DRAWING TECHNIQUES
Guest lecturer: Otto Rapp

• Pattern transfer, scumbling, frottage, impressing, erasing
• Doodling and decalcomania to evoke inner images and inspire new ways of drawing
• A tour of the artist’s studio

 

THE ART OF PORTRAITURE
Guest lecturer: Michael Fuchs

• The sight-size method for portraiture
• Light and shadow on the figure
• A tour of the artist’s studio

 

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Winter Trimester

January 7, 2014 – March 21, 2014

Theme: The Hieratic Style: The ‘Eastern’ Canon of Ancient, Islamic & Hindu-Buddhist Art

Instructors: Laurence Caruana, Timea Tallian, Benedetto Fellin

Winter – Full-time courses

AW.1

RENDERING THE FIGURE II – Ancient & Eastern Hieratic Styles

Instructors: Laurence Caruana and Timea Tallian
• Drawing from the live model (two times per week)
• Rendering Hieratic figures from Casts and Statues in museums (once per week)
• Rendering figures in the Ancient & Eastern Hieratic styles of Egypt, India, Tibet etc.
• Refining the life drawing, through knowledge of the statue and cast drawings, to achieve stylization, harmony and beauty
• Special topics: Artistic anatomy, proportion, the pose (symmetry, contrapposto movement)
• Rendering drapery, animals, plants and minerals
• Part I – Rendering in dark pencil on a white ground
• Part II – Rendering in dark pencil plus white brush on a tinted ground
• Part III – Quick colour rendering in gouache, watercolour or oil wash

AW.2

THE SACRED CODES OF ART: A HISTORY OF MYTHS, SYMBOLS AND STYLES

– PART II – The Hieratic Tradition: Ancient, Islamic & Hindu-Buddhist Art

Instructors: Laurence Caruana and Timea Tallian
• Introduction to the Humanist and Hieratic styles
• Paleolithic, Neolithic and Tribal Art: The Era of the Goddess
• Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Minoan art
• Islamic Art
• Hinduism in India and elsewhere
• Buddhism in Tibet and elsewhere

Winter Intensives

• Kuba Ambrose & Vera Atlantia – ‘Spark in the Void’
 •
Dates: February 3rd – 7th 2014

– Life as a living canvas, harmonizing light & shadow through chanting, meditation, drawing in chiarascuro, and painting warm & cold in oils.

 

• Timea Tallian – ‘Thangka Painting’
 •
Dates: February 10th – 14th 2014

– Creating a Thangka Painting from a traced design and mixing your own colours following the traditional methods.

Winter – Part-time courses

Part I – DRAWING: To decide on the subject matter of the paintings and draw their compositions while integrating figures, armature, sacred geometry and perspective.

AW.01

COMPOSITION – Hieratic Armature & Symmetry

Instructors: Laurence Caruana and Timea Tallian
• Visible and invisible lines
• The bounding shape: static vs. dynamic rectangles
• The armature (trama or charpente): the harmonic division of space in Eastern art
• Symmetrical vs. dynamic composition
• The circle and square as hieratic; the golden rectangle as humanist
• Drawing curves

AW.02

SACRED GEOMETRY – Ancient & Eastern models

Instructors: Laurence Caruana and Timea Tallian
• Applying sacred geometry to the composition
• Islamic Geometry as the foundation to European Geometry (Gothic & Renaissance)
• The geometry of ornament

AW.03

PERSPECTIVE – Ancient & Eastern models

Instructors: Laurence Caruana and Timea Tallian
• Eastern systems of perspective
• Circles and squares: curvilinear vs rectilinear perspective
• Combining multiple systems of perspective harmoniously

Part II – MONOCHROME UNDERPAINTING: To prepare the panels and painting media, then transfer the drawings. To complete the monochrome underpaintings, based on studies of volume, light & shadow. To begin the first glazes of the apprenticeship paintings.

AW.04

INTRODUCTION TO THE GLAZING TECHNIQUE

Instructors: Timea Tallian and Laurence Caruana
• Mixing the media for the apprenticeship painting (oil medium, etc)
• Understanding binding media – oil, varnish etc
• Controlling the viscosity of glazes
• Developing a Glazing Technique using alternating layers of led white and oil colour glazes
• Understanding the optical properties of oil-based whites through stippling (Stupfen), hatching and cross-hatching (Strichtechniken)
• Understanding colour pigments – natural earths, artificial pigments, minerals and dyes
• The history and chemistry of colour pigments
• The Mischtechnik – its history and variations

AW.05

VOLUME, LIGHT & SHADOW

Instructor: Timea Tallian and Laurence Caruana
• Monochrome underpainting for the apprenticeship painting
• Strong contrast vs. colour (disegno vs colore)
• Translating greys to colour values
• Luminescent effects (haloes, transparencies)
• Light in shadow (the penumbra, solarized shadows)
• Increasing the volume of a face or figure
• Approaching the figure in multiple dimensions

Part III – COMPLETED COLOUR PAINTING: To gradually build up the paintings in alternating layers of white egg tempera and colour glazes, until unified and complete.

AW.06

DEVELOPMENT OF THE GLAZING TECHNIQUE

Instructors: Timea Tallian and Benedetto Fellin
• Building up the apprenticeship painting in alternating layers of led white and oil colour glazes
• Understanding Optical Greys and the interaction of colour glazes
• Preferred pigments for glazing: lakes, dyes and the unique properties of historical pigments
• Opaque lights and translucent shadows

AW.07

COLOUR

Instructors: Timea Tallian and Benedetto Fellin
• Colour wheels or systems
• The optical mixing of colours through layered glazing and through laying colours side-by-side
• Moving through the spectrum: saturated colour and ‘colour space’
• Colour harmonics
• The role of semi-neutrals and the complimentary colour hierarchy
• Fluorescent colour (black light) on a black ground
• Colour in relation to light, sound, movement and energy

AW.08

GILDING

Instructor: Timea Tallian
• Preparing the ground (assiette) for gilding
• Applying gold leaf (dorure) and embossing (gaufrage)
• Polishing

 

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Spring Trimester

April 7, 2014 – June 13, 2014

Theme: Combining the Humanist & Hieratic Styles in contemporary Visionary Art

Instructors: Laurence Caruana, Daniel Mirante, Kuba Ambrose,

Intensive teacher: Amanda Sage

Guest lecturers: Android Jones, Emma Watkinson

Spring – Full-time courses

AS.1

THE FIGURE III – Combining Humanist & Hieratic Styles

Instructors: Daniel Mirante, Kuba Ambrose and Laurence Caruana
• Rendering figures in a combination of Humanist & Hieratic styles
• Rendering figures from Casts in class and Statues in museums (three times per week)
• Drawing from the live model (two times per week)
• Refining the life drawing, through knowledge of the statue and cast drawings, to achieve stylization, harmony and beauty
• Special topics: Artistic anatomy, proportion, the pose (symmetry, contrapposto movement)
• Rendering drapery, animals, plants and minerals
• Part I – Rendering in dark pencil on a white ground
• Part II – Rendering in dark pencil plus white brush on a tinted ground
• Part III – Quick colour rendering in gouache, watercolour or oil wash

AS.2

THE SACRED CODES OF ART: A HISTORY OF MYTHS, SYMBOLS AND STYLES

- PART III – Cross-cultural Influences East and West
Instructors: Laurence Caruana, Daniel Mirante and Kuba Ambrose; Guest lecturer: Emma Watkinson
• Introduction to the Humanist and Hieratic styles
• Cross-cultural influences, east and west
• Mayan and Aztec art
• Visionaries throughout history – Bosch, Blake, Delville, Moreau etc.
• The Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolists
• Surrealism and Fantastic Realism
• Contemporary Visionary Art

Spring Intensive

• Amanda Sage – Free Your Expression •
Painting Live and Collaboration

Dates: May 26th – June 6th 2014

– Learning how to express your energy through line, colour and form, then participating in a Live Painting event.
– Plus: presentations on the commercial side of art: exhibiting, promoting and selling your work.

Spring – Part-time courses

Part I – DRAWING: To decide on the subject matter of the paintings and draw their compositions while integrating figures, armature, sacred geometry and perspective.

AS.01

COMPOSITION – East and West

Instructors: Laurence Caruana, Daniel Mirante and Kuba Ambrose
• Visible and invisible lines
•
The bounding shape: static vs. dynamic rectangles
• The armature (trama or charpente): the harmonic division of space throughout art history
• Symmetrical vs. dynamic composition
• The circle and square as hieratic; the golden rectangle as humanist
• Drawing curves

AS.02

SACRED GEOMETRY – East and West

Instructor: Laurence Caruana, Daniel Mirante and Kuba Ambrose
• Applying sacred geometry to the composition
• Golden proportion
• Harmonic intervals
• The flower of life
• Geometric forms in Nature

AS.03

PERSPECTIVE AND SHADOWS – East and West

Instructors: Kuba Ambrose, Daniel Mirante and Laurence Caruana
• Comparing Eastern and Western perspective
• Combining multiple systems of perspective harmoniously
• Projective geometry and shadow-making

Part II – MONOCHROME UNDERPAINTING: To prepare the panels and painting media, then transfer the drawings. To complete the monochrome underpaintings, based on studies of volume, light & shadow. To begin the first glazes of the apprenticeship paintings.

AS.04

INTRODUCTION TO THE MISCHTECHNIK

Instructors: Kuba Ambrose, Daniel Mirante and Laurence Caruana
• Mixing the media for the apprenticeship painting (egg tempera, oleo-varnish medium, etc)
• Understanding binding media – oil, varnish, egg emulsions etc
• Controlling the viscosity of glazes
• Understanding the optical properties of water-based whites (egg tempera and casein) through stippling (Stumpfen), hatching and cross-hatching (Strichtechniken)
• Understanding colour pigments – natural earths, artificial pigments, minerals and dyes
• The history and chemistry of colour pigments
• The Mischtechnik – its history and variations

AS.05

VOLUME, LIGHT & SHADOW

Instructor: Laurence Caruana
• Monochrome underpainting for the apprenticeship painting
• Strong contrast vs. colour (disegno vs colore)
• Translating greys to colour values
• Luminescent effects (haloes, transparencies)
• Light in shadow (the penumbra, solarized shadows)
• Increasing the volume of a face or figure
• Approaching the figure in multiple dimensions

Part III – COMPLETED COLOUR PAINTING: To gradually build up the paintings in alternating layers of white egg tempera and colour glazes, until unified and complete.

AS.06

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISCHTECHNIK

Instructors: Daniel Mirante, Kuba Ambrose and Laurence Caruana
• Building up the apprenticeship painting in alternating glazes of white egg tempera and oleo-resinous colours
• Understanding Optical Greys and the interaction of colour glazes
• Preferred pigments for glazing: lakes, dyes and the unique properties of historical pigments
• Opaque lights and translucent shadows

AS.07

COLOUR

Instructors: Laurence Caruana, Daniel Mirante and Kuba Ambrose
• Colour wheels or systems
• The optical mixing of colours through layered glazing and through laying colours side-by-side
• Moving through the spectrum: saturated colour and ‘colour space’
• Colour harmonics
• The role of semi-neutrals and the complimentary colour hierarchy
• Fluorescent colour (black light) on a black ground
• Colour in relation to light, sound, movement and energy

Special Lectures:

ANDROID JONES – THE ART OF PROMOTION
• Exhibiting, promoting and selling your work – the commercial side of art
• Painting as a profession


EMMA WATKINSON – THE KABBALA
• An exploration of all facets of the Kabbala in art and history

 

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Course Codes:

• The prefix A indicates an Apprenticeship level course while the prefix J indicates a Journeyman level course
• The additional prefix F. or W. or S. indicates whether it is a Fall, Winter or Spring trimester course
• The suffix .1 or .2 or .3 indicates a Full-time trimester course, held 3 – 5 times per week for all 3 months
• The suffix .01 or .02 or .03 etc. indicates a Part-time trimester course, held 1 – 3 times per week, for 1 – 3 months of a given trimester
• Example: AF.1 is an Apprentice level course in the Fall trimester that is Full-time (held 3 – 5 times per week for all 3 months); AS.04 is an Apprentice level course in the Spring trimester that is Part-time (held 1 – 3 times per week, for 1 – 3 months of a given trimester).