Adding Figures into your Plein Air Painting, with George Van Hook
$235 for two days or $130 for one day
Join George Van Hook for a 2-day plein air workshop in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of central NY. He returns there every year to capture the big-sky vista of rolling countryside overlooking many of the lakes. George, a nationally recognized artist who has won numerous Plein Air competitions and awards for his oils and watercolors. George stresses alla prima painting using a loose and fast approach to capture the landscape in the first try. He will teach how to add that “figure” into a scene.
George Van Hook’s paintings have been exhibited for over 40 years throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Van Hook’s painterly style follows in the tradition of the impressionists. Inspired by a love of nature fostered by long hours painting “en plein air,” Van Hook paints with gusto and passion, bringing a freshness and immediacy to the rural scenes where he lives in upstate New York. His fly fishing paintings, painted on location on well-known trout streams, are sought after by collectors.
Van Hook is also a noted figurative artist who paints people engaged in an outdoor activity or thoughtfully posed in a sunlit interior. George has updated that theme with depictions of young women in garden settings who seem lost in thought or amused by children at play; or outfitted men casting their lines in a trout stream. His paintings display the Impressionist interest in color, light, and rich paint, yet the figures and settings are decidedly contemporary.
Workshop includes live demos and individual attention. Please bring your own plein air equipment, supports, and media (oil, pastel, watercolor, acrylic), as well as your own lunch. We will begin each day with a demo by the artist. At that time, he will discuss composition, laying out the palette, proper use of materials and all other aspects of plein air painting. We will then break up into groups and paint individually. He will then provide individual instruction helping solve the issues for each artist.
A materials list will be provided by the Gallery at sign up. Currently, the exact Canandaigua or location is to be determined.