Joellyn Duesberry will teach a plein air work shop at her Greenwood Village Farm this summer through the Art Students League of Denver. Course title: “Abstraction Masquerading as Landscape Painting” June 10th – June 15th

Nude in the Garden 16″ x 20″

oil on linen

I propose a workshop of 5-6 days painting outdoors to attempt awakening 8-10 experienced students to the discoveries in oil paint I made with the painter Richard Diebenkorn in 1986. Either in my extensive Greenwood Village garden, or in Chatfield in early June, I will ask students to “stalk” a subject with geometric underpinnings in the landscape: a corner, a small grouping or color event, or an architectonic feature contiguous with land, plants, or vistas.  Although anyone can bring larger or smaller supports, I will request students to bring 3 canvases no smaller than 30 x 24 inches. At frequent intervals I will visit each student with pad and charcoal to draw the abstract dynamics they have perceived and developed in their painting exercise.  I want this method to encourage the maintenance of tension between the abstract and real of their plein air efforts for as long as possible before finishing a painting, as well as to create a dynamic balance between the geometry on the picture surface and geometry in depth, avoiding illusion as much as possible in order to gain a sense of the abstract in nature.

I hope ideas will flow to us all from this open-ended process.