Ladders and easels and stools, oh my! - teaching oil painting - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, April, 2002 by Geri Greenman

My oil-painting class is considered an intermediate class, with students who have had Art Introduction I and II, and interested seniors who may not have had time to fit art into their schedules. In this particular class, both types of students were mature, interested and glad they took the class.

With high-school students, I prefer oils to acrylics for a number of reasons. Once students understand their responsibility in cleanup and storage, oils are much easier to learn. The medium of the Masters, oil dries slowly so that the paint is still able to be blended and moved when the kids are ready to make changes. There is also a depth of color with oils that is rich and resonant, and oils can be used in many ways to create a washy appearance or thick impasto.

My painters are also responsible for an 80-word vocabulary list, so that they can use the terminology that is part of the language of painters. This group had just finished their first oil painting, which was experimental and exciting. They did an excellent job and were ready for a still life. They knew how to clean up, set up their palettes and, most having had a drawing or an art introduction class, were adept at composition.

Their third assignment was going to be still-life oriented; I wanted to use mundane objects that no one would consider artistic or beautiful. I had hopes that they, with their newfound painting skills, could make these utilitarian items so lovely with paint, that the students would be sold on the power of the visual.

I set up a ladder, an easel and one of their desk stools. I put white roll paper on the walls in a corner of the room and placed a light source on the floor so that the shadows would be dramatic. They sketched the still life from several directions and vantage points; then I encouraged them to draw with paint.

I had seen a show in New York that included an artist's studio, along with a sketchbook of paintings. I was so intrigued by the painted sketchbook, I personally adopted this practice and now encourage my students to interact with their painted subject matter in terms of shape and color as opposed to flat, skinny line. My own sketchbook is in its infancy, but I may have instilled the idea into some of my younger, serious art-school-bound students, and it's a great idea.

Once the class had a suitable composition of the three objects, the students applied gesso onto donated canvas boards that had been previously painted on. Once gessoed, students tinted the surface ground with a dead color, like brownish-green. This tint eliminated the psychologically intimidating white of the canvas, and forced the students to put enough paint on the surface to cover that rather ugly color.

The kids started painting--as always, with musical accompaniment--and the first period flew by. Within a few weeks, the paintings were finished, and they are just wonderful. All are different colors--unladder-like Hues--that draw us in for a closer look. While some students had to contend with previously laid-in textures on the used canvases, all successfully incorporated the textures in their own compositions.

I am pleased with all of the students, especially those who were able to engage the background with the unique shadows that were formed by the low position of the light. These paintings are so dramatic that they are almost intimidating!

We always talk about the confusion some student artists have with reflection and shadow; these paintings needed both. The filed floor had reflections, while the walls were treated with looming shadows. Ladders and easels and stools, oh my!

Geri Greenman is head of the art department at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Ill., and is a Contributing Editor for Arts & Activities.