Dutch artists of the 17th c. were enamored with still life painting. Maybe it was new trade routes with far off lands that brought alluring new foods and magical objects into their lives. Or a fascination for the natural world, material pleasures and a chance for sly social commentary, these artists now had subjects for deeper study of perspective, light and shadow; the still life became a very popular form of painting: lay out objects, fruit and flowers, watch light and time move across them and voilá, a subject is born!

In this brand new workshop we’ll observe the ordinary and paint the extraordinary. We’ll play with color and study composition and texture and discover how to translate light and shadow using the watercolors of LDBA. We’ll make and remake a beautiful composition to observe and practice how to get the right consistency of watercolor, classic techniques and our own individual mark making with brush and pencil.

In addition to Deborah’s table scape, we ask each of LDBA’s staff and you(!) to bring one or two things to add to our collaborative composition. It can be a flower or fall apple, a favorite memento, an interesting household object, a bone or feather you found, something meaningful to you or a simple found object.

No experience necessary and all materials provided!

Deborah Stein lives, paints and writes in NYC and the Embudo Valley in New Mexico. She teaches visual narrative workshops, runs twice a year artist residencies. She studied the passing on of traditional arts with a toymaker family in Northern India, worked with NYC school kids as a museum educator at the Museum of Arts & Design and has traveled and taught alternative arts education workshops about seeing and translating the world in new ways for adults and children for a lifetime. 

Saturday 10/12
10am -1 pm
Class limit: 10

La Petite Ecole
717 Canyon Road Unit C
Santa Fe, NM 87501