Description:
Bring your watercolors, acrylic or oil paint for this explorative workshop at Cura Contemporary and Uvas Reservoir County Park! This course will focus on freeing you up to create, tapping into the childlike creativity that is too often lost. In this workshop students will focus on the process rather than the result, using plein air as a tool to help aid in this. Whether you are already a plein air painter or not, there is no better teacher for forcing artists to capture color, light, and composition quickly than working outdoors. This course is open to anyone but ideal for artists who have been painting for a while and want to loosen up their style or remove creative blocks.
Day one will be spent in the classroom engaging in a series of exercises focused on painting fast and large. The aim of the exercise will be to loosen up and quickly form visual ideas. Day two will begin by painting outdoors in the landscape at the Uvas Reservoir County Park, and we will incorporate the exercises from the previous day. At the end of the day we will return to the classroom for an uplifting discussion about the work created.
*All participants of the workshop receive 10% off at our restaurant Véra. Discount can only be applied on day of workshop (excludes alcohol).
When: Saturday June 7th, 2025 + Sunday Jun 8th, 2025 from 10 AM to 5 PM each day.
Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Early Bird Rate: $350
*Register by May 21st, 2025 to take advantage of this discount.
Price after May 21: $400
Location: Cura Contemporary in the Edes Building | 17395 Monterey Road, Morgan Hill CA, 95037 + Uvas Reservoir County Park
Materials to Bring:
- Favorite sketchbook and pencils/pens
- French Easel - unless you prefer putting your canvases directly on the ground, I do that for large canvases!
Painting Tools:
- Palette for mixing paint (Comes with easel)
- Large Palette knives (for acrylic or oil) or paint brushes
- Liquitex No. 10 and Liquitex No. 4 are my two favorite sizes. Should have at least one around this size, or if preferred a large paint brush (at least one that is house painting size).
- If using brushes then a paint thinner such as odorless mineral spirits may be needed (if using oils). When using palette knives I do not use any thinner.
Painting Surfaces:
- Stretched Canvas - some 12x16 or smaller for warmup and then 3-5 larger canvases. 30x40 minimum, but can go larger! (For the large canvases recommend going to the nearest Blick store to save on shipping cost).
- Watercolor - If using watercolor then large sheets of watercolor paper can be used.
Paint:
I recommend primary colors, it can help to have a cool and warm of each
color. I use oil paint, but you can use oil, acrylic, or watercolor. Below is my list of colors, you do not need all these but this is what I use. Tubes should be 150 ml tubes( if using acrylic or oil) . Feel free to purchase the cheaper “Hue” versions to save cost. I have also includedthe recommended number of tubes.
Colors below can be found in watercolor, acrylic, and oil:
o Titanium White - 4 tubes
o Cadmium Lemon Yellow - 1 tube
o Cadmium Yellow Light - 2 tubes
o Cadmium Red Light - 1 tube
o Alizarin Crimson - 1 tube
o Ultramarine Blue - 2 tubes
o Cerulean Blue - 1 tube
Location: Cura Contemporary in the Edes Building | 17395 Monterey Road, Morgan Hill CA, 95037 + Uvas Reservoir County Park
Artist's Bio: Nathanael Gray works en plein air, creating large scale impasto paintings. His use of abstraction, mark making, and color takes influence from impressionism, post impressionism, and abstract expressionism. Nathanael has become known for his spontaneous interpretation of the California coast and mountains, often completing paintings in just over an hour. His work is featured at Kay Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, NM, where he shows a mix of California and Southwest paintings. In September 2023 he had an exhibition with sculpture artist Kevin Box titled Nature’s Architecture. His work is also represented at Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, CA where he has been featured in multiple group exhibitions and had three solo exhibitions: A Year in Tahoe, 2020, I Only Went Out for a Walk, 2021, and From the Delta to the Sea, 2022.
Refunds: We know plans change! For a full refund, please contact the gallery at least 2 weeks before the workshop. Credit card processing fees are nonrefundable.
Questions: Please contact sydnie@curacontemporary.com
