Ever struggle with finding a cohesive and dynamic composition in your paintings? Ever get lost spending too much time working on the tiny details at the expense of the big, fundamental relationships in your painting? Ever feel like that shape in your painting just doesn't look right? Then this class is for you! At its essence, painting is the act of assembling colored shapes into a visually interesting arrangement. This is true if you are an abstract painter or a realist painter. In this workshop students will learn how to break down complicated visual information into powerful, yet simple shapes. They will do this through a specific technique that combines painting and collage. In this class we’ll focus on developing a rigorous relationship towards the shapes we can observe, and turning those shapes into powerful pictorial images. Each class will be structured around a specific exercise and students will be asked to finish each exercise in class or as homework before moving onto the next. We will examine artists who have used collage elements effectively in their work as examples of how to incorporate this technique into your individual practices. No painting experience required. SUPPLY LIST: -Paint: any fast drying paint such as acrylic, gouache, flashe, or casein will work. Colors: -Black -White -Scale grays (optional) -Cadmium red -Alizarin crimson/ magenta -Violet -Cadmium orange -Cadmium yellow -Yellow ochre -Ultramarine blue -Viridian green -Paper for painting (a pad of arches oil paper or a heavy duty watercolor will work great) -Scissors -A big paint brush -A smaller paint brush for applying the glue -Palette knife -Palette -Mod Podge or another fast drying Glue -a straight edge