Introduction
Experience plein air landscape painting in beautiful Tuscany. This workshop challenges painters of all levels to see with “new eyes.”
Techniques
Plein air Painting in Tuscany will teach comprehensive techniques for depicting natural and architectural landscape elements. Subjects of study include light, value, atmosphere, depth, value key, value grouping, terrain, water, trees, sky, architecture, edges, brushstroke, and mark-making. Each lesson will begin with a painting demonstration followed by group painting and individual instruction.
Teaching Method
Joe will teach how to build a painting in clear and relatable terms. He uses enlightening descriptions and examples to make painting concepts tangible. In fact, his students call them “Joe-isms,” which means new ways of seeing that make the lessons eye opening, understandable, practical, succinct and on point. Finally, you will learn the essentials of landscape thrugh the secrets of experience. So, variety of instruction and interaction opportunities are planned including critiques, demonstrations, lectures, and mini-lessons as needed.
Medium
This plein air painting workshop is for oil or acrylic painters. Artists of other media are welcome.
Level
Plein air painting is unpredictable and each day will present new challenges and opportunities. Joe teaches to the needs of the group and the occasion, therefore from beginners to advanced level painters may challenge their ways of seeing and understanding landscape painting. Only a positive attitude is required.
Location
The group will stay at an historical Villa in the hills of the Tuscan countryside. The programme includes painting on site and several excursions to visit beauty spots and historical art towns. LAST AVAILABILITY: single room with shared bath
Artist Statement
Joseph Lombardo is inspired by color, light, and landscape. He controls his palette, value, vibrancy, and temperature to create atmospheric scenes with a sense of time and place. Lombardo paints quickly without fuss using the direct, also known as alla prima, painting technique. Each work is an improvisational performance where he works on-site to finish the painting in one session.
First changes in weather and light, then the arrival of curious onlookers and time itself all present challenges. But pressure can yield unexpected results and each performance is recorded in fresh and energetic brushstrokes that convey what was seen and experienced on location. Lombardo paints from general to specific and from carefree to careful. Lombardo uses rapid and expressive mark-making to create an interesting and dynamic paint surface while at the same time evoking the space, atmosphere, and mood of a landscape. He works between the flat surface of the painting and the great depth seen in a landscape. The work is both a painting, made on a flat surface with brushstrokes of color, and simultaneously a picture with space and light.
Bio
Joseph Lombardo is an accomplished landscape painter and painting instructor. He received a MFA in painting from Bowling Green State University and studied landscape painting at the Burren College of Art in Ireland. Lombardo is a two-time ‘Best in Show’ winner at the Ohio Plein Air Competition. He has served as Artist In Residence at Buffalo National River, Hot Springs National Park, and at the Glen Arbor Art Association. Lombardo teaches painting workshops internationally and is represented by Art Access Gallery in Columbus, Ohio.
