Cynthia Peterson considers herself to be “a contemporary realist whose roots are in a classical tradition.” Much of her work consists of still-life constructions built around the way surfaces play with color and light. Peterson uses glass and other intriguing surfaces because of the way they reflect and distort shapes; the resulting images being both realistic and abstract. She uses watercolor because it allows her to achieve greater color luminosity in the illusion of transparent and reflective surfaces. “I have been working with glass as a muse for a number of years. I am very attracted to the qualities of transparency for color luminosity and refraction for the abstract passages it can reveal. My still-life paintings use various glass objects chosen for their shape, color, clarity, and pattern. Different light sources are used to manipulate color, temperature, and reflections on the shiny surface. This allows me to push color in a very dramatic and oftentimes very abstract manner. It is this combination of reality and abstract that inspires my work.”
Workshop Description:
This 1-day workshop will on capturing the structure and expressive quality of a face. Discussion of the structure of the face with examples of various artists’ portraits showing different approaches. Cynthia will demonstrate drawing the structure of the face with oil, then applying color. Students will first do a series of short studies of different angles with a limited palette in both drawing & painting in order to see and capture the essence of the portrait. Finally, there will be long pose for a better exploration of the portrait. The objective is to learn to quickly see and respond to the uniqueness of each facial angle & expression.
