Full course description
Plein Air Painting
Sundays, 9/8-9/22/2024, 10:00-1:00pm
Location: Stow Lake, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Instructor: Alexandra Bailliere
Spend your autumn Sundays learning how to paint en plein air in our beautiful city by the bay! In this fun, outdoor class, we will paint from nature and what we see from observation, focusing on color, light and composition. Class participants may use their preferred art medium (pastels, oil paint, acrylic, gouache, pastel, pencil, watercolor), but all instructor demos will be in oil and/or gouache paints. This fall, we will spend three Sunday mornings painting at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. In our final session, guest artist Mittie Cuetara, will join us.
Materials List:
- A couple good pencils, large eraser, and pencil sharpener
- A viewfinder, these are very useful to have. I recommend making a couple before we start on day 1.
- Palette Paper for oils, gouache and acrylics,
- A pan, plastic palette or dish for watercolors
- Paper towels or Rags
- Palette knife, Any size is good I recommend the metal ones, not plastic
- Varying brushes but at least a few bristle and a few soft. At least one brush 1 inch in diameter. Make sure you at least have 1 Round and 1 Filbert brush.
- Colors: (at the very least have 1 Red, 1 Blue , 1 Yellow and White)
- Highly Recommended: Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Pthalo Blue, Titanium White, Indian Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Sap Green, raw umber
- Secondary Colors that are very helpful: Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Lemon, Cobalt Blue, Chromium Oxide, Chromatic Black, Napthol Red, Pthalo Green, Raw Sienna
- Canvas boards of any size, but not bigger than you can carry! I recommend 5x7 inch, 8x10 inch, 9x12 inch‚ 6x6 inch sizes as they are easier to cart around. Blick often has great deals where you can buy packs of them for cheap! Michaels also sells them.
- If you are oil painting, bring a silicoil jar and Gamsol
- For oil painters, I recommend the 9"x12" Strathmore Oil Painting Pad (can tape pieces to cardboard)
- A travel sized sketchbook for thumbnails and quick drawings, not larger than 9x12 inches
- A jar with water for acrylics gouache or watercolor
- Painters Tape (Blue Tape)
- Small garbage bag for carrying out your garbage.
- Something for carrying wet paintings home, especially if you are oil painting
- Bag or backpack for carrying everything
Thoughts on easels:
Small travel French Easels are the best, especially for oil painting, however I understand not everyone has the budget for this. At the very least have something that can stand upright, hold a painting and palette up and not fall over easily in the wind. Some artists just bring a drawing board to tape paper onto and work from that, cardboard can also work just remember the wind won't always be on your side
Instructor Bio:
Alexandra Bailliere is a Bay Area painter. She holds an MFA in visual art from Mills College, a BA cum laude in French from Duke University with extensive coursework in visual art and art history, and a post-bac in visual art and design from UC Berkeley. While on a Duke junior year abroad in Paris, she studied art history at the Université de Paris and painting at the Académie de Port-Royal.
In addition to sustaining an active studio practice, Bailliere is an adjunct professor of art at Contra Costa College where she teaches drawing and painting. She has been teaching visual art at Bay Area colleges and organizations since 2016.
Bailliere's work is represented by Hang Art in San Francisco. You may see her paintings at hangart.com or on her website: alexandrabailliere.com.
Image credit: Alexandra Bailliere