A painter with a contemporary eye and a traditional hand, John Farnsworth has been a full time artist for over forty years. His works are in  private and corporate collections here and abroad... A full-time professional painter and photographer since the 1960's, he has worked in acrylic, oil, and watercolor using only the primaries since 1978. His subjects range from people to places, from still-life to horses.He is represented in New Mexico by Brad Smith Gallery on historic Canyon Road in Santa Fe and by Adagio Galleries, Palm Springs, CA, and Pierson Gallery, Tulsa, OK.

 

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." (John Cotton Dana)

ART YOU CAN LIVE WITH

Oil:

Each student will be supplied one tube each of with the following M. Graham solvent free oil paints:

Titanium White (Alkyd)

Thalo (Phthalocyanine) Blue

Cadmium Yellow Light

Napthol PR 112 Red

Important: If purchasing other than M. Graham paints, read the fine print on the tube. There are other Napthol Reds. They won't work. This is the one that is a true red, and does not lean toward the orange or purple side of the spectrum.)

 

Solvent Free and Certified Non-Toxic

Walnut/Alkyd Medium

Concentrated Walnut/Alkyd Medium thins the color, accelerates drying and enhances adhesion between layers. Ideally suited for alla-prima and glaze applications, this medium increases surface sheen and flexibility while remaining non-yellowing.

 

Solvent Free and Certified Non-Toxic

Free your studio of dangerous solvents by using walnut oil in place of turpentine or odorless mineral spirit when cleaning brushes. Walnut oil removes color from the artist's brush or tool as effectively as odorless paint thinners without creating a solvent hazard. Walnut oil is a natural vegetable oil that neither evaporates nor removes essential oils. The addition of  walnut oil to color will increase flow and slow the drying.

 

Walnut Oil and Walnut/Alkyd Medium are designed to augment the special nature of our oil color, but are completely compatible with other artists' oil colors and mediums.

 

Acrylic: (See note below)

Each student will need the following:

One tube or bottle each of:

Titanium white

Thalo (Phthalocyanine) Blue

Cadmium Yellow Light

Napthol PR 112 Red

Important: Read the fine print on the tube. There are other Napthol Reds. They won't work. This is the one that is a true red, and does not lean toward the  orange or purple side of the spectrum.)

 

These are the ONLY colors you'll need. In fact, any additional color will simply introduce confusion into the mix and defeat the purpose of the course. Therefore, I will ask that you leave all your other paints at home!

 

Other:

For my small daily paintings, I use a small plastic box with separate containers for each color for my palette, and the lid of my walnut /Alkyd medium as a palette cup.

 

For working on larger paintings, in the studio, I prefer a small, rectangular, wooden palette and a clip-on metal cup with a lid.  I suggest a disposable palette and water container for acrylics.)

 

Paper towels or toilet tissue. (I have for years used paper towels, but find that toilet tissue works just as well and is far less wasteful.)

 

Brushes:

In order to keep us all on the same page, I will furnish everyone with a basic set of brushes. Additional brushes will be available at cost, should you need them.

 

Note to acrylic painters:

For health reasons, I painted for several years in acrylic. I didn't like it, but I made the  most of it.

Acrylics, for me, dry too fast. My oils dry almost as fast, but I find the difference to be very important.

I am annoyed and thrown off by the change in color as acrylics dry.

Acrylics are plastic.

This class will be based mainly on the use of oils. If it is really important to you to use acrylics, I will do what I can to accommodate you, so long as it doesn't detract from the  rest of the class.

I highly  recommend using the Golden Fluid brand acrylics that come in plastic squeeze bottles like ketchup comes in.

Now, thanks to the good folks at M. Graham, health reasons should no longer be a concern when painting in oils.

 

Grounds:

 

While I insist on Oil Primed Belgian linen for my larger works and commissions, I prefer to paint my smaller works on Ampersand Gessobord museum series masonite panels.

 

I have tried all the commercially available panels, and this is my favorite. If you are happy using one of the others, or stretched canvas, no problem. If you want to gesso some heavy paper, that's OK, too, especially for practice work.

 

But let's keep it small in the interests of time and space and each other. 6 x 6 to 9 x 12 should be ideal. Bring whatever you're comfortable with in that range. And be sure to bring enough. Bring enough for six or eight paintings, at least. We may not use them all, but you can always use them later, and you don't want to be caught short.

 

Watercolor:

 

I use M. Graham watercolors. They are made with the addition of honey, which keeps them moist longer. At first, I was reluctant, because I like to squeeze watercolor into my palette and let it dry, forming a cake, which I re-wet as needed. These paints took several days to dry sufficiently for travel. However, when I used them, I found them to be a genuine pleasure to paint with, and have been using them exclusively ever since. Just be sure to plan well ahead if you will be traveling.

 

Thalo (Phthalocyanine) Blue

Cadmium Yellow Light

Napthol PR 112 Red

Important: As obove, if purchasing other brands, read the fine print on the tube. There are other Napthol Reds. They won't work. This is the one that is a true red, and does not lean toward the  orange or purple side of the spectrum.)

 

These workshops are designed to afford you the benefit of my forty plus years of painting and experimentation.

 

Because we will only have three days, I will be focused on teaching you a method, my method, technically, of making paintings. It's a good, proven method. It's a simple, direct, efficient method arrived at over a period of more than forty years of constant trial and error. A lot of trials and a lot of errors! I will guide you around all that if you let me, and the result will be that you can get on to the making of art much sooner than if you had to go through all that yourself.

 

We will touch on art and the creation of art, the finding of your own "style", but, ultimately, that's up to you. It should come not from one teacher, or a few teachers, even. It should come from all who have gone before and all that you see and experience and all that you are. It will come, in time, from within you.

 

This is simply a shortcut to the tools and methods that will make it possible for you to express yourself as quickly and easily as possible.

 

That doesn't mean the workshop will be easy. It won't be. You'll have to put aside many old ideas and materials and ways of working. It will be exhaustive, and exhausting, And eventually exhilarating. We will work hard, but we will have a lot of fun, too.