FROM STONES TO BONES: PURSUING THE PERFECT PIGMENT |
|
|
“Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” Wassily Kandinsky
Whatever it is an artist wishes to convey in a painting—and whatever meaning the observer derives—color is a key part of that exchange. It’s no surprise, then, that an artist’s pursuit of the perfect pigment has been a compulsive urge for centuries, using gems, poisons, trees and plants, bones, minerals, and metals to create exciting and stimulating colors that inspire both creator and observer.
Pigments were first created thousands of years ago by mixing colored soils with animal fats and burnt charcoal. Ever since, artists have continued a relentless quest involving new technologies, dangerous practices, and wild experimentation in a ‘color arms race’ that’s every bit as creative and challenging as the paintings themselves.
In medieval paintings, the Virgin Mary was often depicted wearing brilliant blue robes; the Ultramarine Blue color was derived from the rare gemstone lapis lazuli. The black pigment in many ‘old masters,’ called Bone Black, derived its name from the process of burning animal bones in an air-tight chamber.
The dazzling qualities of the 17th-century color Lead White were achieved by layering animal manure over lead (not known to be poisonous in those days) soaked in vinegar. In the 19th century, JMW Turner pushed the boundaries of color in his ethereal seascapes by using Indian Yellow, said to have derived from the urine of mango-fed cows, filtered, mixed with clay, or heated over a fire.
In the same century, Scheele’s Green and Paris Green were hugely popular colors. That arsenic was a vital ingredient in creating their unique shades didn’t seem to be an issue at the time, despite releasing dangerous fumes into the air.
Today, pigments are created much more safely with advanced chemical technology providing color solutions to artists’ continuing creative demands. What hasn’t changed is the search for a beguiling palette, the pursuit of that elusive color with which artists draw our eyes and our hearts to their work.
|
|
Beginning December 1
Pastel Painting: Pet Portraits
With Betsy Payne Cook
Three Tuesdays from 2-4:30pm
Explore creative ways to use photographs of favorite animals and beloved pets to create a unique keepsake or gift. This class will take you through the drawing and painting stages to create at least one pastel painting. Betsy will share ideas about how to use cropping options to enhance your photo and ways to select representational and “fun” color combinations. She will also show how to create proportional sketches based on your photograph that will then translate to a painting of the same proportional size.
$100 Members, $110 Non-Members
|
|
Beginning December 4
It’s The Little Things... Painting Smalls
With Odin Smith
Three Fridays from 2-4pm
Good things really do come in small packages!
Make beautiful small works In acrylic with instruction, guidance, and great ideas for gifts to give away or to enjoy yourself!
Be sure to buy small canvases in advance for use in this class. Recommended: the 4”x 4” canvases with mini easels at Michaels or order online. The easels make a great and inexpensive display for the paintings. You may want to work on several at a time, so buy accordingly.
$85 Members, $100 Non-Members
|
|
Thursday, December 10 from 6:30-8:30pm
Figure Painting & Drawing
With Sarah Holl
In this class, students can practice their drawing or painting skills while working from a live model. Students will be encouraged to find their own voices and explore various mediums. Students will receive individual instruction as well as group critiques. Open to all levels of experience.
Socially Distanced - Mask Required
$25 per person
|
|
Friday, December 11 from 5-7pm
Happy Hour Painting
With Odin Smith
Friday Night Wine Down turned into HAPPY HOUR!! Grab a glass of your favorite beverage or a cup of coffee, and get ready to paint along with Odin. Simply follow along as she guides you step by step through a painting, all while you relax and engage in the creation of a work of art made by you. At the end of the class, you will have created your very own masterpiece!
$30 Members, $35 Non-Members
|
|
Friday, November 20
Gourmet Take Out
With Chef Joseph Cizynski
Curbside pick up between 4:30-5:30pm
Vegetarian night before Thanksgiving week!
Menu:
- Provençale pistou soup with sheep’s milk cheese croutons
- Baked ziti with wild mushroom “Bolognese” sauce
- Roasted beet dark chocolate brownies with pistachio Anglaise sauce
$35 Members, $40 Non-Members
|
|
Friday, December 11 from 6-8pm
A Christmas Carol Dinner
With Chef Joe Cizynski
“Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch ...” So wrote Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, inspiring generations of readers … and our own Chef Joe Cizynski, who will serve a dinner in tribute to the Dickens classic, the season, and the power of the feast to warm our spirits.
Menu:
- Oyster stew with root vegetables
- Smoked goose and lentil salad
- Roast suckling pig with cranberries and oranges Pear, blackberry, and white chocolate cobbler
$60 Members, $65 Non-Members
Socially Distanced - Mask Required
|
|
Every Friday from 8:30-9:30am
Yoga for Wise Warriors!
With Lees Yunits
Beginners will be taught basics; more experienced will deepen their knowledge, and all will learn varied ways to enhance their knowing. Lees’s background includes many assorted styles of yoga, including hatha, viniyoga, yin and kundalini. Just as important are the invaluable techniques of breath work. Always there will be some form of meditation, as well, whether simple stillness, or transcendental, counting, mantra singing, or guided. The whole of a yoga session depends on joining body work, breath work, and meditation. Not to mention some humor here and there! Whether fast, or slow, all of Lees’s yoga classes intend to move you forward on your Journey to Joy.
$15 Drop-In, $75.00 - 6 weeks
|
|
|
Saturday, November 28 at 7pm
Bring Your Own Vinyl Night!
With Tony Raine and Tim Miller
Vinyl records are making a big comeback. For the first time since the 1980s, they are outselling CDs in the United States. People are pulling out their old LPs from the basement and cranking out the tunes on turntables again. To celebrate, Tim Miller and Tony Raine, hosts of “Tim ’n’ Tony’s Rock ’n’ Pop Show” on WOMR-FM, are presenting “Bring Your Own Vinyl Night.”
Raine, longtime manager at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, has presented concerts and music series featuring Ray Davies of the Kinks, Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, and many other luminaries and has served as tour manager for Carlene Carter. Raine has managed several acts, including Siobhan Magnus. Miller worked for the Cape Cod Times for 36 years as entertainment editor, film critic, and occasional music critic. He now writes a movie column for Cape Cod Wave Magazine. They will be joined by special guest Randy Wickersham of Spinnaker Records of Hyannis.
Socially Distanced - Mask Required
$15 per person
|
|
Sunday, November 29, at 3pm
From Beethoven to Gershwin: A Concert by Virtuosi Violinist Ilana Zaks and Cellist Eric Zaks
Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to experience wonderful music and support two gifted musicians.
Violinist Ilana Zaks has performed with numerous orchestras including the Boston Civic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Cape Cod Symphony. A member of the Perlman Music Program, Ilana has studied with Donald Weilerstein for the past 12 years. Ilana’s passion resides in creating theatrical multidisciplinary collaboration, breaking the stereotypes of modern musical experiences through inclusion of contemporary works by women, popular recital works, and works she commissions. An advocate for contemporary music, Ilana won an NEC EM grant for her commissioning project of four violin and percussion duo works featuring multidisciplinary collaborations. The result of this project was her debut album and first ever visual album "The Persistence of Memory," which was released on Amazon Prime US and UK in July 2020. Since 2013, she has been a member of the Perlman Music Program in which she has been studying with legendary Itzhak Perlman.
Ilana will perform solo selections on the violin and will also be joined by her brother Eric, on the cello.
Socially Distanced - Mask Required
$20 per person
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
