This 5-session class will offer students the opportunity to dive deeper into the art of painting. We will look at some great masters of painting as well as contemporary and local artists and consider composition, color theory, subject matter, and the many different textures and layers one can achieve with acrylic. From translucent watercolor-like layers, through flat and graphic colors to thick impasto-like textures. Do you mix your colors on the palette or the canvas? For that matter, do you paint on canvas, board, or paper? What’s the right brush for which task? We will try painting from observation, photos, and our imaginations and have a chance to work on more than one painting simultaneously as we start to consider the idea of a series.
All levels are welcome. Instruction is provided to meet each student’s interests, needs, and strengths.
Leah Yael Levyis a mixed media artist, storyteller, printmaker, and art teacher based in Berkeley, CA. She draws, paints, collages, and writes. She often self-publishes her work, and sometimes prints and binds it by hand. She loves playing with forms and formats and mixing digital and tactile techniques. Most of Yael’s work is based on her own experience as a brown, bi-racial, bilingual, and bisexual woman. She also enjoys telling others’ stories, making up imaginary creatures, and just painting images of beautiful nature. She believes the creative process to be its own reward and the act of making an incredible tool for healing and growing. Born and raised in Israel, Yael first moved to New York City in 2002 to attend the Art Students League of New York, later completing a BFA of Illustration from Parsons The New School for Design(2011). After four years doing design and illustrations for The Unemployed Philosophers Guild, she moved to California to pursue an MFA in Comics at CCA (2017). In recent years she’s been a Teaching Artist with Kala Art Institute, Richmond Art Center, and JCC of the East Bay and ran workshops for various Zine Fests. Her work has been published by The Nib (2018), Birdy Magazine(2019), Forward Comix(2017 & 2020), The Baylies(2021) and SAW(2021). Website: https://www.leahyaellevy.com/
