Mischtechnik Archives - Dominique Hurley

Video: Meet the Heart of the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art

June 20, 2014/in Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

As part of the year-end activities at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art, we all participated in the creation of a 9-minute video that captures the heart & spirit of this amazing school. As you will no doubt see, its very first year in existence was a beautiful gathering of beautiful people for the creation of beautiful art in a beautiful city.

There are now only 5 days left to my Silent Auction – 10 paintings must find homes here in Europe before I head back to Canada. It ends at 6pm on June 24th. Open daily 11am – 6pm.

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Graduation Exhibition – Vienna Academy of Visionary Art

June 16, 2014/in Events, Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

Well there you have it folks! I’ve graduated from the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art! My wonderful chapter of overseas art education is almost over. During the past 10 months, I’ve successfully completed two full-time trimesters at the Academy and other classes, workshops, and artist-in-residence experiences in Bali, Italy and here in Vienna. Wow! What a great year indeed! Thanks again to all those who invested in my dream (through art sales, crowdfunding, donations, etc.), making it possible for me to follow my Spirit Calls.

INNER WORLDS: GRADUATION EXHIBITION

It’s not quite over yet though. Our graduation exhibition runs until June 28th (open daily 11am – 6pm). There’s so much beautiful work from all my classmates. My Silent Auction runs until June 24th at 6pm (in Vienna only).

Exhibition Opening:

We had the opening on Friday – so much work to prepare and so gratifying to share. I was happily interacting at the Pay What You Want tables and being a part of the graduation speeches/video presentation that I forgot to take any pictures during the evening. Sorry… You’ll have to believe me that we had quite the party. Music, dancing, healthy food, live painting, and lots of interesting and touching conversations. Of course there was also lots of stunning artwork to see from students and teachers. The wall of large pieces opposite mine is filled with amazing paintings that the students will continue to work on next year – works in progress that show some of the stages of the Mischtechnik. I got a few bids on my work, but it wasn’t a big art buying crowd that night (although we all did well at the Pay What You Want tables (which still have work on them). I can only hope that word will spread about the exhibition and the silent auction so that we can all continue to fulfill our purpose on this earth.

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Free Your Expression Workshop Conclusion:

It’s been a big week. The rest of Amanda Sage’s workshop was great – more raw food, more painting, more learning. I really like how my stylized figures are evolving . All the little paintings I created during the week, including this one you haven’t seen yet, were quickly grabbed at the PWYC table – a good feeling indeed.

We ended the workshop with a closing clrcle – half paintings, half painters. Each got a chance to share about their experience and process and received feedback and/or thanks. What a lovely group. I’m glad that many of the participants stayed in town for our Opening

Celebration Breakfast:

I’ll admit, I’m very tired today. I was at school helping to set up until 11:30pm on Friday and got home at 1:30am on Saturday after the opening. On Sunday morning, I got up early to meet with my new friends Helmut and Regine (whom I met in Italy and who came to Vienna to be a part of my graduation celebration). How sweet and wonderful it was to have them here. We met at a café near Schönbrunn Palace for breakfast. I don’t usually like breakfast foods in restaurants, but I sure liked what I chose on Sunday: rhubarb strudel and an exotic fruit sundae with lemon and mango ice cream, exotic fruits, nuts, and whipped cream. I needed the sugar to wake me up and give me the energy to manage the exhibition from 11am – 5pm. Different students and our managing director will be running the exhibition until its end, so please come visit!

What’s Next?

I’m glad to report that after an intensive year of workshops, I’m very much looking forward to time alone in my own studio to integrate everything I’ve learned and to see where that takes me. I’ll be moving back to Canada into the home of a like-minded spirit who lives by a river surrounded by greenery in St. John’s Newfoundland. It has ample space for me to paint in. Yay! The more I think about this new space I’ve manifested, the more excited I get. I’m so grateful for this chapter that is coming to a close, but equally excited about the new chapter ahead. Let’s see where continuing to live in the new normal takes me next.

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Graduation Exhibiton at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art (June 14-28)

May 24, 2014/in Events, Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

You are all invited to the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art’s Graduation Exhibition titled “Inner Worlds“. I know many of my readers are nowhere near Austria, but if you happen to be or know someone who is, here is all the information.

Dominique Hurley

INNER WORLDS

From June 14th until 28^th, 2014
Monday – Sunday from 11:00am – 6:00pm
Free Entrance

Opening on Saturday June 14^th 2014 at 6:30pm

The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art
2^nd Floor of the Palais Palffy
Josefsplatz 6, 1010, Vienna

Website
Facebook

SPECIAL: there will be Pay-What-You-Want tables of student sketches, etc. and most of my pieces will be offered on Silent Auction with “buy now” prices, or the option to bid above the minimum bids (ends June 24 at 6pm). I trust that each painting will find its right home while I am compensated for both my work and talent. This feels like a win-win as I return to Canada on June 26th.

Elizabeth Banker

PRESS RELEASE – May 2014

SEE THE GERMAN PRESS RELEASE BY CLICKING HERE.

INNER WORLDS

The Graduate Exhibition of the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art

Julianna Richey

In celebration of its inaugural year, The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art opens its door to the public for INNER WORLDS, its year-end Graduate Exhibition. A must-see for any art enthusiast, the in-house exhibition commences with the Opening Ceremony at 6:30 pm on Saturday, June 14^th and runs until June 28^th 2014 at the Palais Palffy on Josefsplatz.

This year’s group of international students (mostly from Canada and the U.S.A) have out-done themselves, exploring phantastic and sacred themes in their works while celebrating the Academy’s ideals of beauty, craftsmanship and style. Together, these meticulously rendered paintings by Elizabeth Banker, Martin Cash, Kevin Campeau, Dominique Hurley, Rachel Lubeck, Julianna Richey and Hadley Seymore form a stunning example of a new, Idealist art – an exhibition not to be missed, with many of the original works priced for sale. The Opening will include Live Painting and Collaboration by the exhibiting artists.

Martin Cash

For three trimesters, these emerging artists have explored Old Masters drawing and painting techniques through classical academic methods. Guided by an international faculty of well-known Visionary artists, they have explored three distinct traditions: The Humanist Style within the ‘Western’ Canon of Classical Greek & Renaissance Art, The Hieratic Style within the ‘Eastern’ Canon of Ancient, Islamic & Hindu-Buddhist Art, and the newly emerging Visionary Style, which carefully combines the best elements of the Humanist & Hieratic traditions. Coming from Australia, America, London, Paris and Vienna, members of the academy’s faculty will also be on hand to exhibit their works: Timea Tallian, David Heskin, Aloria Weaver, Daniel Mirante, Kuba Ambrose, Vera Atlantia, Amanda Sage, and Laurence Caruana. The result is a masterful collection of paintings where each work manifests the artist’s unique vision while also pursuing the Academy’s ideal of “AD SACRUM” ~ Toward the Sacred.

Hadley Seymore

Located in the Palais Palffy – home of The Phantasten Museum, Viva Art Gallery, and Professor Ernst Fuchs Studio – The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art opened its doors in September 2013. With English as its primary language of instruction, this international private school was founded by The Visionary Guild, a circle of recognized Visionary artists who had learned the “Mischtechnik” (an egg tempera and oil glazing technique) with Professor Ernst Fuchs – and who are now transmitting their knowledge of this special technique to a new generation of talented artists. The Academy offers a Three-year Programme, as well as Single Trimester studies, week-long Intensives and bi-weekly Life Drawing classes open to the public. Their classical curriculum focuses primarily on Historical Techniques of Painting and Approaches to the Figure, Colour and Composition within both Eastern and Western cultural traditions. By learning the sacred styles of different cultures, the students are able to create original compositions based on their own ideas, visions, and designs.

Kevin Campeau

As Guest Lecturers, local Viennese artists such as De Es, Michael Fuchs, Peter Gric and Otto Rapp have revealed a distinctly Austrian dimension to the students’ European experience of art-making in a cultural capital. Now in its seventh year, the academy’s special summer programme in Italy – The Visions in the Mischtechnik Seminar – has further enhanced the students’ classical knowledge of art and technique.

After the culmination of this exciting inaugural year, the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art will again open its doors on September 21^stwith an Opening Party, before classes recommence for the Fall Trimester with instructors Laurence Caruana, Autumn Skye Morrison and Daniel Mirante. With no entrance examinations, the academy is open to all lovers of the newly-emerging trend in world culture called Visionary Art.

Rachel Lubek

Dominique Hurley

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Contact:
Florence Ménard
Managing Director
Email : [email protected]
Tel : ++ 43 (0) 660 377 98 71

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Please Help Name this Painting

March 17, 2014/in Paintings, Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

4 days to go before the end of trimester party and exhibition/sale! I’m almost done.

I need help naming this one though. All suggestions welcome. Let’s start brainstorming – your comments may inspire others. Feel free to comment at the end of this post or on Facebook.

The theme is Never Alone, but I’m looking for positive wording that expresses that same feeling. I’m also open to whatever else inspires you.

It’s all about being connected to Source, to guiding spirits / totem animals, to angels, to Love and to the Higher Self on our evolutionary journey. I usually “download” titles during the painting process, but oddly, for this self-portrait of sorts, I haven’t … I came up with “Never Alone” just this morning, but being big on the guidelines for wording affirmations, I try to avoid negatives.

Today, I worked on the angel’s final hairstyling – still feathered, but more like the wings.

And added the Light that comes from the joining of hands, of Heaven & Earth, of Psyche & Amore – the Light of constant support, companionship, Love.

So what do you think a good title would be?

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Class Field Trip to Klagenfurt – Fuchs’ Apolalyspe Chapel

March 9, 2014/in My Travels, Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

My class met at 8am on Saturday morning at the Meidling train station for a day-trip to Klagenfurt, 4 hours from Vienna, near the Italian border. Our main purpose was to visit the Apocalypse Chapel that took Ernst Fuchs and his assistants 20 years to complete.

If you remember from earlier posts, Professor Ernst Fuchs is the mentor and teacher of several of my teachers. Three of them, including Laurence Caruana (our director), Kuba Ambrose, and Amanda Sage worked with him at the chapel. Unfortunately, Laurence wasn’t feeling well on Saturday, and so he stayed home with his son while his wife Florence (our administrator) came with us. This was great as she had never seen the chapel, despite having heard so much about it for years.

The train ride there:

I love seeing new sights and am a morning person, so I was like a kid in a candy shop during the entire 4-hour trip. Excited! The Austrian student beside me liked seeing my tourist’s perspective as she had grown bored with the scenery. I was glued to the window the whole time (literally – if you stick the lens of your camera to the window, you’ll avoid having glare or reflections from inside the train in your pictures and the dirt won’t appear as much – you’re just limited in your angle of view). The side I chose to sit on may not have had as dramatic views as the other side (more mountainous and bigger castles), but we had the sun versus the thick haze. Still, a few times, I went running to the other side (when my neighbour was at the washroom) or simply turned around to grab a few shots. My classmates lovingly teased me all day about my enthusiasm 🙂 and the nearly 600 hundred of shots I took -(I’m only sharing 150 of them here 🙂 ) not always caring about the results, just enjoying the play time. Editing them took most of the day on Sunday. Enjoy – not bad from a fast-moving train with dirty windows.

Lunch:

We arrived in Klagenfurt at 12:21pm and couldn’t find a place to eat fresh trout from the lake (we were off season and the locals didn’t seem to know about this specialty). We ended up at Sukothai restaurant at 22 Domgasse. Wow! My panang curried chicken was soooooo good and I had been soooo hungry, choosing not to eat on the train.

The Chapel:

We had a 2pm appointment in front of St. Egid church, so we rushed there after lunch – my snapping the occasional picture only to have to rush to catch up to the group.

The chapel is usually only open for tours at 11:30am, 3 days a week. When organizing the trip, Florence had asked for us to have access to the chapel for 3 hours, but once there, we found out that we would only be given 1 hour. We also found out that we weren’t allowed photos without written consent by Ernst Fuchs – something that would have been easy to arrange if we had known. Florence tried to change the caretaker’s mind, but to no avail. Luckily, I was able to persuade him to allow 1 group shot inside the chapel – so bringing my heavy tripod was not a waste after all. If you want to experience the chapel, however, you can read about it in this article and even better, take a 360 degree tour in this panorama gallery – just click on the directional arrows top left to walk around the chapel.

We looked around, asked questions, heard Laurence say a few things about it on the speaker phone, took a group shot, had a brief closing circle around the altar, and were out by 3pm. I certainly got a visual appreciation for the work, the colours, the various styles – but didn’t really enter the space on any other level. I’m sure others had different experiences – if you feel like sharing – please comment below.

To the Lake:

My classmates were keen on my suggestion to go hang out at lake Woerthersee. Most took the bus there while Martin and I walked the 4.5 km trail along the canal past lots of locals enjoying the summer weather.

I could imagine spending a few days here exploring the town and natural areas – especially their many hiking trails and boat ride around the 20 km lake. My soul needs water – finding the lake, even if just the tip of it, was top on my priority list. For a couple of hours, therefore, we parked on a dock and basked in the sunshine until it set – which coincided with a sudden drop in temperature.

Train Ride Home:

We then headed back to town by bus, found stuff to eat and got on the 7:39pm train. I did participate in a 21-questions animal game and an “exquisite corpse” drawing game (involves folding a paper in 3 and having 3 different people draw the head/torso/legs without looking at the other parts). Having been up since 4:30am, however, I slept most of the trip home while others mostly socialized. I got home at midnight on the dot.

Overall, it was a great trip – a wonderful opportunity to get out of the city, to discover another corner of Austria, and to learn more about the lineage of visionary artists who have brought the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art to life.

P.S I have written other posts on Ernst Fuchs as we visited Fuchs’ Rosary Paintings last week, attended his birthday party last month, and spent several hours visiting his villa/museum in October. He is not in the greatest health, and so we don’t see him in our classroom very often, but he recently made recommendations on my “self-portrait” painting that were very helpful.

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Busy Week at School

February 27, 2014/in Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

We’ve had a busy week since I last wrote about my time at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art.

Thursday evening last week, after class, we were treated to a special public lecture by our guest teacher Benedetto Fellin. The event was to celebrate his own teacher, the famous artist Rudolph Hausner, who would have been 100 this year. He presented along with Ulrich Gansert, one of Hausner’s assistant teachers at the time and Timea translated for those of us whose German isn’t quite there yet.

Poetic Landscape – Draperies, Transparent Figures, and Horizons

Left to Right: Lizzy, Benedetto, Kevin, Laurence, Edgar, Hadley, Martin // Timea, Dominique, Rachel

We’ve been fortunate to spend quite a bit of time this past week with both Benedetto and Timea, who have continued to teach us about light and shadow, this time using drapery as our main subject – one of Benedetto’s specialties!

Still Life Drawing:

We started by drawing a drapery still life with white and black chalk on coloured paper … not as easy as it seems. I am still struggling with making things look dimensional and unified. The more I practice, the better I get. Funny how that happens…

Abstract Acrylic Ground:
Then, we prepared a decalcamania acrylic ground on canvas boards for painting the same set-up from a photograph. We used sticky masking paper or cardboard in the shape of our drapery to keep that part protected before flinging paint around. This splatter and smush exercise was a lot of fun – the kind of work/play I’ve always enjoyed… I used a little Photoshop magic for the action shot backdrop above.

with Rachel

Lizzy

Masking paper

masking paper on acrylic ground

the fun begins

Underpainting in Black and White:

photo by Florence

I spent several hours staring at the photo of our set-up and a photocopy of Benedetto’s painting while working at my easel. On the first day, I didn’t think it would ever look real. I tend to go too fast and too bold at first, using more expressionist brushstrokes (as Benedetto calls them – I’ve also heard them referred to as sloppy – a term I may have originally volunteered). I really have a hard time seeing how things all link together with light and shadow – shades of white and watered down black. Truly, I think I may be visually impaired in this way. I didn’t give up though. In the end, with patience and lots of coaching, I’m quite thrilled with the results.

We then painted the horizon in colour before painting a figure in white in a way that would make it appear transparent – a ghostly figure. The way to do this is to only paint the highlights. I used a photo reference I found on the Internet and did mine free-hand. What I learned is that rubbing paint once it’s almost dry doesn’t make it look more subtle… it only scrubs some of it off, revealing the texture of the canvas and taking away all of the subtle strokes I had and leaving the bold highlights. Oh well … 🙂

Oil Glazes:

The next step was to apply thin local oil glazes on top of the underpainting using a transparent paste and a new medium made in part with sunflower seed oil. Et voilà! From far it looks even more realistic. I tell ya, that’s progress!

Learning by Observing:

I spent a lot of time this past week just standing behind Benedetto, watching him paint – a very good way to learn (at least I keep praying that I’ll learn by osmosis each time I observe our teachers or classmates at work).

Personal Projects:

Because of tight timing, I’m not sure I’ll get to create my original Poetic Landscape composition that I had planned. I may do something like it in Bali instead since I’m supposed to bring a design for the week I’ll be spending in Philip Rubinov’s “Eye of the Spirit” reatreat. I really want to get working on all the other projects we’ve got on the go right now, so I can finish those in the three weeks we’ve got left. Some students, however, took photos of various drapery set-ups for their poetic landscape project – rather entertaining…

Fantastic Creature Project:

One of these unfinished projects is my Fantastic Creature. I spent 6 hours on it today, but am not much ahead. I’ve created quite a puzzle and a lot of work for myself – an experiment that was suggested to me and that I’m happy to try out. Instead of simply painting freehand on my large canvas, I traced my design on transparent paper, then on sticky masking paper and mirrored that. I then spent hours cutting up and numbering all the bits. I’ll eventually stick them all on and paint the whole thing dark. When I remove the sticky bits, the colourful parts should show up with nice crisp edges.

Live Figure Painting:

This week, Laurence also gave us a presentation / demonstration on live figure painting (instead of live figure drawing). I had fun the whole 2 hours of trying it out – something I don’t usually experience when I work with pencils.

Out and About:

It’s been quite warm here this week, and I enjoyed the sunshine at lunchtime a couple of days. Even just sitting at the foot of the monument across the street for a few minutes is a nice treat after inhaling turpentine and other fumes all morning.

Wednesday morning, I walked around Vienna’s 5th district for a couple of hours before class because the art store wasn’t open at 8am as I had understood it would be from their website. No worries. Instead, I explored a new neighbourhood, found some of the natural supplements I needed to ward off dengue fever and Bali Belly during my trip in April, walked about the Nacht Markt, went into one of those tiny tobacco shops to get another 10 Euros put on my phone (yup, 10 Euros/ $15 a month for all the calls, Internet, and texting I need) and approached school from a different direction – always fun. I then returned to the art store in the evening to buy supplies and to try out an affordable Mexican restaurant my classmate had talked about. I enjoyed my in-city 3.5-hour hike that day. There’s always so much to see.

Congratulations if you made it this far – it was a long one….

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Self-Portrait Still In Progress

February 21, 2014/in Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

I finally got to put some solid time into my “self-portrait” this week. If you’re new to my blog, I’ve been working on this since this September/October (see concept explanation half way down a previous post). This week’s progress feels great and I’m learning a lot along the way.

The Female Figure (Amore, Tree Goddess, Me, etc.):

This was fun! I finally got to empower my tree woman with 3 of the sigils I’ve designed since October for this painting and my life. I had originally thought of making them in colour, but instead, I did them in white and then glazed over them in Indian yellow, the same colour as the tree. Now, I feel they look like jewels emanating from within the tree. I may still add a bit of colour in the branches, but I like the fact that from far, you can’t see them at all on the figure. This was the first time I really got to use the chipmunk tail hair brush that I bought from Timea (originally from India – sorry, chipmunk 🙁 ). It’s a little curved on the ends and so makes fine spiral work much easier. The fact that the Plaka couldn’t stick to the previous coats of oil paint was a bit of a pain, but its beady effect is quite nice in places – happy accidents.

The Angel (Amore, Guardian Angel, etc):

I got another layer of whites on the angel – a

step towards making him more iridescent like

the bird I saw in the Natural History Museum. Because I didn’t feel like mixing a fresh batch of egg tempera to add another layer of whites, I decided to use Plaka, a commercial casein paint. Never again. I had a lot of trouble with it as one layer would remove the one beneath, creating the impression of a hole in the angel’s thigh, so Lawrence had to come in and help out. He had the same problem, baffling him. This painting seem to be good at doing that 🙂 . I hear a lot of artists don’t like the Plaka though. I had much better luck with the tubed casein that we also had in class.

After adding the whites, I went in with various coloured oil paint and worked on my blending skills. I still have a ways to go, but it’s coming along. The whites I had put on are just the foundation – glazing didn’t provide enough impact, so I’m just painting over it. Today I worked a lot on the body – especially the highlights on the legs. I can’t count, however, the number of times I reshaped his face and changed his hairdo. At one point, I just rubbed it off with a bit of turpentine-based medium and started over. Here’s where working with oils has an advantage over acrylics. I could go back and forth all day in between other projects and the paint was still wet and workable.

liked it, but the head was too far to the right

I look forward to working on this one some more, but I’d best wait until it dries to go in it again… that hair got pretty muddy because I wanted to add all the colours in there at once. Live and learn. This painting, just like me and my life, is a work in progress and an unfinished space of exploration and expression.

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Intensives Wrap-Up + First Painting For Sale!

February 19, 2014/in Paintings, Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

As you may have already read, we’ve been very busy at The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art. We had two 6-day Intensive Workshops in the last two weeks – Spark in the Void and Thangka Painting. Six days each wasn’t enough though, so we extended the workshops into this week. Vera and Timea came to school on Monday and Tuesday to assist us with our various projects. Beforehand, though, Timea gave us a very informative lecture on colour properties & mixing. Although we were using gouache and the colours we talked about were traditional Thangka colours, the information will be very useful for my work with acrylics, saving me a lot of money in the long run – instead of buying 30 different colours, I may buy half of that and mix my own.

The Mandala:

We only did a partial closing ceremony with this mandala (which included chanting to Padmasambhava) as there are still a few finishing touches to make. Although a lot of love, energy, mantras, and intentions have already been infused in this collaborative piece, we will empower it further when it’s completely done by writing Om Ah Hung in Tibetan on the back of the canvas, behind the figure at the forehead, throat, and heart chakras. I’m truly in awe every time my eyes rest on this beautiful piece- it affects me on many levels.

Vera & Lizzy

Tiimea & Lizzy

Rachel

Lizzy

Individual Projects

Students flowed between their various projects and the mandala during our two days of the Intensives Wrap-Up and some into Wednesday, this week’s studio day (for all Academy projects).

www.hadleyseymore.com

Rachel’s

Martin – www.facebook.com/mcasharts

Kevin Campeau

Sara’s

Sara

Finally Finished my First Painting!

Introducing “Cosmic Vision” – 50cm x 70 cm (19.7″ x 27.6″); acrylics on deep profile gallery-wrapped canvas. SOLD.

Those of you who have known me for a while know that when I paint, I usually work on about 5-10 paintings at a time, 12-16 hours a day, for days or weeks at a time. I get into the flow and unless I’m working with thick layers of gels/mediums that take weeks to dry (especially in humid Newfoundland), I stay in that flow until they’re finished. Then I take time off to take care of other aspects of the business or do other things until the next painting marathon. That’s the groove I work best in. It’s a truly connected state of mind and spirit (some may say obsessive, but I prefer meditative) and it feeds my soul. It’s been challenging, therefore, for me to start a whole bunch of projects here at the Academy and never get around to finishing them – whether it’s because it takes weeks for layers of oil paint to dry before I can glaze again or because we’re going from one class to another, one project to another. We spend 8 hours a day at least 5 days a week at school, but I hadn’t completed one painting in 5.5 months! Well now I have! Yay! It feels great. On Wednesday, I applied a final UV protective archival varnish to “Cosmic Vision” – a piece that’s very much in my style, but integrates some of what I’ve been learning, especially about transparency, glazing over whites, dimensionality, and brush work. I spent most of 5 days working on this piece with short lunch breaks and occasional visits to the mandala. To follow up on what I wrote about this painting in a previous post, it was infused with sacred ritual, energy, and intentions (something I’ve done with my artwork for years)- but this time it was also empowered by writing OM in Sanskrit in the back of the circle and Om Ah Hung in Tibetan in the back of the Buddha.

Photo by Florence

photo by Florence

before the zinc white washes

local glazes on tree & birds

With my wonderful teacher Timea

The final piece

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“Thangka Painting” – This Week’s Intensive

February 15, 2014/in Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

I finally got back into my daily restorative yoga practice this week, and my body is so grateful! The trick, of course, is to do it before I turn on the computer in the morning. This is much easier to do now that I’ve completed my “Inspirational Quotes for the Creative Soul” project – quotes on 180 of my paintings/photographs delivered once a day on my Facebook Page until July 15th. I’ve started other tax, writing, and art-business training projects though, so I’ll have to keep reminding myself to start my days with yoga – I can feel the difference all day long.

This week’s workshop was a natural follow-up to last week’s. We studied how to make Thangka paintings, an ancient Tibetan Buddhist style of art used as a teaching, devotional, or meditation tool. Our teacher, Timea Tallian, spent 6 months in the Himalayan country of Bhutan working with Thangka masters there, adding to her wealth of artistic, technical, and spiritual knowledge. I always learn so much from her. When we came in on Monday, we were greeted with our biggest altar yet – which included various books, sacred objects, inspirational tools, and loads of art supplies she had picked up the week before in London’s Chinatown. We started our week with a few breathing exercises and chanting to Tara, the “mother of liberation”, who represents. amongst other things, the virtues of success in work and achievements, enlightened activity, and compassion.

Thangka painting isn’t about creativity or imagination – it’s a craftsmanship that requires years of training. Young Buddhist monks train for 10 years in order to be able to copy all of the symbols by heart, make their own paints, learn each figure’s dimensions and sacred geometry, etc.

Day 1: Line Drawings

Unlike these monks, we only had a week. Therefore, on Day 1, we used the photocopier and various copying techniques to create our own thangka drawing. One technique is to apply powered pigment on the back of our chosen symbols with a small burlap pouch and then trace on top to leave the pigment on our papers and then affix the design with pencil.

Another is to pounce holes along the design and then tap the pigment pouch on top, which leaves a dotted design that we can then draw in with a pencil. This is great if you’re using the same design several times.

We all got to choose symbols that appealed to us to decorate around our double dorje. Some of us went simple and others got very intricate. Once we were done, we used special Chinese paint brushes to practice ink line drawing – not as easy as it looks. I had heard an artist talking about turning the paintbrush in her hand while painting – when I asked Timea if she did this, she realized she had been doing it unconsciously all these years. I’m both needing and appreciating the practice in fine line work with a paintbrush. I ended up buying one of Timea’s curved chipmunk hair brushes from India as they’re great for curves and spirals.

Bella’s

Mine on Day 1

Mine

Martin’s

Bella

Florence’s

Lizzy’s

Mine – I did a second the second day – improvement!

Day 2 – Shading & Paint Making

On Tuesday, after a bit of Kundalini Yoga, thanks to Martin, we continued working with ink and then shading – either with ink or pencils. I used a simple black drawing pencil to do mine. What I like about the Thangka style of shading is that it’s a whole lot easier than the western style, where it has to replicate what we see in real life – light direction, cast shadows, reflected light etc. In this style, all you have to do is make sure that light is against dark and dark is against light. The light is usually on the outside. That’s it. That’s good!

Mine

Bella = http://www.bella-volen.com/news.html

Vera’s

In the afternoon, Timea gave a lecture on traditional pigments and paint-making before we got into it ourselves. Although we did use animal glue and powdered pigments, we also used gouache colours from the tube to mix into them. As I said, we don’t have 10 years, only a week, so no sitting for hours grinding malachite into a fine powder…

Timea

Kevin

Day 3: Painting

I truly appreciated our opening circle on Wednesday. We chanted and OMed, but we also participated in a sacred ritual that resonated deeply within me. I often start my painting sessions by smudging the studio and blessing all of my supplies, praying, etc. On this day, we did that as a group. While chanting, we passed each of the containers of paint that we had mixed the day before around the circle. We each stirred each one, focusing on an intent/ prayer for each. We had a lot of colours, so I had the opportunity to pray for loved ones experiencing challenges, for all of humanity, animals, Mother Earth, living with purpose and passion, unconditional love for all, etc. Those were only my consecrations – can you imagine how beautifully infused those colours were by the end – not to mention well mixed? Wow!

As you may have read in my last post, I had a challenging day on Wednesday – I’m sure our morning circle helped – in many ways.

Timea demonstrating

For the rest of the day, we painted. This was our last practice exercise before starting our individual projects. Our task was to use our gouache paints on top of an acrylic ground that had been applied on a photocopied image – the same for everyone. Timea demonstrated and we spent hours painting with these creamy colours that felt very much like my beloved Golden Fluid acrylics.

Mine

photo by Florence

Once we were done, Timea showed us how rubbing the back of the image with a crystal pressed the pigment in and smoothed out the image. For smaller parts, we could do the front without fear of all our flaws being revealed.

Although we all worked with the same image and colours, the results were all quite different – beautiful work everyone!

Lizzy’s

Timea’s

Florence’s

Sara’s

Sara

Timea & Sara

Rachel’s

Day 4: Personal Projects

On Thursday before Ernst Fuch’s birthday, Friday & Saturday, we worked on personal projects inspired by what we learned this week.

Martin

Vera

Vera’s – http://seelenmaler.net/about/

Rachel’s

Florence

Martin – http://www.facebook.com/mcasharts

Sara

I was inspired by a painting I saw in a calendar and went out to buy myself a canvas to play on, starting with the way I’ve been painting for years – on the floor, with lots of water and fluid paints. What fun! After spending a few hours fanning it and working on my design of a tree of life and of a Buddha based on a photo of a sculpture, I glazed the whole thing in yellow. On Saturday, after a 4.5 hour hiking excursion (photos in next post tomorrow), I went into school for 7.5 more hours of work on this project. I wanted to bring back some of the original colours and so I added more water & colours – they looked great wet, but my experiment using zinc white (which is transparent) vs. titanium white (which is opaque) led to all the colours drying too dark. I got a lot of great coaching by Timea today, as well as by Martin (a classmate). I added a bit of a foreground by darkening the front with a purple glaze and will work on lightening the edge so that it’s light against dark and dark against light. I did some of that too around the tree and birds inside the circle. I’m learning so much and still have more to learn. I look forward to Monday/Tuesday when I can work on it some more.

with yellow glaze

While still wet

unfinished

Photo by Florence

photo by Florence

Oh – on Saturday, Timea demonstrated airbrushing – I could have fun with this!

Celebrations:

At the end of the day on Friday, Laurence surprised Florence with a bouquet of flowers and their son Clovis gallantly presented a single rose to everyone in the class. Laurence gave his to Edgar 🙂 While he was out, Florence left class to pick up a delicious chocolate cake for Laurence’s birthday and we enjoyed that with a glass of champagne (or orange juice in my case). Nice!

What a great week! We’ll be spending Monday & Tuesday working on several projects from the two Intensives, and so there will be more fun & photos to follow.

Did you find this inspiring? Please share it.

Happy Birthday Ernst Fuchs!

February 13, 2014/in Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

Internationally renowned artist Ernst Fuchs celebrated his 84th birthday today and the staff and students of the Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts were invited to his private afternoon party at the Fuchs Villa (see earlier post for photos of this amazing house/museum!). Professor Fuchs is a co-founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism and is our director Laurence Caruana’s mentor / teacher.

Happy Birthday Ernst Fuchs!