Scott Conary:
Painting The Story in Still Life
3 day workshop
March 9-11, 2018
10a – 5:30p
*A $200 deposit will reserve your spot. Please email info@alia-fineart.com if interested.

Every painting, even the humble still life, has a story in it. It’s told by what subject we choose to paint, how we present that subject, and how we paint it. Finding what interests us in a subject and how we connect to it drives that story, and directs how the painting is made. We’ll work on small still life paintings to explore the process—from thumbnail sketches, lighting the subject, considerations of composition, to the application of oil paint to build form with light, color and mark. We will walk the line between technique and intuition, using the still life as a way to explore paint and why we make art. Many still life items such as flowers, vases, and eggs will be on hand for student use, however students are also encouraged to bring an object that has some visual impact or significant meaning to them. Handmade artist panels will be provided to each student by the artist.

About the Instructor:
Raised where the east coast suburbs filtered into the woods and farms, Scott Conary (RISD, BFA ’93) creates paintings of everyday objects and places with which we have complicated and often ambiguous relationships. Pulled from their context, they have something to say about how we interact with the world and each other. These are stories of the arbitrary nature of beauty, of melancholy, of fleeting triumph, and the camouflage of time: the meat we greedily consume but are repulsed by, the weed that fights to survive in the gaps of our attention, the old door used for generations but now forgotten, and so on.
Fueling and inspiring this work is his young daughter’s battle with complicated heart defects and her experiences with disability. And the impact that has had on those around her. This has directed his focus towards the narratives and tensions in the common, and is why he wanders deeper into the thicket of representational work.  He and his family live in Portland, Oregon.

Scott Conary is represented by Principle, Charlestown, Sager/Braudis and Heidi McBride Galleries
www.scottconary.com