Unlocking Creativity: Paint Large and Embrace Accidents

June 7 - 8, 2025 
Description:
This course will focus on freeing you up to create, tapping into the childlike creativity that is too often lost. In this workshop students will focus on the process rather than the result, using plein air as a tool to help aid in this. Whether you are already a plein air painter or not, there is no better teacher for forcing artists to capture color, light, and composition quickly than working outdoors.  When we free ourselves up to create out of joy rather than looking for a result, beauty is the natural result. Trust your instincts! This course is open to anyone but ideal for artists who have been painting for a while and want to loosen up their style or remove creative blocks.
 
Day one will be spent in the classroom engaging in a series of exercises focused on painting fast and large. The aim of the exercise will be to loosen up and quickly form visual ideas. Day two will begin by painting outdoors in the landscape, and we will incorporate the exercises from the previous day. At the end of the day we will return to the classroom for an uplifting discussion about the work created. Rather than a traditional critique the focus will be one what we love about the work created, and things we discovered that we want to bring into our art practice moving forward. 
 

When: Saturday June 7th, 2025 + Sunday Jun 8th, 2025 from 10 AM to 5 PM each day.

Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Early Bird Rate: $350

*Register by  May 7th, 2025 to take advantage of this discount. 

Price after May 8: $400

Materials: Participants will provide their own materials. A recommended list of materials to bring will be provided.

Location: Cura Contemporary in the Edes Building | 17395 Monterey Road, Morgan Hill CA, 95037 + Uvas Reservoir County Park 

 

Artists Bio:

Nathanael Gray works en plein air, creating large scale impasto paintings. His use of abstraction, mark making, and color takes influence from impressionism, post impressionism, and abstract expressionism. Nathanael has become known for his spontaneous interpretation of the California coast and mountains, often completing paintings in just over an hour. His work is featured at Kay Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, NM where he shows a mix of California and Southwest paintings. In September 2023 he had an exhibition with sculpture artist Kevin Box titled Nature’s Architecture. His work is also represented at Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, CA where he has been featured in multiple group exhibitions and had three solo exhibitions: A Year in Tahoe, 2020, I Only Went Out for a Walk, 2021, and From the Delta to the Sea, 2022.

 

Refunds:

We know plans change! For a full refund, please contact the gallery at least 2 weeks before the workshop.

 

Cancellation:

In the case that minimum class enrollment is not met 4 days prior to the workshop, Colibri Gallery will cancel the workshop and issue you a full refund. We will also let you know if the class is rescheduled for a future date.

Purchase tickets

Early Bird $350: until May 7, 2025
Unlocking Creativity: Paint Large and Embrace Accidents