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Content through Color Strategies, Fracturing and Borders with Susan Webb Tregay NWS Content, putting yourself and your ideas into your paintings, is difficult for some to fathom–and harder to teach. This course approaches content in a manageable, concrete way that will open new doors of creativity for you. Through the study of the color plans that have created masterpieces through out the ages, you will learn to reinforce the mood of your painting. By fracturing and creating borders, you will make separate areas for additional thoughts and information about your topic. Content. Content is everything. Content is what makes a painting a work of art.

Daily Lesson and Work Day 1–morning What is content? What are color strategies, and what moods do they suggest? Paint small, quick sketches using each color strategy. Find samples in magazines of different strategies.	Demos, Slides, Discussions and Handouts SLIDES: to introduce myself and to show content. (handout) SLIDES (or DVD) on color strategies (handout) DISCUSSION: One-on-one conferences: signing up, you will need several paintings, slides or photos, or questions.
Day 1–afternoon   Make a color strip to identify opaque paints. Do a small painting emphasizing one of the color strategies. Discuss the basics of developing a painting.	DEMO: start a painting using a color strategy DISCUSS avoiding "mud" One-on-ones (15 minutes each) HOMEWORK: read Louise Cadillac's article (handout)
Day 2–morning   Brainstorming ideas about your topic, and various ways of expressing them in paint. Plan a fractured painting. Apply different idea/ colors/paintings styles to various parts of the painting.	DISCUSS: Louise Cadillac's article on content DEMO: fracturing a painting. SLIDES: DISCUSSION: recording brainstorming, working in a series, keeping a series sketchbook. Show my series book. ONE-ON-ONES
Day 2–afternoon Finish fractured painting Name you baby. Brainstorm painting titles.	DISCUSS: Master Disaster's five steps to finishing a painting. ONE-ON-ONES DISCUSSION: Writing an Artist Statement. (homework)
Day 3–morning   Brainstorm ideas for your border. Start a painting with a planned border.	SLIDES AND ACTUAL PAINTINGS: borders DEMO: Starting with a planned border. Scrubbing out a border (Arches paper) ONE-ON-ONES READ: artist's statements
Day 3–afternoon finish paintings.	ONE-ON-ONES EVALUATING PAINTINGS. How I critique paintings, how others do it, critiquing your own painting. (Handouts)
Day 4–morning Brainstorm for ideas. Creating a "box within a box" painting.	SLIDES: examples of box within a box paintings. DEMO: box within a box, working with crisp edges (Arches paper), integrating the box into the composition. ONE-ON-ONES
Day 4–afternoon finish painting(s)	DISCUSSION: combining fracturing, borders and/or box within a box possibilities. CRITIQUE/CLASS SHOW. IDEAS FOR CONTINUED GROWTH (handout)

All of my courses are basic to the arts. They apply to any media, and any non-smelly media is welcome in the classes. Acrylic painters should bring alcohol (91%) and/or Windex to class. For those working in watercolor, I strongly recommend Arches paper for this particular course. Since traveling light is always the best way to go these days, organizations are responsible for supplying the copies of handouts. Master copies can be mailed ahead of time, if necessary. For more information, contact me at susan@tregay.com.