Ah Haa: Painting Academy, Ying Li

26 Sep Ah Haa: Painting Academy, Ying Li

Ying Li to Share Her “Dionysian Orgy of Painterliness” with Telluride Painting School students, Oct. 12-Nov. 19. Registration Still Open here.

In fall, the Ah Haa School for the Arts  turns its attention to the changing colors too – but not just in the landscape, on the canvases of students attending its unique intensive, the Telluride Painting School.

The Telluride Painting Academy features three different two-week painting immersions taught by professional working artists and educators. This year’s theme is “Still Life Reinvented,” with classes running from October 12 -November 9. All participants have the opportunity to explore the hidden power of still life as they focus not so much on mastery of detail, but rather on the intention of their message.

Visiting painter and art professor Ying Li is an example of an artist whose approach to still life embraces the power of metaphor. The artist combines both abstraction and representation to interpret her subject matter. For the Telluride Painting School, Ling will teach Floral Still Life Painting, Monday, October 26 – Friday, November 9. Using either oil or acrylics and working from both flower arrangements and the landscape, participants will be led on an interactive journey though the physical and magically expressive beauty of flowers, considering their metaphorical significance towards the development of personal ideas and techniques.

Known for her highly energetic, on-site landscapes built from bold colors, earthy textures, and calligraphic lines. Li’s canvases speak in a very personal voice. A professor of Fine Arts and Department Chair at Haverford College, Li is represented by Lohin Geduld Gallery in New York.

“Ms. Li’s best paintings pulsate with emotional and pictorial complexity,” says David Cohen, New York art critic and curator. “She has a touch to die for in terms of bravura painthandling and innate good taste. In her best works, she manages to endow brushstroke with the power of metaphor. Different brushes and their tips sometimes converge in a single canvas in a Dionysian orgy of painterliness.”

Li’s  two-week Telluride Painting School classes runs 9 a.m.–  1 p.m. daily and offers 24-hour access to the painting studio between classes.

Li will also provide several art history presentations during class, as well as a free open-to-the public lecture at the Wilkinson Public Library on Wednesday, October 28 at 6 p.m.

Other classes offered this fall 2015 semester of the Telluride Painting School include “Reinventing Still Life” with local artist and head of the painting school Robert Weatherford. “The Central Image Still Life” is led by American contemporary expressionist artist John Lees.

Image John Lee

While most painting schools offer students intensive technical instruction, few also emphasize the important journey that all artists must take to discover their own unique voices, or celebrate the courage it takes to express that voice in their work. Each fall, the Telluride Painting School does just this – helping its students navigate the process of creating deeply meaningful and uniquely personal work. With intimate and inspiring guidance from established visiting artists, students of the Telluride Painting School not only expand their painting skills; they expand their horizons.

Each two-week Telluride Painting School session costs $1,000 plus a $35-$70 studio fee, with students supplying their own materials. All classes take place at the Ah Haa School’s Depot Building at 300 S. Townsend Ave. Registration is still open and tuition assistance is available.

Ah Haa instructor and renowned artist Robert Weatherford in his studio.

For complete information and registration, please visit the Ah Haa School’s website or by calling 970/728-3886.