Movement, Energy and Expressionism with Andrea Wedell

This past week brought us a gorgeous opportunity to host a 5-day abstract expressionism workshop with artist Andrea Wedell. Each participant uncovered their unique visual vocabulary—shapes, lines, and marks that resonated with their artistic vision. Andrea's goal in teaching this workshop was to ask the students to explore rhythm, contrast, and cohesion on their canvas. Pushing shapes, scale, and color, then layering with R&F pigment sticks to build rich personal surfaces. Layering for rich, textured surfaces became a focus as they experimented with transparent and opaque layers, constructing surfaces that varied from soft, blended abstract landscapes to streaks of gesso and tactile layers of depth. Drawing inspiration from the surrounding beauty outdoors enriched the creative process, as students transformed organic forms and patterns into abstract expressions. This observation-based approach infused their artwork with shapes and movements that echoed the beauty of the natural world. Some artists found their forms in a more geometric approach, others through abstracted backgrounds and soft figurative human shapes and florals. Throughout this highly productive 5-day workshop, each artist built confidence in abstract composition by mastering the balance of color, shape, and space. This lively group of 14 artists came away with a large stack of paintings and were full of ideas for more. With Andrea's guidance, they learned design principles paired with creative experimentation, allowing them to work confidently on canvases of varying sizes.

"By day 3, the work deepens, refining composition, noticing patterns in mark-making, and developing a visual language uniquely their own. We refueled with gourmet lunches and walks between sessions and ended the day with Mediterranean-style deluxe dinners. All the while soaking in exquisite views of the Central Coast. It's hard not to feel inspired when the barn doors are open to that kind of beauty."- Wedell