New York Academy of Art

This course will present a multifaceted exploration of flowers, channeling the ferver and curiosity of the late 16th and 17th century artists and luminaires. Each week students will focus on a different flower, utilizing oil paint to create studies based on the Dutch Golden age alla prima techniques (a period formative to both botanical illustration and the genre of floral painting). Each bloom will be presented in terms of basic biology and history. A structural understanding of the forms will be discussed before attention turns to a "paint along" style demonstration. Accompanying the demonstration will be supplemental information on the flower such as historical painted examples, and various other supplements (writings, poems, stories, notes from a horticulturist, etc). Each painting will function as a stand-alone study, but all paintings will be painted under a consistent light source so the studies can theoretically be "assembled" into a full bouquet. Ultimately these skills and techniques are central to the traditional painting practice, as is the notion of the flower's intrinsic symbolism: that of a delicate and beautiful creation that will ultimately wither and die.