




ANCIENT TECHNIQUES COURSE
This course will appeal to artists who are fascinated by the colours
and textures seen in ancient paintings and who are interested in using
natural materials. The beauty of the natural pigments and the range
of surfaces are an inspiration in themselves.
The course will cover a broad range of methods and techniques for
both egg tempera and fresco painting. I will start by showing you how
to prepare various supports, followed by instruction on the preparation
and application of gesso and lime plaster. We will then cover the techniques
used in buon fresco (painting onto wet plaster), stucco lucido (wax
painting onto wet plaster), sgraffitto (white lime is scapped back
to reveal coloured plaster), egg tempera and gilding onto fresco. We
will explore painting surfaces and diverse ways of using these techniques
from ancient to contemporary.
If students would like to develop their own paintings using these
techniques whilst on the course I would suggest that they came for
the full two weeks as during the first week we would only have time
to cover the techniques and produce samples.
A selection of books is available to the students showing examples
of medieval and contemporary painting.