2024
January 22 – 26
10am -4pm EST
Online class via ZOOM
This is a great class to get the year going in a fresh new way! Join Mia as we work through 5 different paintings in 5 days- each inspired by a different prompt. The idea of this class is to loosen up any stiff ideas we may have about painting, rely on our impromptu ideas as inspiration, combat overthinking, and explore new ideas for a new year.
Mia will paint short demos a few mornings to explore themes, techniques, narratives, and materials. Students will be given a broad prompt- as an example, a prompt may simply be “winter”. Students will have partial mornings and afternoons to paint on their own, and meet up via zoom at the end of day for a group critique and any questions they may have. Students may paint from photographs, imagination, still life, or a mix of each throughout the workshop. Some painting experience is recommended. Acrylics, oils, drawing media, and collage are all welcome, though Mia will be using acrylics and oils.
The workshop will be recorded. A link to the recording will be available to each student for 2 weeks.
Click here for materials list
About the Instructor:
Mia Bergeron is a classically trained oil painter that uses modern techniques and concepts to create layered imaginative works. Imagery in her work often oscillates between the fictitious and the observed in equal parts.
Rooted in her upbringing in New York City with continuous exposure to modern art, her paintings also reveal her choice to study classical painting in Florence, Italy under Charles H. Cecil in her twenties. Heavily influenced by historical artists such as Diego Velázquez, Titian, Anthony van Dyck, and John Singer Sargent, her paintings are also shaped by contemporary artists such as Alex Kanevsky, Ann Gale, and Adrian Ghenie.
For Mia, the process of making paintings is similar to meditation. Each painting is the listening and contemplating of the surrounding world. The minutes at the easel are similar to focusing on the breath- there are times when the scrutiny is welcomed and quiet, and other times when the mind is loud and unintelligible. It is this dynamic contrast that is at the center of Mia’s paintings. This dualistic nature of life is what pushes and inspires her work.
Mia has been published numerous times in international magazines. Her painting “Tranquil Ghosts” was the cover image for the January 2022 Issue of American Art Collector Magazine. She continues to teach workshops at Townsend Atelier, Chattanooga. She and her husband, artist John McLeod, live in Red Bank.
