2023
Friday, May 19 | 6-8 pm | artist talk/demo, welcome, refreshments
Workshop: May 20 & 21 | 10 am-5 pm
@Townsend Atelier
Instructor: Joe Morzuch
We are thrilled to welcome Joe Morzuch to Townsend Atelier for a 2-day workshop. Painting the Still Life will introduce participants to a variety of materials, techniques, and approaches to still life painting. Referencing the work of historical and contemporary painters, participants will complete multiple works over the course of 3 days, guided by specific prompts and formal objectives. Each subsequent exercise will advance the concerns addressed previously, resulting in an accumulated understanding of the complexities of painting the still life from direct observation. Topics covered will include: sighting, measuring, and relative proportion, light, shadow, and tonality, form simplification and planar analysis, color temperature and intensity, and an exploration of various painting implements and processes.
There will be a one-hour lunch break each day. Lunch is on your own.
For students traveling from out of town, feel free to contact us with any questions or accommodation recommendations.
CLICK HERE for materials list
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Joe Morzuch is an observational painter currently residing in Starkville, MS. In addition to his studio work, which deals primarily with the still life and self-portrait, he is an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University. In 2006 he received his MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He has taught at the college level for nearly 20 years, teaching courses in foundations, drawing, and painting. His work has been exhibited nation-wide and abroad.
“I am interested in the visual and communicative potential of objects that are cast off, discarded, and over-looked. Inherent to still life is an engagement with the mundane and domestic, as well as the notion of an arrested visual experience. These subjects, their intrinsic intimacy, and working from life are rich with pictorial and conceptual possibilities.
I work in a responsive manner directly from the motif, depicting objects at or near life-size and within reach of the viewer. I am drawn to certain objects for their utility, the familiarity and simplicity of their form, and their potential to connect with viewers through our shared experience of their use.
At the core of my practice is a curiosity to uncover and reconstruct a visual order. During the painting process, adjustments of tone, color, and proportion lead to an articulation of form and space built on extended observation. The paintings retain traces of these adjustments, functioning as both image and object.” – Joe Morzuch
Refunds cannot be given for visiting instructor workshops unless the workshop is cancelled by Townsend Atelier.
