Our educational goals are simple. Our primary goals are to help you learn how to:
- Observe
- Paint
- Enjoy
1. Artistic observation. You can look at things on the surface and see them for what they are sometimes. However, with an artistic eye, you’ll learn to visually “deconstruct” the view before you to better understand how to portray it in paint. We’ll help you break it down visually into its colors while paying close attention to how ambient light is playing a role in the view before you. In doing this kind of study, which doesn’t require any physical exertion other than looking and comfortably thinking, one develops a newfound and exciting perspective for observing the natural world. Anybody can say “it’s pretty” but understanding why it is pretty is what makes this exercise exciting and usable well into old age.
2. Paint what you saw. This sounds difficult but it is not. Sure, to paint like Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel right off the bat may be a challenge, but after observing the contrasting shadows, highlights and lowlights of a subject, it all comes down to simply selecting colors and let the fun begin! Painting is a visual experiment from the first brush stroke to the final hanging on the wall. Nothing is more fun than guiding paint into the spaces and watching your art take shape by your own hand!
3. Enjoy the wilderness of Ely, MN. With this Into The Brush adventure, participants staying in our cabins in the woods experience the full effect of a more analog way of life. Paddling a canoe or kayak with a skilled guide/artist to look at a rock or a tree or a loon on the water in itself can be inspirational! Paddling or taking a hike through our rustic northwoods lake country with such striking beauty gives one perspective of the area that cannot be achieved simply by watching a video online.
Lost in the Boundary Waters – 24 x 48 Acrylic on Canvas by Joe Baltich
Testimonial – SOUL within our Into The Brush program – Click Here
Into the Brush - Art Education in the wilderness 