Practical information : Throughout the year, knife painting courses are organized at the Cobières’s workshop in small groups. These courses last 2 days during the week or the week end, depending on the participants’ availability. During the course, you will realize a small painting only with a palette knife. The group works with me on a common subject, in order to progress step-by-step, following my demonstration. These courses are organized in order to learn or improve the many skills related to oil painting “in the paste” with a knife only, and how to get all the shades of colours you wish using only the basic colours. Contact me for more information.
YVON BONNAFFOUX
The Hyperimpressionist School of Corbières-en-Provence
Heir to the impressionist techniques of tonal division, the Corbiéraine naturalist school teaches a specific practice of oil painting “in the fresh” from primary colours. All effects are therefore to be achieved immediately without any drying time. Here the exclusive use of the knife prevails. This tool will allow the student to obtain, through the acquisition of the wide range of techniques it offers, a highly realistic rendering. Moreover, the application of primary colours directly onto the canvas in free strokes, sometimes mixed, sometimes simply juxtaposed, will offer a particular vibration. Through the fineness of the line “on the edge of the blade” and the “thin” flat tints that contrast with the unlimited power of impasto that the knife also allows, the rendering of the materials is undeniable; from sun-warmed straw, tall and fine grasses, hanging grasses to massive stones or gnarled trunks, each element of the landscape must breathe its own essence. Awareness of light, which shapes shapes and enhances colours, is also an important part of the student’s training. The acquisition of this “knowing how to observe” will make it possible to master the notions of “values” that are essential to the proper composition of the landscape. Thus, the demand for hyper-realistic expression combined with the free and intuitive application of primary colours will offer the student an original combination to accompany him in his training in the Hyperimpressionist movement.
