Jonathan VanDyke
Master Class: Painting on Camera 

Painting on Camera: Playing with painting in an era of distance

December 5 & 12, 2020, 1-5:30pm

includes 30 min break

Cost: $275 
$250 for AltMFA registrants. Space is limited.

Register HERE


My expertise is in painting considered “holistically” – not just the final object that hangs on a wall, but painting’s making, presentation, installation, circulation, and relation to audience and markets. – JVD


Since at least the postwar period, we have associated painting not only with completed, painted “objects,” but with the way paintings are made, and with how that making is pictured. The process of painting continues to be recorded, documented, and mythologized. While aligned in the US especially with "action” painters like Jackson Pollock and “stain” painters such as Helen Frankenthaler, this emphasis on painterly process happened globally and with a diversity of practitioners. In our current period of pandemic and distance learning, the way we capture and picture our artistic processes has taken on new resonance.


This two-part workshop reviews the history of modern and contemporary painting in relation to the camera. Participants will be guided to explore how their own conceptions of painterly process have been affected by images of painters at work and by the “performance” of painting. In Part One of the workshop, we will unpack the diverse and global history of painting as action and performance since 1950. How does this history effect our sense of ourselves as artists, even in ways we do not notice, and what has been left out of mainstream conversations? After this session, participants will experiment with documenting their process via the camera (using the basic technology of a smartphone), while trying out novel ways of making their work. 


During Part Two, we will discuss and review the documents of these experiments. As we conclude, each participant will fashion a list of ideas, sketches, and methods that will contribute to their studio practice moving forward.


notes on the workshop:

This workshop is focussed on painterly mark-making – broadly speaking – and how the process and results of this mark-making have been documented through photography, film, and video in the postwar period. We’ll be thinking about how this mark-making is “performed,” both in the studio and in live performances, and how documentation of “painters painting" has influenced our conception of painterly process.


Exercises will focus upon experimenting with – and documenting – painting and mark-making processes. Many of the works we’ll look at as inspiration include an emphasis on body movement and occur at the crossover between painting and performance art. Performance here is with a small “p” – this workshop is not about acting or dancing. Some participants may want to use the prompts I give to experiment with more performance or movement-based painting techniques, while others may want to focus upon documenting studio process and mark-making experiments through photo and video. A smartphone with photo and video capacity will be sufficient for the class.


Enrolled participants will be sent a pre-email with more details.


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