Paradise Artist Retreat: Artist Feature Gabe Leonard

The Paradise Artist Retreat is excited to anounce Gabe Leonard will be teaching at this years event. He will be bringing a new perspective to the artist retreat and we are excited to learn form this inspiring artist.

Gabe Leonard

The Cinematic Artist. Gabe Leonard's paintings take you into a world rich with inimitable atmosphere and narrative intrigue. What tales lie behind these interesting characters? And where will their stories take them? Leonard spent his early years in the mountain state of Wyoming, sketching wildlife and selling them to his school friends for a dollar. After graduating from Columbus College, Ohio with a BA in Fine Art, he moved to Los Angeles where he first honed his skills on the ultra-competitive boardwalk of Venice Beach.His work captures rich moods by combining the free brushwork of an expressive artist combined with the lighting and framing of a seasoned Hollywood cinematographer. Drawn to rugged and romantic film noir characters, Leonard merges technically brilliant figurative painting with a finely crafted cinematic atmosphere, creating snapshot moments full of narrative possibilities.The trademark runs and drips in his work are a deliberate break from acedemic restrictions and allow him to be more expressive, free and loose. Leonard's style is deepy rooted in the European artistic tradition, drawing particularly on the work of his heroes such as Rembrandt, Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.Following a string of sell-out shows and acquisitions of his work by high profile collectors including Quentin Tarantino, Eli Broad and Charlie Sheen, Leonard has become one of the most sought-after artists in the world, collected in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Artist Website: www.gabeleonard.com

Seminar name:

How to see

Seminar focus:

Learn how to see the figure in order to create compositions that have an emotional impact on the viewer.

Learning outcomes:

The student should come away with a broader way of thinking about composition and how the figure plays a role in it. They will learn how to think in terms of shapes, patterns and forms rather than detail and rendering techniques.

Materials:

drawing pad... the larger the better (16x20 - 24x36). Vine charcoal... soft, medium and hard. At least one stretched canvas or canvas board. size is up to the student, but the larger the better. 2 inch house painting brush, palette knives, pallette for acrylics or oils (disposable or paper/wax pallettes will work) burnt umber, alizarin crimson, naples yellow, titanium white, any other color the student wishes to bring or use as well