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Arts & Entertainment

Arts by the Bay Gallery Plein Air Workshop

Arts by the Bay Gallery is sponsoring a Plein Air Workshop - July 28th and 29th, 2012     

Rain date - August 4th and 5th , 2012                          

Time: 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, 4 - 3 hour sessions

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Location:            Arts by the Bay Gallery

                           500 Warren Street

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                           Havre de Grace, Maryland 21078

                           Tel 410-939-1818

Tuition: $150.00 for the workshop, participants may reserve a place with a non-refundable check of $50.00.  Checks must be made out to Arts by the Bay.  Balance is due July 21st, 2012.

Process: You may sign up at the gallery. Please include your email and telephone number, or send your check, email and telephone number to Rudy Zea, Arts by the Bay Education Committee, 2101 Lamar Court, Fallston, Maryland 21047.

You may pick up the list of required materials at the gallery or it will be sent to you via email.                      

Participants will meet at the gallery at 9:30 AM on the first day of the workshop and proceed to two picturesque locations in beautiful Havre de Grace chosen by the artist to create an original oil on canvas composition under his tutelage. He will initiate the workshop with a demonstration.

Spaces are limited 

About the Artist: 

John Brandon Sills works in a manner that derives his technical inspiration from the Old Masters and its stylistic appearance from Barbizon and Impressionist painting. Being a classically trained artist, John uses a mastery of drawing to infuse his work with a sense of spontaneity and life.

Though he is accomplished in all types of painting, John has chosen landscape as his primary means of expression. John paints nature in all its forms, emphasizing those aspects that create an awareness of man’s relationship to the environment.  Toward this end, his landscapes exhibit the sensitivity that urges the viewer to appreciate the spiritual aspects of the land, and actively participate in its protection. John shares his knowledge by teaching classes and conducting plein-air workshops.

In still life and figure painting, the capturing of light and atmosphere is his main concern. John strives to do this by employing the careful observation and attention to technique that he learned during his training.

John received his BA in Fine Art from Towson State University in 1984. In 1982 he spent a semester studying Renaissance Art in Florence Italy. After his graduation John choose to continue his studies by enrolling in the prestigious Schuler School of Fine Art in Baltimore Maryland. While there, he completed a four year program of rigorous academic training in classical realism. 

In 1995 John returned to the Schuler School as the oil painting instructor, a position he kept until 2005. Today John teaches at the Zoll School of Fine Art, in Timonium, MD; as well as numerous workshops; while focusing the majority of his energy on his own work. 

The paintings of John Brandon Sills fall into two categories, plein air paintings and studio work.

“In my plein air work I try to capture the essence of an experience hoping to express the vitality of nature in brushstroke and color. My studio pieces are more subdued reflecting the introspective aspect of creating in solitude.” 

This dichotomy gives John’s work a balance that demonstrates the multiple facets of the creative personality. In landscape painting John has been influenced by the work of George Innes, Charles François Daubigny, Claude Monet and John Singer Sargent. His figure and still life have been influenced by Dutch 17th century masters, Rembrandt and Holbein. John has also studied with and been influenced by modern masters Ann Didusch Schuler and Will Wilson. 

The paintings of John Brandon Sills are represented in numerous collections in the United States as well as collections in Canada, England, France, Jamaica, Grand Cayman B.W.I and Australia.

John has won numerous awards including People’s Choice award in the Mid Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association’s Paint Annapolis exhibition, Best in Show and First Place awards in The Charcoal Club of Baltimore Invitational Show and finalist in American Artist Magazine Realism Today competition.  He is considered by some to be among the best landscape painters in Maryland.

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