The Hun School Painting Workshop

On February 9, 2004 I began to teach an oil painting workshop at the Hun School of Princeton, New Jersey. Fourteen students submitted photographs of common objects around the classroom and then they each began to produce their first oil painting. Many were apprehensive that they could not complete an oil painting in the three weeks we would have. I decided to take 25-50% of each photograph and utilize them in a collage like composition, thereby completing fourteen paintings in the three week period. I named my painting "The Sum of the Parts".

Each of the students gave me extraordinary efforts. To their amazement and more so to mine, when I appeared in class the morning after I underwent emergency surgery, I guess they figured if I could overcome surgery and be there the next day, surely finishing a painting would be no problem for them. Every student finished the paintings in their own style with incredibly wonderful results. Some changed the final painting to reflect their own personal tastes, but everyone of the students worked hard to achieve some wonderful results.

Their work and my painting, "The Sum of the Parts" can be seen below.