What is visionary colour?
In this visual presentation, my aim is to transmit to you new ways of seeing colour, which I learned while working with my master Ernst Fuchs in his Apocalypse Chapel in southern Austria.
Through a series of examples - many from the chapel itself - we’ll visualize how highly-saturated colours harmonize and blend in the eye, creating (what Ernst Fuchs called) ‘colour space.’ With this new way of seeing, we can begin to translate light and shadow across the colour spectrum, following either warm or cold paths, to arrive at a fully harmonized work.
We’ll also reconsider some of the fundamentals of colour theory, by reviewing how polychromy and spectral colour have developed from the time of the Impressionists to contemporary Psychedelic and Visionary Artists. With a series of examples from Robert Venosa (light crystalline spectra) to Alex Grey (saturated spectra) and then onto more recent practitioners like Amanda Sage, Jonathan Solter and myself, we’ll get a rich eyeful of examples on how visionary colour has evolved.
Practical tips will also be offered on how to build up brightness in a layered painting, and which pigments to use while working with spectral colour.
SUGGESTED MATERIALS
You’re welcome to bring a...
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sketchbook
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pencils or ink of choice
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coloured pencils
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water colours
SCHEDULE
Friday December 2, 2022
7 - 10pm Central European
1 - 4pm Eastern
10am - 1pm Pacific
*Please check your local time zones.
This lecture will be hosted on a Zoom call that participants will receive when they register. All sessions are recorded and available for replay for all participants.
INSTRUCTOR
Laurence Caruana
L. Caruana was born 1962 in Toronto Canada, of Maltese descent. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Philosophy, and then studied painting at die Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. In the year 2000 he apprenticed directly under Ernst Fuchs, working as his assistant in his studios in Monaco and Castillon.
The artist has made his home variously in Toronto, Malta, Vienna, Munich, Monaco and Paris. During his wanderings he has actively recorded his dreams and expanded their imagery through mythology. His paintings are inspired by memories and dreams, experiments with entheogens, and the interplay of different cultural symbols and styles.
His interest in sacred art and iconography has led to extensive travels, studying the spiritual traditions of Gothic and Renaissance Christianity (Western Europe), Byzantine Christianity (Eastern Europe), ancient Egypt (Egypt), Hinduism (India), Buddhism (Nepal, Tibet), Mayan and Aztec culture (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras).
After meeting his French fiançée in Munich, L. Caruana moved to Paris, where he maintained a studio in the Bastille quarter for 12 years. After the birth of their son, the couple bought a farmhouse in the Burgundy region south-east of Paris, to pursue a fascination with Permaculture (while maintaining an apartment in Paris).
After leading The Expanded Visions in the Mischtechnik Seminar for seven successful years at the eco-village of Torri Superiore Italy, the couple re-located to the Josefstadt district of Vienna in 2013 to co-found The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art, located next to the Hofburg Palace in the Palais Palffy. In 2016, the academy re-located to the Otto Wagner building at Döblergasse 2 in the alternative Neubau district, and expanded across three floors to include the VAVA Cultural Space and VAVA Werkstätte. As Academy Director, Laurence Caruana shared administrative duties with Florence Ménard while co-teaching or lecturing with well-known figures in the Visionary Art world.
After the closing of the academy in 2020 due to the Global Epidemic, Laurence Caruana and his family returned to their farmhouse in Burgundy, where he is now fully dedicated to painting and writing while working on a new project, The Apocryphon Chapel.
