Zoey Frank’s finished demo. “Eggplant” 2020.

I have a confession to make. I am a little bit of a Zoey Frank online class junkie. I have taken all four of the courses she has offered to date (and I am enrolled in the new one she recently announced). They have all been fantastic! When I think about the top tier of contemporary realist painters, Zoey Frank is definitely part of that personal pantheon of artists that I truly admire.

Taking a class with Zoey is a Master class level experience. The structure of her courses remind me of the academic environment of my graduate school days, which isn’t surprising as her husband Peter, who is an actual humanities professor, is often co-leading the class lectures.

The following are my notes that I took in Zoey’s “Painting Change” class. These will be just a taste of how fantastic it is to actually take a class with her. And you are in luck—because Zoey will be offering a new class which starts in just a couple of weeks on November 11, 2022. To register for her new “Breaking the Surface Part 1” class click here. If you are reading this post past November 11th, all her previously recorded classes are still available for download by clicking here.

Painting Change: Still Life in Motion

17 Sept 2020 - 08 Oct 2020

-”Painting is a static art form. It is unique in that way.”

-”There is a strong element of time that comes into painting, (frozen time) such as in a Zurburan still life, evidence of temporality like a Jackson Pollock or deKooning painting where the process of painting is obvious.”

-”The way we paint is impacted by the time we live in. We are responding to the great work of the recent past.”

Class assignment: Paint something in flux/change. Zoey chose an eggplant for her demo that she painted outdoors over several weeks and pre-taped the video so that she could respond to the growth of the plant as her “flux”.

Zoey Frank’s Thoughts On Process:

-“Paint the new thing over what was there before. Not erasing, not entirely correcting.”

-Be aware of the time of day when painting.

-”Start by responding to the environment or subject but eventually begin responding more and more to the painting itself and what it needs.”

-Zoey measured her plant subject to paint at life scale.

-”Keep things broad in the beginning”. From the beginning, Zoey masses out shapes.

-She tries to match color and value as closely as possible each time.

-She wants to develop the entire painting at the same time.

-Zoey spent about 3 hours painting her demo that first session.

-She is constantly comparing a “stable” measurement in her composition to the area of flux that is changing.

-She does not erase anything at first. She will eventually cover up what is needed.

-Zoey later decides to add the siding of the house in the background of her painting as a way to keep track of the changes in the growing plant. To do so she starts by guessing where the siding goes and then measures their averages & applies this measurement to the drawing of the horizontal lines of the siding.

-“I want to work every area of the canvas with this “response” approach - working on the entire painting each session.”

-When painting living objects Zoey recommends scheduling out painting sessions so there is something new to respond to each time you paint.

-She works back to front often. Background to subject to foreground.

-Zoey asks “is the process showing up in your painting from the beginning”?

-Commit to how the eye is moving through your painting.

-Work in 3 hour time intervals so the lighting is right each session.

-Zoey will take pictures of light beams in a room to find the dramatic lighting possibilities.

-Mix your greens when working with plants. Check your mixed color on your palette knife against the plant.

-Zoey will start her paintings from observation but will always lay carefully calculated perspective drawing on top. The Horizon line is always at her eye level. If you have problems figuring out perspective by going to Youtube and watching videos.

-Think of erasing things when they get in the way of seeing (pot). Link shadow shapes together.

-Keep your set-up in the shade when working outside.

-Working with plumb lines to find out where things line up in the horizontal and vertical locations.

-The first week of painting is about setting it up. The following weeks are about responding to the subject and what the painting needs.

-”(Go for the) sense of presence in a painting.”

-On making stencils: Use mylar and cut out shapes. Only works on flat painting surfaces.

-She will occasionally use a projector to work out the perspective corrections but will only do it on one area of the painting because she prefers to work from observation.

-Check the balance of a painting by holding a finger over an area and see how the rest of the canvas reads. Ask yourself if it is too heavy on one side, etc.

-”Investigate other artwork to figure out what qualities you want in your painting, You can’t change the way you paint simply by wanting it. You must set up the same problems other had in order to achieve the same results.”

-”What questions were other painters asking? By exploring all of these things you will come to find your own voice.”

-”The canvas is a place to explore - not to necessarily make beautiful things.”

Zoey Frank’s Thoughts On Technique -

-Zoey does a lot of scumbling (light over dark). Direct Opaque painting. She doesn’t glaze a lot.

“I am not so much about the finish, but more about whether I am (still) engaged, about how my eye keeps moving.”

-”Great paintings are built on corrections & adjustments to get after the best composition. Think of Rembrandt’s 3 heads.”

-While painting her demo, Zoey extends her brush out as far as possible “like sword play”.

-When painting symmetrical objects, such as when painting leaves Zoey will often use a midline measurement.

-Do not be afraid of mistakes. “Putting something in wrong and then correcting it is how we build paintings.”

-She adds “tick marks” to her paintings to mark needed improvements, These marks help her adjust the composition when figuring out measurements.

-Zoey will hold a lighter brush and darker brush of each color when working.

-She scrapes while wet. Sands when dry.

-Techniques on erasure: painting more on top, dragging the brush over the canvas but not completely obscuring, scraping with a palette knife, sanding with water or wet sand.

-Zoey does not do a lot of glazing in her work. Instead, will add lighter paint dragged over the ground. Focuses on keeping values organized.

-”Shadows are there to lift up the lights. They anchor us down. Squint until all the values become the same value. Think of shadow as a lady skater being held up by her partner.”

-Tip: Zoey adds a highlight in the center of her lights so she knows how far to bring up the midtones from the shadow.

-Soft edges = bridges into a painting. Hard edges = barriers that stop our eyes.

-Ask yourself how many different edges can you have on one form?

-Zoey feels free to draw in graphite over oils (when correcting).

-She works back and forth between warm and cool. Warm shadow cool transition at “last light”, then warm into the middle of light & then cool highlight. It is the opposite in cool shadows/warm light.

-Think of ‘tiling’ when laying in transitions of color.

-”Core shadows will always have a softer edge than the cast shadow because that is where the light ends.”

-”The most successful paintings have control over in shadow and excitement in the light.”

-”Over-working a painting is more about losing the accuracy of value relationships. Think of it as regions with its own value relationships. Squint! Only one part of your painting can be the lightest light, only one part of your painting can be the darkest dark. Everything else is in between these two extreme values.”

-On surfaces: Zoey wants the surface to come organically from the process. It should accumulate over time.

-When painting in letters in a painting, she will aim for their abstract shapes instead of writing in “print” letters.

Workshop Wednesday: Zoey Frank