THE SOMATIC PALETTE & THE UNBOUND BRUSH (PAINTING & SCALE)

Many artists & creators struggle to find their style because they work exclusively from the wrist and the eyes, aiming for accuracy rather than expression. This course focuses on the somatic experience of painting—using the whole body, altering physical constraints, and tapping into intuitive color theory to build a signature paint application technique.

The Somatic Palette & The Unbound Brush (Painting & Scale)

• Focus: Using your whole body to paint on a larger scale and developing your own signature color palette.
• What you’ll do: Paint on scaled surfaces using brushes attached to long broom handles, experiment with thick and watery paints, and use cardboard instead of brushes. You will also create custom, personal color schemes based on your memories.
• Duration: 6 weeks (3 hours per week)
• Cost: includes heavy paints, scaled surfaces, and custom blending tools

Weekly Breakdown:

• Week 1: The Extended Appendage
  Attaching paintbrushes, charcoals, or palette knives to long bamboo sticks or broom handles. Painting a scaled surface from a distance forces you to surrender micro-control and lean into bold, sweeping gestures and accidental marks.
• Week 2: Chromatographic Memory Scrapes
  Moving away from standard color wheels. You are asked to recall a intense sensory memory (e.g., the damp cold of a morning walk) and mix a limited palette of only 3–4 custom colors to represent it. Paint is applied rapidly using flat squeegees or scrapers to focus on color relationships rather than form.
• Week 3: Viscosity Stacking
  Experimenting with the physics of medium manipulation. You layer ultra-fluid, watery washes directly against thick, impasto cold-wax or heavy-body acrylic textures, observing how different paint densities interact and push against one another.
• Week 4: The Ditch
  Ditch traditional brushes entirely and paint using stiff plastic cards, wood scraps, and cardboard.
• Week 5: On Repeat
  Paint the same subject five times on a grid, changing one rule each time (e.g., fingers only, non-dominant hand) to see what works best.
• Week 6: One canvas
  Look at your grid pieces, pick your favorite techniques, and combine them into one final mid-sized canvas.

Finding Your Style Focus

The Isolation Method: You paint the same subject five times, each time varying only one physical constraint (e.g., Layering with fingers only, using a single 3-inch house painting brush, or painting with a non-dominant hand). Comparing the results reveals which physical constraints actually bring out your most authentic, expressive marks.