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Old School Square Creative Arts School Is Offering Two Virtual Classes With Fran Mann Goodman- Blending Art History With Abstract Expressionism
Old School Square Creative Arts School is offering two virtual classes with innovative artist and teacher, Fran Mann Goodman. Beginners Class (starts April 27) and Intermediate/Advanced Class (starts April 28) will blend art history with abstract impressionism. Over the four weeks, students will be exposed to famous as well as “forgotten” artists as they channel their own style into a painting. The classes include critique and a generous serving of excitement and joy! The Rickie Report shares the details for registration as well as some sneak peeks of former students’ artworks.
FRAN MANN GOODMAN’S
PAINTING CLASS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY
EXPERIENCE !
Fran offers two levels of classes at
Old School Square Creative Arts School:
BEGINNERS Classes Start April 27
BEGINNERS REGISTER HERE:
The course is all about creating mood and emotion on the canvas through learning and experiencing experience in creative ways. Students have the freedom to let go and allow your inner artist to emerge, while exploring the lives and artistic styles of four famous abstract expressionists from the 40’s and 50s. They learn from their paintings, concepts of composition with an emphasis on color/value, balance, scale, and spatial relations. In demonstrations, they will be guided as to how to do color mixing and how to develop a layered and textured painting with acrylic paint and various mediums and applicators, which they can practice with at that same time.
Then each week, in their home, they “channel” the artists’ styles into their own painting. After their painting is complete they send in a photo for a group critique the following week. If students need any guidance, they are free to contact Fran. During the course of the four weeks, they may be asked to watch certain movies and videos related to the artists.
INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED
Classes Start April 28
This is a unique class that gives students familiar with abstract expressionism an opportunity to convert impressionism into expressionism. Over the course of four weeks, they explore the lives and artistic styles of four artists from different periods of time. With the aid of material emailed to them, they examine these artists’ paintings for composition and design. In demonstrations, they learn how to use unique mediums and applicators to develop dimension and texture. Then they “channel” these artists’ styles into their own expressionist painting, doing one painting every week. After their painting is complete they send in a photo for a group critique the following week. In between time, if students need any guidance, they are free to contact Fran. During the course of the four weeks, they may be asked to watch certain movies and videos related to the artists.
Fran Mann Goodman with one of her award winning paintings
Fran Mann Goodman is an award winning painter of abstract expressionism. She is a member of the National Association of Women Artists, the National League of American Pen Women where she is the cochair of the art program for the Florida branch; the Arts Student League, ArtServe, Broward Art Guild and a Signature Artist of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Fran serves on the board of the Delray Art League the Arts Education Fund Chair. Fran received her formal training at Chouinard Art Institute (now CAL ARTS) where she worked in the style of representational art. As a student in the ‘60s, Fran was chosen to exhibit her paintings heavily texturized with spackling wall paste in galleries and furniture showrooms in LA. She had also received representation at a gallery in NJ.
CLICK HERE FOR INTERVIEW WITH FRAN:
After college, due to a childhood trauma with her face, Fran applied her artistic skill to the makeup field where she built a thirty-year career inspiring women to see the “art” in their faces. Her unique aesthetic approach, coupled with her workshops, seminars, support groups, as well as widespread media exposure, earned her national and international recognition. She was featured on talk shows, women’s magazines and other print media including The New York Times. Fran did not paint during those years. Instead, she penned a memoir and two screenplays centered around her life story.
In 2013, Fran returned to painting after a bout with Lyme disease left her with arthritic fingers and the difficulty to continue writing. She began working in the style of Abstract Expressionism, preferring to create mood and emotion over defined images, infusing her paintings with pastes, sand, glosses, paper towels, and acrylic skins. Since then, Fran’s paintings have been exhibited in over thirty galleries in New Jersey, the Chelsea district of Manhattan and Southern Florida, and are in private collection in the United States.
Fran enjoys painting and exhibiting but her passion is teaching. In 2013, she created, “NOT YOUR ORDINARY PAINTING CLASS,” which she has taught at a museum in New Jersey and in several locations in Florida. Fran is an invited lecturer and runs workshops and demonstrations in her craft across Florida. Both her paintings and her classes have been showcased in various Florida media.
Artwork by Student of Fran Mann Goodman
When asked why she teaches, Fran tells The Rickie Report, “Although I enjoy composing weekly curriculums and delivering the contents, it is not the reason I love to teach. I love to teach because of what my students give back to me…their faith and trust in me. Their approving nods while I’m in the process of explaining something, their warm smiles when they get it, their great eagerness to absorb what I suggest to them during their painting process, their pride and joy in their finished work. Although they will be painting on their own, I try to be there for them. In between classes, I make myself available for those who want additional guidance.
Some students start the first class skeptical about their ability and are nervous to put a single mark on a canvas so they work on the smallest size that is required, 16” x 20”. Then, in subsequent classes, I notice not only does their self-confidence and quality of their work grow, so does their desire to paint on larger canvases. By the end of the 4 weeks, often students are painting as big as 30” x 40”.
One of Fran Mann Goodman’s students at work
The students are usually adults who have never painted in abstract expressionism before. They don’t necessarily have any prior drawing or painting experience either. On the first day of class, I explain to them that they are not here to “make apples so real you can take bites out of them.” In fact, there is nothing they must or should do! There are no goals!, No mistakes! Students paint from their hearts, not from their heads. The paintings elicit feelings and emotions.
As far as the artists that we explore, I feel they are our teachers. We learn from their lives their struggles and successes and the lessons they have left behind. (I also share their “secrets,” things people might not know about them. Then no longer are they just a biography, but seemingly real people that “are right in the room” with us!)
Artwork by student of Fran Mann Goodman
To date, I have exposed students to over a hundred artists from Pollack to Rembrandt. For the beginners, at first I concentrate on the famous artists who started the expressionist movement from the 40’s and 50’s. Then as students take more and more classes we explore those who were considered “forgotten.” For the intermediate/advanced class students study the impressionists in an attempt to channel their style into an expressionist painting of their own. Sometimes, in the process of exploring an artist’s life, students will be exposed to a movement or an institution they were involved with. For example, Kandinsky was a member of Der Blaue Reiter so we explored the movement as well.
The students and I form an amazing bond. Often former students will text me an image of a painting they have started on their own to ask for my opinion, or they will contact me to tell me about a gallery show or event I may be interested in. Some beginner students have been accepted into juried shows. I am planning a gallery exhibit for all level several students this fall.
Artwork by student of Fran Goodman
Here are some comments from Fran’s students:
- “I am so happy to have met and attended Fran’s art classes. She has touched my soul with her gentle presence, her love of art, and intelligent observations. She has brought out a new and exciting awareness of color, lines, movement and values; unknown to me before.”
- “Fran brings out the hidden artist in all of us with demonstrations by famous artists, color, theory, observations and discussion with music and laughter.”
- “Thank you, Fran for stirring and waking up my sleeping artistic soul.”
- “Thanks for blowing the lids off our minds by teaching your method! Think I was at a crossroads with painting the former way.
- “I can’t begin to tell you how much of an impact you have made on my life I came to your class expecting nothing more than a pleasant version and an outlet for my grief with your help I have discovered something I love I have so much to learn but even though the process is sometimes painful for me I am glad to have your guidance to help me along in this journey you are a wonderful teacher and a special human being I am so glad I found you.”
More testimonies can be found on her website: www.franmanngoodman.com
For more information about these classes or to purchase her artwork:
Fran invites opportunities to do commissions, lectures, demos and private lessons.
If you are interested in taking one, you can register on her website at franmanngoodman.com.
Facebook page: Fran Mann Goodman’s Paintbox
Meetup.com: Not Your Ordinary Painting Class
Email: franspaintbox@yahoo.com
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Rickie Leiter, Publisher
Rickie@therickiereport.com 561-537-0291
17019 SW Sapri Way Port St. Lucie, FL 34986
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