Intermediate Program

Painting as Large as Life
is led by Heather Hancheruk — For grades 4 – 9

Chuck Close used to paint very realistic, very large photo-style paintings. Twenty odd years into his career he suffered a health crisis, which left him quadriplegic. Regaining some use of his arms and full use of his head, he developed a unique semi-abstract style that takes little squares of abstract paintings that, when put together, create a whole image- kind of like those images of people, animals, and objects made out of images of other objects, but when put together by colour, create a whole new picture. His paintings, when viewed from a distance, still look very realistic, and he always works from photographs as his original starting point.

In this activity, you will be using large canvasses, approximately 2 feet by 3 feet, and acrylic paint. Using a photocopied transparency of a person, (perhaps yourself), and an overhead projector, you will trace the image onto the canvas. You will then divide the canvas into little squares, and paint each square using Chuck Close’s technique, creating a unique portrait. To get a better idea of what his work looks like and what you will be doing, Google Chuck Close, press on images, then enter and voila! I am sure you will be intrigued.

This activity will only be offered in weeks 1 and 2