Saturday, June 24, 2017

Tom Forrestall - Egg Tempera Master Class


 Oh MY Goodness! I am so, so excited to find out this week that I will be taking an Master Class with Tom Forrestall and his son William for five days in July!

 I never thought I'd ever have the opportunity to have hands on instruction with someone like Tom Forrestall. I have greatly admired him, especially after seeing a retrospect of his egg tempera paintings while I was attending Mount Allison University in 2011. He had a wonderful exhibit of his work including all of his art journals over the years.

When I viewed his egg tempera paintings at the Owens Gallery that Summer, I was so affected by them I had to hold myself up against the wall. It's an amazing thing when art can have this kind of powerful affect us.

At this time I knew next to nothing about egg tempera, I was a dyed in the wool oil painter and never imagined I'd be anything but. But I was about to do a complete 180 degree about face change in my medium from oil to egg tempera, and I've never looked back.

It was at Tom Forrestall's exhibition that I knew I absolutely had to learn what every I could about how to paint with egg tempera. The problem was, there was no one in the Mount Allison Fine Art Department faculty that knew enough about this medium to teach me.

 That said, I certainly had a great painting instructor that I admire very much at Mount Allison University,professor Christopher Down, who gave me a one of the finest books by Daniel V. Thompson. He is world's leading authority on tempera materials and processes. The Practice of Tempera Painting Materials and Methods (Dover).


However reading a book certainly isn't a replacement for being taught face to face and getting a hands on education from a mentor.  And so while at Mount Allison I was basically on my own, as I attempted to teach myself how to paint using the medium of egg tempera and all the techniques and processes involved, which was a little daunting. It was not like oil painting and I felt in some ways I was starting with the fundementals of painting again.

 Ironically I did get a brief bit of instruction one day on mixing egg yolk and the tempera pigment powder from Tom's grand daughter, who was also attending Mount Allison University in the Fine Art Department at the same time I was.

Tom Forrestall and his son William Forrestall, also an egg tempera painter will be coming to Parrsboro the week of July 5th - 9th that is being sponsored by Parrsboro Creative and will take place at the Art Lab  Studios and Gallery.

Since finding out that I've been given this very exciting opportunity to attend this Master class I've been doing what I call my happy laundry dance that Winston Spear performs here so brilliantly.


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