Instructor: Mike Howat

Paint what’s around you and embrace all things familiar and everyday. Sometimes the most seemingly mundane, everyday things can make the most interesting paintings. In this two-day immersive painting workshop, you'll create paintings based on their surroundings as well as places, people, or scenes close and familiar to them. Using a combination of photo reference, still lives and plein-air work on-site, students will be guided through various representational painting techniques to accurately express what they’re seeing. Students will also explore how things like memory can play a role in bringing a painting to life, or how choices in color palette and lighting affect the mood of a painting. 

Short walks in the downtown area surrounding AVA will allow outside work on-site to capture the light and colors from life to help inform paintings worked on in the studio. Basic drawing, color mixing and other painting techniques will also be covered, so all skill levels are welcome. Click here for a Materials list.

Browse All Classes

AVA's Covid-19 Masking and Vaccination Policy

Mike Howat is a New Hampshire-based painter and printmaker. His work explores themes of urbanization, Americana and collective memory. Since earning his B.F.A. from New Hampshire Institute of Art in 2014, he has been actively engaged in the growing New England art scene. He exhibits regularly with Kelley Stelling Contemporary and Mill Brook Gallery & Sculpture Garden, and has shown with Chase’s Garage, Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, Nahcotta, among others. He is the current artist-in-residence at Kimball Jenkins School of Art, where he teaches classes and workshops in painting, printmaking and drawing. mikehowat.com