Unveiling Composition With Gordon Studer
Gordon Studer workshop at Willow Pond SLO June 21 - June 24, 2025
Discovering The Masterpiece Within Your Art
The remarkable Gordon Studer is coming to Willow Pond in June for a transformative four-day workshop to elevate your artistic vision. Whether a beginner or a seasoned artist, this upcoming workshop (now full) is designed to sharpen the artistic eye and open up new creative possibilities through the exploration of compositions with multiple elements.
Studer’s guidance encourages artists to embrace expressive mark-making, break free creatively, and gain poise, adopting the morale that one needs to build depth and finish work with satisfaction.
Gordon Studer’s earthy, confident abstracts are rooted in his discipline as an award-winning commercial illustrator, lending his work a strong, graphic cadence. The result speaks to some of Studer’s themes of liminal experience, interstitial time, and dreamscapes in deliberate forms in black atop a palette of ochre, sky blue, and crushed clays.
Studer, both seasoned as an artist and teacher has a clear and cool approach to crafting dynamic compositions and he clarifies how to build a strong foundation before mastering value and color.
“Design and value are the most important elements in a work of art. Color and texture come next, but the first two will make or break a piece. I think there is a tendency to try and save a painting with color and textures when what really needs to be addressed is the design and overall values, When I say values, I’m referring to darks and lights.”
Studer is an industrious force innately, he embraces creative flow in his work, unlocking creative possibilities through his dynamic career in design, teaching, illustration, and his lifelong practice of painting both figuratively, and abstractly. Often expressive dimension and personality come from the hidden gems within a piece and gathering together in a workshop salon is the ideal setting to develop an editor’s eye. Studer routinely collects and appreciates art of all sorts to revisit, as well as viewing as many local artist openings as possible. He says that including his own work in these folders offers perspective on how his work relates to others. We look forward to learning more in June, although the workshop is currently full make sure to stay in touch for any updates and add your name to the waitlist.
About the Artist
Gordon Studer studied fine art at Penn State, he then went on to teach at the California College of the Arts, and enjoyed a 25 year career telling visual stories for Fortune 500 corporate clients and major media outlets. His background is evident as he applies an intentionality to his paintings, delivering on a specific narrative, and invites the viewer to a purposeful encounter. Studer once experienced a bout of complete amnesia, allowing him to refresh his perception of the natural world and question concepts such as imagination, dream, and recollection. Studer is based in Sausalito, California, regularly exhibiting his work nationally and internationally. He can be found teaching workshops in his studio or viewing art at galleries whenever he has the chance. His upcoming Solo Show “RISE” is at Julie Nester Gallery, Park City, UT, February 1 -25, 2025.
