Barbara Fugate – Color for Color’s Sake: Matisse, Rothko, Pop Art (Online); Wednesdays, October 14-28, 2026

This class is part of Barbara Fugate’s Color Explorations, Artist by Artist series. Supply List Medium: Applicable to artists working in all mediums Level: All levels welcome Class Dates: Wednesdays, October 15-28, 2026 Class Times: • 11:00 am-1:30 pm Pacific time • 2:00 pm-4:30 pm Eastern time • 7:00 pm-9:30 pm UK time This three-session course looks at 20th century artists who explored the color gamut, from objective to subjective color approaches. These artists searched for the purity of color experience, pushing color to the limit using intense hues to express the “here and now”, symbolize spirituality, and create optical experiences. You’ll make sketchbook color studies in the manner of each artist using a variety of media, including gouache, watercolor, artist crayons, and color pencils. Your subject matter will vary depending on the artist being studied, including still life, landscape, portrait, or abstraction. A brief description of each session’s color experiments: 1. Matisse: Color with Black. Black is typically used to shade color, darkening its value. Matisse, however, used it in a different way. He used black more like a color, juxtaposing it against colors to amplify their intensities, increase contrasts and provide a visual anchor in the painting. He also used color intensity to flatten and abstract the space of his interiors and figure paintings. 2. Rothko: Color as Meditation. Rothko’s abstract paintings take time to experience. The softly brushed color fields change and move the longer you observe them, revealing their emotive powers over time. Specific color pairings provide a space for viewers to explore how color communicates a range of emotions and spirituality. 3. Pop Art: Color for Attention. Bold and bright primary colors dominated Pop Art to mirror and critique mass-consumer culture. Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein both applied color flatly to look like commercial printing and comic books, rather than using it to evoke emotional depth or to create an illusion of realism. These paintings are full of energy, dynamism, and even humor.