Elemental Abstractions: A Three-Part Abstract Painting Workshop Series with Shug
(part 1) Sunday November 8th from 11am to 2pm
(part 2) Sunday November 15th from 11am to 2pm
(part 1) Sunday November 22nd from 11am to 2pm
Entry Level Class—No experience necessary
Age 18+
All materials, tools, and supplies are included in the class fee.
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Elemental Abstractions is an invitation to paint the way the great abstractionists taught us to see — not the literal shape of a thing, but its feeling. Across three sessions, participants will move through land, water, and city, the same elemental subjects that carried Richard Diebenkorn, J.M.W. Turner, James McNeill Whistler, and Franz Kline toward some of the most radiant abstraction of the last two centuries.
Each three-hour gathering is its own complete, joyful studio experience; together, the three build toward a small, cohesive body of work and a real, felt sense of what it means to paint abstractly.
No prior painting experience is needed — only curiosity, an open hand, and a willingness to let color and gesture lead.
Week One: Abstract Landscapes
Focus: We'll begin where Richard Diebenkorn began his own Ocean Park paintings — looking at land not as a place but as an arrangement of horizon, plane, and light. Participants will translate the structure of land into abstracted color fields and confident gestural marks.
Techniques explored: Underpainting and layering, palette knife and large-brush mark-making, building depth through warm and cool color relationships, simplifying the landscape into shape, plane, and rhythm.
Participants leave with: A completed abstract landscape painting, and a working vocabulary of mark-making they'll carry into every session that follows.
Week Two: Abstract Seascapes
Focus: Turner spent a lifetime chasing the way light dissolves at sea, and Whistler found whole nocturnes in the quiet of the water at dusk. This session invites participants into that same pursuit — capturing the fluidity, atmosphere, and light of water through pouring, blending, and transparent layering, distinct from the built-up textures of Workshop 1.
Techniques explored: Wet-into-wet blending, glazing for luminosity, creating movement and rhythm with directional strokes, working in a cooler, more atmospheric palette.
Participants leave with: A completed abstract seascape, and hands-on experience with fluid, luminous painting techniques that open up an entirely different side of their abstract vocabulary.
Week Three: Abstract Cityscapes
Focus: Franz Kline built cities from nothing but bold black gesture and open white space, finding the pulse of a skyline in the sweep of a single stroke. Here, participants will reinterpret the geometry and energy of the built environment through bold line work and structured composition.
Techniques explored: Line and edge control with tape or straightedge, geometric layering, high-contrast color for energy and depth, and the option to integrate collage or mixed-media accents.
Participants leave with: A completed abstract cityscape, and a finished three-piece body of work spanning land, water, and city — a small personal collection, ready to take home or exhibit.
About the Instructor:
S. Lee Robinson is a Detroit-based abstract and surrealist painter with over 35 years of studio practice. She holds a BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and an Art Therapy Practitioner certificate, and currently serves as the 2026 Artist in Residence at The Village Club in Bloomfield Hills through the Women of Impact Residency Program. She teaches abstract and process-based painting at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, and her work has been exhibited internationally and featured in Architectural Digest and California Homes. She teaches the way she paints — intuitively, generously, and with a deep belief that every hand in the room is capable of something honest on the canvas.
