Into The Heartland 2026 - The Art of Painting with Light - Sherri Thornton

Sherri Thornton | The Art of Painting with Light: Utilizing Color, Design, and Innovation

How would you conceptualize the premise of borrowing from the art of contemporary stained glass work, using letterforms as the primary vehicle to create a design encompassing the elements that characterize stained glass:
• The drawing of design elements with black outline and pattern, echoing the use of thin strips of leading in stained glass that create the grid work holding glass pieces in place in the composition.
• The use of color laid within the grid work to define and illuminate the subject.

We shall begin the week exploring drawn letterforms that lend themselves to the more abstract, contemporary focus of our time together. We will translate the mosaic interlocking patterns within stained glass work into the varied grid work our letters will live within.

Our drawing tool, the Posca acrylic artist marker, gives us the dense acrylic black, quick-drying variable line quality we are aiming for. To achieve the ‘glow’ that distinguishes the beauty of stained glass, we’ll be working with acrylic inks, allowing the colors to dry between layers to create glazes from our palette of diluted waterproof inks–so that we are ‘building up’ color and luminosity.

Our canvas, Rives BFK paper, with its brilliant white surface, helps to add to the element of color luminosity on the page.

We shall touch on Adolf Bernd’s letterform/ pattern paintings, especially his use of breaking a rhythmic pattern with one ‘off-kilter’ out of step element on the page, incorporating that element
into our design work this week.

CLASS SUPPLIES

• 2 sheets White Rives BFK 22x30 inches, 280 gsm, each cut/torn into 4 sheets
• Borden & Riley No. 37 9x12 Boris Marker Layout Marker Pad
• Bic Velocity 0.9 mm lead mechanical pencil 
• Uni Posca black bullet tip artist acrylic markers (sizes PC-1M, 3M and 5M)
• Uni Posca black brush tip artist acrylic marker
• Golden Taklon round brushes or similar good brand (short handle round #6, #4, and #1
• triangle, ruler
• X-acto knife with blade
• Water container
• Paper towels
• Old rags
• Ruler
• Newspaper

If anyone local has a light pad (or light box), please contact Sherri, as two would be helpful to have in class.
Instructor will supply (approximately $25 supply fee depending upon number of students/product size availability):
• Daler-Rowney FW Acrylic Artists Inks
• Geometric shape templates (for visual/ manual ease of designing with geometric shapes)
• Acurit Vanish Artist Eraser
• Neon Prismacolor pencils for shading/luminosity
• Small clear plastic containers with lids for student’s inks storage
• Metal raised lip trays for keeping filled acrylic ink containers upright and confined
• Carbon paper
• Light box