Deepen your understanding of painting impactful visual space through the interconnection of realism and abstraction. Chris Groves helps students find their own individual harmonies of balancing these two seemingly different, but in fact synergistic, ways of seeing and painting. With a sharp eye on color theory, the first part of this workshop will concentrate on creating small sketches in order to design an impactful composition. Elements and principles of realism and abstraction will then be explored in terms of techniques with various tools and materials, including cold wax as a medium for oil paint. Chris will discuss and demonstrate how to use line and edge to create depth through reductive simplifications and make adjustments in order to enhance all the important relationships and gestures in your painting, while maintaining your initial intention. This workshop will culminate with a critique of what works and does not work in these studies, why and why not, and how to improve the final pieces.