WORKSHOP 3 — THE ART OF OIL PAINTING

WHEN COLOR BECOMES KNOWLEDGE AND VISION

Oil painting is more than learning how to place color on canvas. It is a way of training the eye, the mind, and the hand to see the world with greater depth.

Students begin by discovering the character of oil paint—its materials, tools, colors, brushes, surfaces, and possibilities. Step by step, they explore color theory, mixing, layering, light and shadow, composition, perspective, texture, proportion, atmosphere, and visual depth.

They learn how observation becomes a sketch, how a sketch becomes a composition, and how a composition gradually becomes a painting with meaning, emotion, and identity.

Through demonstrations, practical exercises, experimentation, and progressive projects, students discover how color can create light, how shadow can give form its volume, how texture can give a surface life, and how composition can guide the viewer through a painted world.

Our purpose is not simply to teach students how to paint. It is to teach them how to observe, question, experiment, imagine, and ultimately develop a visual language of their own.

FROM COLOR TO CANVAS

A progressive educational journey from the first encounter with paint and brush to the creation of a complete artwork—where technique becomes confidence, observation becomes imagination, and color becomes a language.

THE TEN SESSIONS

1. THE FIRST BRUSHSTROKE — MATERIALS, TOOLS & THE LANGUAGE OF OIL PAINT

Students discover paints, brushes, palettes, surfaces, mediums, studio materials, and essential methods for preparing and working safely and confidently.

2. THE WORLD OF COLOR — THEORY, MIXING & HARMONY

Students explore the color wheel, primary and secondary colors, warm and cool relationships, value, saturation, contrast, harmony, and practical color mixing.

3. BUILDING THE PAINTING — UNDERPAINTING, LAYERS & TRANSPARENCY

Students learn how a painting grows through underpainting, opaque and transparent layers, glazing, and the gradual construction of visual depth.

4. PAINTING WITH LIGHT — SHADOW, FORM & ATMOSPHERE

Students study light sources, value relationships, highlights, reflected light, shadows, and contrast to transform flat shapes into convincing three-dimensional forms.

5. COMPOSITION & PERSPECTIVE — CREATING A VISUAL WORLD

Students learn proportion, balance, rhythm, focal points, spatial organization, perspective, and how to guide the viewer's eye through a painting.

6. THE SKIN OF THE PAINTING — TEXTURE & THE EXPRESSIVE BRUSH

Students experiment with brushwork, palette-knife techniques, paint thickness, surface effects, and methods for expressing stone, wood, glass, fabric, water, vegetation, and other materials.

7. PAINTING NATURE & ARCHITECTURE — LEARNING TO READ THE WORLD

Students study landscapes, buildings, streets, architectural elements, and natural forms, learning how to simplify reality and transform observation into a coherent painted composition.

8. COLOR & EMOTION — FROM OBSERVATION TO PERSONAL EXPRESSION

Students move beyond literal representation and explore how color, rhythm, brushwork, atmosphere, and abstraction can communicate memory, mood, emotion, and personal vision.

9. CREATING A COMPLETE PAINTING — FROM IDEA TO FINAL DETAIL

Students develop an original work from concept and preliminary sketch through composition, palette selection, layering, refinement, and final artistic decisions.

10. THE FINAL CANVAS — WHEN TECHNIQUE BECOMES A VOICE

Students complete and present an original oil painting, participate in constructive critique, reflect on their creative development, and prepare the work for inclusion in their portfolio.

WHAT STUDENTS TAKE WITH THEM

Students leave with more than a finished painting. They develop a stronger understanding of color, light, composition, perspective, texture, materials, and oil-painting techniques.

More importantly, they leave with a more observant eye, a more confident hand, greater creative independence, and the beginnings of a visual language that can continue to grow long after the workshop ends.

Every canvas begins in silence. Then the first brushstroke arrives—and slowly, color becomes light, light becomes emotion, and an empty surface becomes a world that did not exist before.

تنويه

DISCLAIMER

النص الآتي عمل أدبي وفني مستوحى من حياة الفنان العثماني عثمان حمدي بك وإرثه في الرسم وعلم الآثار والمتاحف وتعليم الفنون.

The following text is a literary and artistic work inspired by the life of Ottoman artist Osman Hamdi Bey and his legacy in painting, archaeology, museums, and arts education.

يعتمد النص على شخصيته التاريخية الحقيقية وعلى عالمه الفني، ولا سيما لوحته الشهيرة مدرّب السلاحف.

It draws upon his historical identity and artistic world, particularly his celebrated painting The Tortoise Trainer.

أ ما الحوارات والمشاهد الواردة في القصة، فهي معالجة أدبية متخيلة تهدف إلى استكشاف عالم الفنان وأفكاره وإرثه.

The dialogue and scenes in the story are part of an imaginative literary interpretation created to explore the artist’s world, ideas, and legacy.

لم تُكتب القصة بوصفها سيرة تاريخية حرفية، بل بوصفها تأملًا فنيًا في الرؤية واللون والصبر وعلاقة الفنان بعمله.

The story is not presented as a literal historical biography, but as an artistic meditation on vision, color, patience, and the relationship between the artist and his work.

يقدّم معهد الفنون والعمارة الإسلامية هذا العمل تقديرًا لإرث عثمان حمدي بك، وللفنان الذي جعل من اللوحة مساحةً للمعرفة والسؤال والذاكرة.

The Institute of Islamic Art and Architecture presents this work in appreciation of Osman Hamdi Bey’s legacy and of an artist who transformed painting into a space for knowledge, inquiry, and memory.

الورشة الثالثة

WORKSHOP THREE

الرسم بالألوان الزيتية

OIL PAINTING

حين يصبح اللون معرفة ورؤية

WHEN COLOR BECOMES KNOWLEDGE AND VISION

قصة مستوحاة من حياة الفنان عثمان حمدي بك

A STORY INSPIRED BY THE LIFE OF OSMAN HAMDI BEY

في صباح لم يكن مسجلًا في أي تقويم، استُدعي عثمان حمدي بك للمثول أمام لوحة بيضاء.

On a morning recorded in no calendar, Osman Hamdi Bey was summoned to appear before a white canvas.

لم يكن يعرف التهمة.

He did not know the charge.

لكن الفرشاة الموضوعة على الطاولة كانت تنتظره مثل شاهد يعرف أكثر مما ينبغي.

But the brush lying on the table waited like a witness who knew more than it should.

جلس أمام اللوحة.

He sat before the canvas.

فقالت له بصوت لم يسمعه أحد سواه:

And it spoke in a voice no one else could hear:

أنت متهم بأنك تنظر إلى العالم من دون أن تراه.

You are accused of looking at the world without seeing it.

اعترض الفنان.

The artist objected.

قال إنه أمضى حياته يراقب الوجوه والقباب والأبواب والبلاط والضوء.

He said he had spent his life observing faces, domes, doors, tiles, and light.

قالت اللوحة:

The canvas replied:

لقد رأيت أشكالها، لكن هل رأيت ما تخفيه؟

You have seen their forms, but have you seen what they conceal?

اقترب عثمان حمدي بك منها، فوجد بابًا مرسومًا على بياضها.

Osman Hamdi Bey moved closer and discovered a door painted upon its whiteness.

فتح الباب، فدخل متحفًا بلا نهاية.

He opened it and entered a museum without end.

كانت الجدران تحمل لوحات لم يرسمها بعد.

Its walls carried paintings he had not yet created.

وكانت الشخصيات داخلها تنظر إليه كما لو أنها تنتظر اعترافه.

The figures inside them watched him as though awaiting his confession.

مر أمام عالم يقرأ في صمت.

He passed a scholar reading in silence.

لكن الكتاب كان فارغًا، والكلمات تظهر فقط عندما يغلق العالم عينيه.

Yet the book was empty, and its words appeared only when the scholar closed his eyes.

مر أمام امرأة تقف في غرفة من البلاط الأزرق.

He passed a woman standing in a chamber of blue tiles.

كان وجهها مضيئًا، لكن ظلها كان أقدم منها بمئات السنين.

Her face was luminous, but her shadow was centuries older than she was.

ثم وصل إلى غرفة يقف فيها رجل عجوز أمام مجموعة من السلاحف.

Then he entered a room where an old man stood before a group of tortoises.

حمل الرجل نايًا صغيرًا، وانتظر أن تتحرك السلاحف.

The man held a small flute and waited for the tortoises to move.

مرّت ساعة.

An hour passed.

ثم مرّ عصر كامل.

Then an entire age passed.

لم تتحرك السلاحف.

The tortoises did not move.

سأل عثمان حمدي بك الرجل:

Osman Hamdi Bey asked the man:

لماذا لا تغادر؟

Why do you not leave?

أجابه الرجل:

The man answered:

لأنني كُلّفت بتغيير ما لا يريد أن يتغير.

Because I was appointed to change what refuses to change.

وفجأة أدرك الفنان أن الرجل يحمل وجهه.

Suddenly, the artist realized that the man bore his own face.

وأن السلاحف لم تكن حيوانات.

And the tortoises were not animals.

كانت أفكارًا قديمة تحمل بيوتها فوق ظهورها، وتخاف أن تخرج منها.

They were ancient ideas carrying their homes upon their backs, afraid to emerge.

رفع عثمان حمدي بك فرشاته.

Osman Hamdi Bey raised his brush.

وضع طبقة من البني، فظهر الزمن.

He laid down a layer of brown, and time appeared.

وضع فوقها الأزرق، فظهر الصمت.

He placed blue above it, and silence appeared.

أدخل خيطًا من الذهب، فانفتح الضوء داخل الجدار.

He introduced a thread of gold, and light opened within the wall.

لكن كلما اكتملت اللوحة، اختفى جزء من الفنان.

Yet with every part of the painting completed, a part of the artist disappeared.

اختفت يده أولًا.

First, his hand vanished.

ثم اختفى صوته.

Then his voice disappeared.

ثم لم يبقَ منه إلا عين تنظر وفرشاة تتحرك.

Finally, nothing remained but an observing eye and a moving brush.

سألته اللوحة:

The canvas asked him:

الآن، من يرسم من؟

Now, who is painting whom?

لم يجب.

He did not answer.

فقد فهم أن الفنان لا يقف خارج عمله.

For he understood that the artist never stands outside the work.

كل لون يضعه على القماش ينتزع منه ذكرى.

Every color placed upon the canvas takes a memory from him.

كل وجه يرسمه يكشف وجهًا كان يخفيه عن نفسه.

Every face he paints reveals another face he had concealed from himself.

وكل ظل يمنحه للأشياء يفتح ظلمة في داخله كي يفهمها.

Every shadow he gives to things opens a darkness within him so that he may understand it.

في تلك اللحظة، لم يعد اللون زينة.

At that moment, color ceased to be decoration.

أصبح وثيقة.

It became a document.

لم تعد الفرشاة أداة.

The brush was no longer a tool.

أصبحت مفتاحًا لغرفة داخل الإنسان ظل بابها مغلقًا سنوات طويلة.

It became a key to a chamber within the human being whose door had remained locked for years.

هذا هو الرسم بالألوان الزيتية.

This is oil painting.

أن تقف أمام سطح صامت، فتكتشف أنه يعرف عنك أكثر مما تعرف.

To stand before a silent surface and discover that it knows more about you than you know yourself.

أن تبني النور طبقة فوق طبقة، ثم تكتشف أن الظل هو الذي كان يبنيك.

To construct light layer upon layer, only to discover that the shadow was constructing you.

أن ترسم بابًا، فتجد نفسك خلفه.

To paint a door and find yourself behind it.

أن ترسم نافذة، فتدرك أن العالم كان يراقبك منها.

To paint a window and realize that the world had been watching you through it.

في هذه الورشة، لن نعلّمك كيف تضع اللون على القماش فقط.

In this workshop, we will not merely teach you how to place color upon canvas.

سنعلم العين أن تشك في أول ما تراه.

We will teach the eye to question what it first sees.

سنعلم اليد أن تصبر حتى يكشف اللون سره.

We will teach the hand to wait until color reveals its secret.

وسنتعلم أن الخطأ الذي نحاول إخفاءه قد يكون الجزء الوحيد الصادق في اللوحة.

And we will learn that the mistake we try to hide may be the only truthful part of the painting.

في نهاية الورشة، قد تحمل لوحة إلى منزلك.

At the end of the workshop, you may carry a painting home.

لكن السؤال الحقيقي هو:

But the true question is:

من الذي سيعود إلى المنزل؟

Who will return home?

أنت الذي دخل الورشة؟

The person who entered the workshop?

أم الإنسان الذي أعادت الألوان رسمه؟

Or the human being whom the colors have painted anew?

معهد الفنون والعمارة الإسلامية

THE INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE

نيويورك

NEW YORK

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WHERE HERITAGE INSPIRES THE FUTURE