Color Journals: Learning to See Color with Fresh Eyes with Clayton Merrell

Week of April 25, 2026

Color Journals: Learning to See Color with Fresh Eyes
Focusing our attention on color in and around Rancho La Puerta, we will increase our observational acuity and color perception while examining the emotional, cultural, and personal foundations of our chromatic preferences. Novices and artists alike will stretch their understanding of how we see color and how it can be used. Attend any or all – each session can stand alone. Participants who attend multiple sessions will accumulate pages within a color journal that will be a visual record of their color experiences at Rancho La Puerta. (The Sunday session supplies are limited to 24 participants, so consider showing up early.)

Hand Binding a Sketchbook
Make an Italian-style hand sewn sketchbook/notebook to fill with color exercises over the course of the week. (Anyone who doesn’t attend the first session can still participate in any or all of the later sessions!) 90 mins

Color Perception: New Eyes
We will discuss and observe the ways that our eyes and our minds collaborate to create the perception of color, then experiment with color combinations using paper collage to examine the ways that color can change dramatically based on context. 75 mins

Complicated Color: Looking Closer
Taking inspiration from complex color combinations in art and nature, we will look beyond the habits and language that normally limit our experience of color. We will expand our color perception through extremely close observation of plants, rocks, etc., from the grounds and experiment with optical mixing to recreate those observations in our color journals.
75 mins

Open Studio
Come spend some time at the art studio making art alongside our visiting artist. He will be working on his own paintings, using experimental watercolor and gouache techniques. Materials will be available for you to work in a variety of mediums as well: watercolor, gouache, drawing, collage, etc. 90 mins

Natural and Artificial Color: Making Paint from Local Pigments
We will discuss some of the many dualities inherent in color; it can be natural or artificial, authentic or deceptive, etc. Then we’ll make watercolor paints out of locally found materials and natural pigments, experiencing and discussing their various visual, physical and tactile qualities, and make a visual record of some of the colors found at Rancho La Puerta. 75 mins

 

Clayton Merrell grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, and Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela. He holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art and received a Fulbright Grant for research and creative work in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1996-97.  His work is exhibited widely, with recent exhibitions at: the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; Penn State University; Concept Gallery, Pittsburgh PA; the A+D Gallery, Chicago; the Westmoreland Museum of Art, and the Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua NY.  His work is in the collections of the American Embassy in Belmopan, Belize, the Smithsonian, the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and numerous private and corporate collections.  He was the 2005 Artist of the Year at The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and in 2016 was named Creator-of-the-Year by the Pittsburgh Technology Council. He has received awards and grants from the Heinz Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Skowhegan, The Millay Colony, Mass MOCA, Vermont Studio Center, and the Roswell Artist-In-Residence Foundation.  The Pittsburgh International Airport features a 69,000 sq. ft. terrazzo floor based on his design.  He is currently the Dorothy L. Stubnitz Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, where he teaches Color, Painting, Drawing and Concept Studios.