The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in 1848 by British artists aiming to return to the intense colors, complex compositions, and detailed, sincere nature study of Italian art before Raphael.  Core founders included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt . who rejected strict Victorian-era academic art rules. I will be exploring Rossetti and William Morris in this course. William Morris is most famous for his beautiful repeat patterns you would see in wall paper and fabric. Rossetti was a painter and painted the iconic model, Fanny Cornforth.

Included in the course is a brief history of this extraordinary movement. While the formal association was short-lived, the movement’s influence on British art lasted several decades, with a 2nd wave led by William Morris and Edward Burns-Jones extending into the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In this class I will be demonstrating four complete acrylic paintings, two complete drawings, how to create a William Morris inspired print by creating an image and showing you how to make it into a repeat pattern.   In two of the paintings, I first draw a detailed pencil drawing and then make an image transfer out of the drawings. I paint on top of the transfers which is our underpainting. One of the paintings is a reproduction of a painting called Boca Bachata by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a Pre-Raphaelite painter; the others are inspired by the Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood painted mostly in oils, sometimes in water color, I chose to work in acrylics. I love using Golden Open Acrylics. They are slow drying acrylics and act more like oils because of that. I prefer working this way, because I like that I can work and blend with the paints more easily than regular acrylics. You can also buy products to extend the drying time if you wish to use your regular acrylics. You can also work in oils.  My lessons are not meant to be step by step but rather a process. Students succeed when they can take a technique and adapt it to their own style.

There will be several pdf’s you can download, including a history of the Pre-Raphaelites.This is a self-paced class and videos are downloadable.