Summer training 2025 at Ferrières-en-Gâtinais

Spatial ambiguity & Golden number

From July 7 to 11, 2025, an intensive cycle was devoted to two pillars of pictorial language: spatial ambiguity and the golden ratio. These courses have alternated theoretical contributions, painting analyses, guided exercises and personalized feedback, in order to anchor concrete tools directly applicable to painting practice.

Theme 1 - Spatial ambiguity

Objective to go beyond the «classical» depths inherited from the Renaissance and introduce a new dimension. lively visual movementon the painted surface.
Key contents :

• Reminder of depth representation laws to better understand what ambiguity transforms.
• Origins and contributions of Japanese prints in Western modernity.
• Case studies (Matisse, Hartung, Rothko, Soulages) to identify the processes that trigger ambiguity.
• Practical exercises (e.g. «Le Rond et le Carré») for activate and control this phenomenon on the web.

Skills acquired The ability to produce and dose spatial ambiguity, to enrich the internal dynamics of a painting, to create a flow of the eye that holds without relying solely on perspective.

Theme 2 - The golden ratio

Objective to give the work clear, solid compositional structure thanks to a plastic invariant present from Antiquity to contemporary art.
Key contents :

• The golden ratio as space organization system, beyond simplistic recipes.
• Installation of proportional frames and rhythms (circle, ellipse, spiral...) to articulate image sectors.
• Analysis of The lion hunt (Rubens): spirals, tensions, continuities.
• Method of «Simplified golden number» for fast, intuitive use in everyday practice.

Skills acquired composing with confidence, reinforcing the plastic unity and «tenu» of the image, installing a prior harmony before coloring.

Pedagogy and sequence

Constant focus on’operational Each session concludes with specific actions to be repeated in the workshop.

Alternance theory → analysis of works → exercises → corrections for gradual assimilation.

Provision of’examples and methods that can be transposed into both figurative and abstract forms.

Review excerpts & continue training

From video extracts from these courses are available to extend learning and review essential technical points.
Two ways to continue:

• Online courses on the Painting Culture (flexible pace, structured content).
• Face-to-face courses at the workshop Artquarium (accompanied practice, corrections on parts).