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Veil Painting is a way of using watercolor special to Waldorf
Schools, and to artists inspired by Rudolf Steiner's writing and painting. In Waldorf High Schools, Veil Painting is part
of the 10th Grade curriculum. This brings color back into art classes for adolescents, following a year in the 9th Grade,
of art classes which were limited to only black and white media .
In this method, water colors are thinned down
to a very light value 7 or 8 on a photographers' scale, and wet colors are applied one at a time only over dry colors.
It is important to begin with no drawing or even a preconceived idea. The artist
patiently layers "veils" of color over one another in varying patterns, taking care to not repeat the same shapes in
the same place, waiting for an image to arise out of the color itself, then seizing upon the motif that the color
has presented.
All of the veil paintings were done in this manner, with the exception of "Loki", a
theme I had a strong desire to paint for the class I did my student teaching in at Pine Hill Waldorf School in Wilton, NH.
Sometimes, 10th Graders in the Waldorf School will transpose a black and white engraving
by Durer or Rembrandt into a color Veil Painting. When this is done, the students will work without any preliminary drawing,
searching for proportions, forms, and placement with very light veils of color before using darker tones.
Pine Hill Waldorf school
Cherry Orchards
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