Painting Adobe: Structure and Composition

Albert & Halbert are back!

Join us for this one OR two-day workshop with master painter Albert Handell and his student of many years, mathematician and artist, Karen Halbert. This is the perfect duo to understanding the different ways artists compose!

Composition in Two Unique Ways:
• Intuitive Composition with Albert
• Dynamic Symmetry with Karen

Aug. 22 - 23, 2026

Intuitive Composition

Day 1: Saturday, August 22, 2026

Albert will lead “How to use Intuitive Composition” pastel workshop (oil and other mediums accepted as well) working from photographs. Albert will demo in pastel with a watercolor underpainting. Albert will be demonstrating a step-by-step painting from 9 a.m. with student painting time from 1 to 4:00 pm. Students will have time to work on their paintings with plenty of individual help at each easel. Students will have an afternoon painting time from 1 to 4:30 pm with plenty of individual help at each easel from Santa Fe’s own legendary artist.

Supplies: Bring all the supplies you usually use. Bring a plein air easel. If you are flying in we have a few to choose from.

Dynamic Symmetry

Day 2: Sunday, August 23

Dynamic Symmetry is a one-day workshop that helps painters recognize how underlying structure supports intuitive composition. Dynamic Symmetry is introduced not as a rigid system, but as a way of understanding relationships painters already respond to intuitively—such as how the canvas rectangle creates movement, how diagonals generate energy and how opposing forces create balance and stability. Using adobe paintings by Albert Handell and selected historic master paintings as examples, participants explore at their tables how a small set of structural ideas can strengthen intuitive choices and provide practical tools they can apply later in the studio or in the field. This workshop will be a combination of lecture, presentations and hands-on learning all under the guidance of Karen.

What’s Included

Please bring a brown-bag lunch. A light continental breakfast including - coffee, tea, croissants, yogurt and fruit will be provided, along with complimentary soft drinks and sparkling water throughout the day. PS: We have cookies!

Albert Handell was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1937. At an early age, a favorite activity of his was drawing with chalks on the city streets. He began formal studies of drawing and anatomy at the age of sixteen. In 1954, he enrolled at the Art Students League of New York City to study drawing and anatomy with the late Louis Princilla and the Late Robert Ward Johnson, and later studied painting for two years with Frank Mason. From 1961 to 1965, Mr. Handell lived and traveled in Europe. In Paris, he painted independently in his own studio, working from the model at L'Ecole de La Grande Chaumiere and at the Louvre, copying the old masters.

Visit Albert’s Website

Karen Halbert, PhD, a former college professor of Mathematics and current Landscape Painter, will present the armature systems from an artist's point of view, using examples from art history. Her background in Mathematics gives her a unique perspective though, shall we say following in the footsteps of artist-mathematicians such as Piero della Francesco and Leonardo da Vinci. In this workshop, you will get a glimpse of how a Mathematician perceives the underlying framework of paintings. However, as an experienced professor of introductory college mathematics, Halbert is able to explain the underlying Mathematics in simple, straightforward terms if necessary or desired. However, the main goal of the workshop is for the participants to construct armatures and apply them to their own paintings.

Visit Karen’s Website | Visit Karen’s Blog