This workshop will introduce you to the joy and beauty of observational sketching and watercolor painting of seasonal wildflowers and plants. We will meet at an offsite location in PC ( Location: Mid Mtn Trailhead Parking area on Marsac Ave above the drop off circle of the Montage Hotel – more details in the email reminder)! This class is intended to be a jumping off point for the exploration and recording of Utah flora throughout the summer. We will discuss the characteristics of many wild flowers, will explore the different elements of nature journaling and creating a ‘perpetual sketchbook’ and then spend the afternoon working and exploring. A materials list and specifics for the day will be sent to students upon signing up for the course. No previous experience is necessary. Pack a lunch and proper attire to be outside.
Workshop
Organic Drawing
ORGANIC DRAWING:
- Part II of the Organic Sketching (OS)/ Organic Drawing (OD) series…
Let’s put all those new sketching techniques to work for us and create some great Drawings! (Organic Sketching is a prerequisite, so book classes accordingly)
Chris Maggio ~ Instructor
ORGANIC DRAWING (OD) is a 2-Hour Workshop designed to stretch the mental and sketching skills you learned in OS. Time to bring your own style and designs into the picture!
Using your newfound Organic Sketching skills and techniques, we work together to bring your sketched concepts to the completed drawing stage. We will be working from images that you find interesting, as well as real objects, and of course, your imaginations! So, bring in the ideas, the sketches, and visions that you most want to create (i.e. dragons, aircraft, flowers, whatever!) We will cover shading techniques, tone, line quality, highlighting, weight, and focus, and emphasize advanced pencil control. It’ll be fun, a mental challenge, a hand eye coordination experience, and a solid new base from which to create!
Materials?:
- We will be working with the same materials we used in the OS class. Materials are provided.
Preparation?:
Please be prepared by bringing a few preliminary sketches of the object or design that you would like to work on in the class. Important! Utilize the OS methods from the first class as they are the basis of this advanced class (decision lines, commitment lines, eyelashes, etc.) Our objective is to add new skills and techniques and not revisit the OS lessons, if possible.
Organic Drawing is the next confidence level we are going to conquer! So, practice up with those Organic Sketching skills, and let’s jump into this new phase of creation!
Organic Sketching
Organic Sketching (OS) is a relaxing, natural, and pleasing way to express our concepts, ideas, and dreams into their first visual stages. It’s a combination of learned skills, observations, employing creative techniques, and endless practice. Sketching is typically the very first step in almost every genre of art, be it drawing, painting, sculpting, architecture, or design. Unreliable skills make starting a sketch frustrating for some people, and can even make the experience of sketching a fearful hurdle! We are here to help make first sketches exciting, more accurate, and something to look forward to!
OS builds eye-brain-hand connections, instills confidence, and allows our visions to comfortably and smoothly come to life by returning to very basic sketching skills. OS is a non-mechanical freeform way to think your ideas through as you lay them out. Pencil-control and finesse become second nature over time, the act of sketching becomes liberating and sensual.
OS is designed around finding mass and volume, making decision lines, commitment lines, examining light, depth, and understanding effective line-crafting. Tool-familiarity is emphasized, as it’s an easily correctable issue some people don’t even realize they have! We will learn to “see” an object as opposed to just looking at it, developing natural pathways from our brain to our hand. In the end we find life in our sketches!
OS teaches self-correcting critiquing. You’ll find “freedom from resistance” allows you to become emotional about your images as they develop. Sketching, more often than not, is the end-point of most concepts… they’re worked and reworked, exploring variation after variation, never culminating in a “finished” piece. And that’s great. Because Sketches are sometimes the goal, not the means to a goal. (Have you ever seen a sketch that took your breath away, or told the whole story in a tangle of lines and gestures?) The secret to capturing your ideas is the life in their lines, the motion in their figures, the belief you have in its tangibility! That, my friends, is Organic Sketching!
This Workshop is very unique and vibrant, unusually interactive, and not like any class or workshop you have ever explored! From beginner to advanced, you will leave with new skills and techniques, new desires to create, and a higher confidence level than when you first sat down. So join us for this amazingly creative 2 hours that will last a lifetime.
Don’t bother bringing an eraser, we won’t be using one!
**Materials are provided**
Art History and Painting Workshop
Exploring the artwork from the Belle Epoque period of France, students will be inspired to paint with more expressive intention. We will stretch our typical palette of colors for painting to embrace the ‘wild beast’ spirit of Fauvism and build our foundation on symbolism, which is at the heart of the post-impressionist movement. Learning details of these artists’ lives will ignite our imagination and invite us to see their humanity amidst their artistic genius.
Acrylic Paint Pouring / Fluid Art Workshop (1 Day)
Acrylic paint pouring is dazzling, unique and ;*WARNING* can become addictive! From crafting with pouring on coasters, ornaments, jewelry, and vases, to creating fine art on canvases and substrates, the skies the limit. This acrylic paint technique process creates beautiful abstract art. No two pieces will ever be alike and the results always have the element of surprise. This cocktail coaster painting class will be hands on and you will learn: -prepping surfaces -how to mix the basic 3 layers -the actual pouring onto surfaces and a few techniques -manipulation of the paints to create desired effects -glossy acrylic finishes that makes the paints POP! **Suggested dress: Jackson Pollock casual. The paint tends to wander and fly.
Work takes some time to dry. When work is dry it will be available for pickup in our front entranceway during open hours. Students are responsible for remembering their work.
Fearless Abstract (2 Day) Painting Workshop
FEARLESS ABSTRACT PAINTING WORKSHOP Play, experiment, have fun! Explore spontaneous creation with emphasis on “no rules!”. Join professional artist Samantha da Silva as she shares her unorthodox method of painting: Rollers rather than brushes, tables instead of easels, lots of paint and water, canvas manipulation and plaster, salt, sand and wood shavings to create ethereal, textured abstracts. Heart-centered discussions will be offered to assist you to let go of fear, silence the inner critic, turn up your intuition and explore your own artistic style in a safe, supportive environment including: 5 Things To Make Painting Easier, Compassionate Critiques, How to tell your painting is finished, and so much more! Everyone is considered a beginner. No previous artistic experience necessary, just an open mind and an open heart.