Chair:Laura Procunier and Karen Stienstra Co-convener: Anne McGilvary Do Crew:Doreen Brisbin, Laura Procunier, Carole Moore, Wendy Adams, and Wendy Walker. These members have volunteered to help out at many of the following events.
Up-Coming Educational Events:
Each year the Foothills Art Club provides members the opportunity to expand their artistic horizons through workshops put on by professional artists. Artists from our club also share their expertise by offering demonstrations at evening and weekend workshops.
Watch for our list of presenters as they are scheduled throughout the year. For more information contact: Laura Procunier
Theme Nights:
On the first Wednesday of every month, a club member presents on a topic of interest. These sessions are held at St Andrew's Church hall. April 24 Book Report - Barb Kohn
On the third Wednesday of every month, bring along any artwork that you would like feedback on strengths or helpful suggestions on weaknesses. A club volunteer will lead each critique session. Participation in the critique is optional. 7:pm for approximately 15 minutes then free painting. This years Critiques evening are on: - Apr 17
The following are some of the outside artists and presenters that have joined us for past workshops:
Carole Bondaroff Jeremy Mayne Jan Gauthier Mary Lou Brooks David Kitler Curtis Golomb Linda Wilder Marla Blackwell Michael Downs Tracy Proctor Ele Davies Cheryl Peddie Karin Ritcher
Jerry Markham Leah Markham Shannon Luyendy Ursula Reynolds Doug Swinton Jean Pederson Darcy Presiloski Robert E Wood Michelle Grant Jean Geddes Lorri Pullman- MacDonald
Workshops - Recent:
March 2 & 3, 2019 Bobbi Dunlop: FROM THE STUDY TO THE STUDIO PAINTING.
Bobbi developed a beautiful scene from Rome’s Piazza Navonna from Bobbi’s personal photo reference, supplied. All demonstrations done in oil. Imagine yourself standing in Rome’s historic Piazza Navonna. As you observe the bustling scene before you, your senses are filled with the myriad smells, sights and sounds – all the while you’re imagining yourself recording them in paint. From this incredible historic piazza in Rome, to our personal studios – learn how to “simplify” this complex scene with preliminary studies and then take it to your larger studio painting. This 2-day Workshop will touch on all the Simple Ideas; that Bobbi emphasizes throughout her teaching: logical ideas; ... the nuts and bolts necessary to build a strong, beautiful painting. Ideas that help take the mystery out of painting and add the magic you are seeking; ideas that will take your work to the next level. On the first day you will learn how to simplify the photo reference by painting a small preparatory black-and- white value study, as well as a smaller study in colour ~ then, on day two, using your studies, painting your truest reactions on a larger studio painting. Using the supplied photo referenced, exploring all the fundamentals of painting: SHAPE, VALUE, EDGES and that scary thing called “COLOUR”. Bobbi Dunlop www.bobbidunlop.com
Feb 6 Guest Theme Night - Doug Smith: water colourist. Doug has traveled and painted from Canada to China to Italy. He paints from detailed sketches and notes made on site. His watercolours are on 300lb Arches paper using only three transparent colours: cobalt blue, rose mater and aureolin yellow. Doug works wet-in-wet. The paint is mixed with water in dishes then he uses the table as his pallet. Paint is applied with 1.5” brushes then he finishes with calligraphy like strokes using a #2 rigger. Important notes include drawing from the centre of interest and out, but, paint from the outside into the centre of interest last. Doug paints the fore and backgrounds then the mid-ground . By using transparent colours, he is able to build up layers of subtle details (sometimes up to 22 washes). Doug focuses on painting shapes with connecting lines, five levels of values, repeating colours, and negative painting to bring out details.
Jan 30 - Book Report: Eric Sennhauser discussed “Chiaroscuro” and “Sfumato” which are techniques that were introduced (or ascribed to) by Leonardo DaVinci. He brought four of his copied master paintings to show what is meant by these terms. As well Eric showed examples and closeups of the styles and techniques used by the past masters. Eric's handout is on the Resources&Links page.
Jan 9 Theme Night - Anne McGilvary and Laura Procunier : Texture - a fun way to add interest to your paintings. They presented a demo on using various gels, mediums and paper to create texture for background before painting. The handout "Texture.docx" is available on the Resources&Links page.
Nov 28 Theme Night - Jeff Mackenzie: Making Mountains
Nov 14 Theme Night - Jeanette Whittle - shared her colour charts in various media.
Nov 7 Report - Laura Procunier two readings re a Doug Swinton workshop. Notes on Resource page
Nov 3 & 4CurtisGolomb of Canmore: water colour Saturday and acrylic Sunday. curtisgolomb.com
Slideshows of Curtis Golomb's workshop: - 300 lb medium texture water colour paper, wet back before painting - use a big flat brush in water colour paint and mixed on the painting - one swipe, not fiddle faddles - whites use Designer gauche - oil base pastels and fluorescent acrylic for final punch - water colour paintings are mounted on foam board with gel medium - varnished with Krylon spray low-odor, clear finish (not need to use glass) Suzanne's Notes: Open wells in the pallette, seperate colors in warm and cool. Tone does all the work and color gets all the glory. Trick..mixing the darks on the paper, transparents make great darks but mix them on the paper Wet the back of your paper, put the tape around the outside edges to give you a nice white border. Make one end your focus in the painting and make marks that take the eye to that corner. Work with basic shapes less is better Start like a lumberjack and end like a jeweller. Stainless steel clips are best for anchoring the paper to you work board. Mist bottles are very handy. Use the biggest brush to get the job done. Remember when doing sky it gets darker as it comes over you. Timing is everything when working in the wet. Use your shoulder and arm rather than you wrist to make for more fluid painting. Varnish is Krylon, low odor, clear finish. 2 coats and once adhered to the board do another coat. Use gel medium thick to adhere to the board. These then can be framed without glass. Wet the back of your painting, then put the gel on the support board, then adhere together. Use one full sheet of plywood to press otherwise you get ridges. Quick 50 brush strokes can be done on location. Using large shapes. You can etch in trees with a blade.
Water Colour in fifty strokes . . .
Water Colour with masking fluid, tape and pastels...
Day Two: Acrylics with Curtis Golomb . . . landscape
Suzanne's Notes: Acrylic He uses peel palettes. He uses hard edge dominant edges. He will send out a memory jogger for both notes. Uses a pastel conde pencil. It wipes off easily or disappears. He uses a large palette knife that looks like a pastry brush. Square brushes, 1 and 2 inch brushes. Uses as large as possible. He does not use a value sketch very often. He does it right on the canvas using black gesso. or foam black Masking tape for marking straight lines. With gesso black he puts in his darkest darkest. Make the trees entertaining on the edge. Use quality canvas so they don't sag. He uses a little water to thin the gesso or a medium. The black gesso gives a texture that cannot be replicated with just the paint. Having a good value sketch gives confidence for a good painting. Watch out for lines that are too even and boring. after putting in the value sketch with black gesso then add white gesso to correct. in the painting he was able to add holes to the trees. some of his finishing was done right at the beginning of the painting on the gesso. He does do an underpainting for all his work. Use transparent glazes for your underpainting. Nickle-azo yellow. Paint on the underpainting loosely with hatching. Then put in a magenta also cross hatched, you can lighten by wiping off with a paper. Thalo blue green shade is his favorite. He then added a purple to the sky and behind the mountains adding in shadows as he goes in the mountain area. the light is coming from behind him. He dropped it on the floor to set the painting. Using a dryer to dry it. Not having straight lines on horizon lines as that becomes boring. After laying in his under painting he puts in his mid tones. He paints from the middle out. green, gold, chromoxide green. Starts to work on some of the highlights on the edge of the trees. He uses chalk to reestablish his drawing following where the edges are of his mountains. Mixing a blue and also using white gesso. He cuts around trees and other things to put into the mountain. Cutting in is a great way to do a lot of detail without a lot of work. It makes things pop. Uses white gesso to highlight the mountains where the sun is hitting. He uses his palette knife as his palette, gets just enough paint and can get a nice edge to is brush when painting. Over the water, phatho green and white to make a nice water. He put masking tape for a nice hard edge on the painting. Swack in the water :) . don't paint up into the masking tape always paint down. It is really hard to put black into color, it looks too contrived. cutting in around the black forms makes it stand out more and leaves some of the yellow around it. He takes straight lines down on the water. white gesso absorbs light and titanium white reflects. With white gesso he cut around the rocks and added a distance water line. He made a really hard edge on the mountains with masking tape. He changed the sky by using gesso, permanent blue light and mag blue. Dark to the one side and lighter towards the other side. With a dry brush and a little paint you can make a suggestion of cloud. To give the piece a little drama he used a glaze around the bottom. He did a glaze and then wiped a bit off to soften the edges. He added cad red dots to make the painting pop. The painting was started at 10 and finished at noon.
Acrylic - architecture: Clock Tower in Portugal
April 12, 2018 Anne McGilvary - How to Framing workshop. Anne recommended purchasing professional Framing Hardware and Point gun ex. Fletcher. She demonstrated the proper method applyingPaper backing:
place face down on towel
Mirror clips to mount frame into frame
sign back on canvas and name (date optional)
tape 2sided (Destination Art)
on edges of frame
Paper: roll of brown paper
Cut over size
Press on to tape from middle to corners
Crease paper edges
Sand paper block at 45°
Spray paper with water
Dries tight
Frame Hardware:
Loops 1/3 down
Pre-drill or awl for a starter hole
Check screw length and image right-side up
Wire: w plastic coating
Wrap 8x, press tight
Cut to length so 2” down from top when finished
Wrap wire
Bottom bumpers
Label w address label
Tie business card to wire with title, cost, your name, notes about painting and artist
Gallery frames: Eyelets inside frames w wire
March 28Samantha Williams-ChapelskySamantha gave us a very informative demo explaining the differences between heavy body, open, high flow and fluid acrylics. She also showed us examples of the different gels, pastes ,and mediums. We all learned a lot and now are ready to try new things.
March 3-4 2018 Workshop with Karin Ritcher, she is great instructor with a very dynamic style. Oil and acrylics, Topic: Impressionistic Landscape.
Feb 7 thJanette Whittle Soft Pastels Janette presented club members may ideas and tips for creating with pastels:
Work from dark to light colours and from hard to soft pastels
For a kneeling eraser buy "Sticky Tack"
Work on an easel so debre falls off the paper
Sharpen pastel pencils with sandpaper, electric sharpener or sharp paring knife
Oil pastel and Conti are less erasable
Used coloured background paper or sand papers
Be careful with blending, don’t use your finger (too oily) and heavy, use a blending stick or q-tip, blend second layer not first or top layer
Buy individual colours rather than kits. Kids provide too many colours that you may never use. Suggested buying 2 of each basic colour to start
She buys pastels and paper from Mona Lisa Art in Calgary
Janette showed us her first painting, a floral produced with kid's caulk
Use handi-wipes to cleanup and wear gloves
Cover work with wax paper to prevent smudges
Paint background with acrylic paint. Use acrylic containing a grit.
Matte board works well but watercolour paper doesn’t (not enough bite to hold pastel)
Finish with a spray of Workable Finishing Fixative. Some people spay between layers. Janette only sprays when finished. Be careful as old spray can leave spots. Spray outside.
Frame under glass.
Jan 24 Lily & Sarah's Portrait Drawing Workshop and some portraits by Janette.
Nov 4-5 Cheryl Peddie - Winter Landscape Cheryl provided many tips for painting winter landscapes and added an infectious dose of Art Therapy. She started by demonstrating the benefits of value sketches and Notans (Japanese for light and dark). . .
