Monday, February 22, 2010

Loosen Up with Aquamedia Painting Workshops


I have quite of few of these workshops scheduled this year! I call it my flagship workshop because it is a good starting off point for loosening up your painting style, no matter what your subject or materials. My Loosen Up Workshop is technique-based rather than materials-based and we have a lot of fun doing many different assignments. The posting below shows samples of the different days.
Interested in attending a Loosen Up Workshop?
Go to my website for the contact information -

March 29-April 2, 2010
Loosen Up with Aquamedia Painting
5-day Workshop (Monday-Friday)
Kudzu Art Zone, Norcross, GA

May 3-7, 2010
Loosen Up with Aquamedia Painting
5-day Workshop (Monday-Friday)
Hot Springs Gallery, Hot Springs, AR

May 17-21, 2010
Loosen Up with Aquamedia Painting
5-day Workshop (Monday-Friday)
Art Box Studio, Upland, CA

May 24-28, 2010
Loosen Up with Aquamedia Painting
5-day Workshop (Monday-Friday)
Sedona Arts Center, Sedona, AZ

June 1-4, 2010
Loosen Up With Aquamedia Painting
4-day Workshop (Tuesday-Friday)
Leading Edge Art Workshops, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

June 21-25, 2010
Loosen Up with Aquamedia Painting
5-day Workshop (Monday-Friday)
LaConner Art Workshop, Mt. Vernon, WA

August 9-13, 2010
Loosen Up with Aquamedia Painting
5-day Workshop (Monday-Friday)
Jerry’s Artarama, Raleigh, NC

September 13-17, 2010
Loosen Up with Aquamedia Painting
5-day Workshop (Monday-Friday)
Paletteers Art Club, Westminster, CO

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Circus Girls


My Sedona Loosen Up Workshop, May 24-28 features all my Loosen Up techniques and favorite color combinations.

In our Loosen Up workshop we play off of the figure image in some of our paintings. Our own version of the figure is not only part of the design, it becomes the Focal Point in the painting. Then we paint a series of the same subject over and over. The paintings become looser and bolder. This “Circus Girls” painting is one of many, many paintings based on the same theme.

By repeating and practicing, we gain incredible confidence and creativity. Paintings pour out of you when you think of a single theme you have always wanted to do. In my workshop, we start off with that.


Much of my new work is looser, more suggestive and painted with a specific limited palette of colors. My painting themes tend to either be a single subject - like a pear or a storytelling tale from personal stuff - like circus, magic, landscapes and dreams.

Plaza


My Sedona Loosen Up Workshop, May 24-28 features all my Loosen Up techniques and favorite color combinations.

“Plaza” was one of thirty paintings from my solo exhibit last year at Butte College in California. The theme and title was called “No Full Disclosure.” This painting was to draw your attention more to the corners and not so much to the center. With no movement in the center, your eyes move around the perimeter, searching for something to focus in on.

Much of my new work is looser, more suggestive and painted with a specific limited palette of colors. Most are based on themes and contemporary nonacademic painting techniques.

Morning Light and Soft Day

My Sedona Loosen Up Workshop, May 24-28 features all my Loosen Up techniques and favorite color combinations.

Painting a flower never interested me. However, flowers in a painting do interest me! I am more interested in the immediate graphic impact the painting has first and then you see a painting of “flowers in a vase.” I usually start off abstractly - loose, color splattering and water everywhere begins the day in my studio. My workshops begin the same way.

Much of my new work is looser, more suggestive and painted with a specific limited palette of colors. My painting themes tend to either be a single subject - like a pear or a storytelling tale from personal stuff - like circus, magic, landscapes and dreams.

Amber Pear


My Sedona Loosen Up Workshop, May 24-28 features all my Loosen Up techniques and favorite color combinations.

Many of my early paintings were a single subject inspired while buying fruits and vegetables from our local farmers’ market. I just had to paint them one by one. My favorite single paintings were pears, avocados, bananas, navel oranges, cantaloupes, celery, zucchini and eggplants. In fact, my first gallery giclĂ©e was titled “Farmers’ Market.” Twenty years later. I still practice painting the single subject everyday in my morning warmups. It’s a great way to get started!

This pear painting was created with splashing colors, alcohol and CitraSolv-treated tissue paper collage.

Much of my new work is looser, more suggestive and painted with a specific limited palette of colors. My painting themes tend to either be a single subject - like a pear or a storytelling tale from personal stuff - like circus, magic, landscapes and dreams.

New Kid in Town


My Sedona Loosen Up Workshop, May 24-28 features all my Loosen Up techniques and favorite color combinations.

“New Kid in Town” was a painting demo of turning loose colorful drips and splashes into a painting of trees. This painting demonstrated my “negative shapes” painting technique. Using an opaque color, I painted in the sky and the spaces between the tree trunks giving the illusion of a row of trees without actually painting the individual trees. Later, one tree became the Focal Point when I added more red splashes in a concentrated spot.

Much of my new work is looser, more suggestive and painted with a specific limited palette of colors. My painting themes tend to either be a single subject - like a pear or a storytelling tale from personal stuff - like circus, magic, landscapes and dreams.