A mixed media class in drawing, painting, color, and having fun experimenting with materials. All levels welcome.

Week 1: Starting with Black and White

Using black Sumi ink full strength and diluted on printmaking paper you will use the biggest brush you have to create a strong statement. You can do a few quick gesture paintings and leave them in black and white or use my clear gesso to create a tooth to incorporate pastel. I will do an animal demo. Consider bringing animal references. Action is good. (I’ll provide ink and paper if you don’t have any)

Week 2: Quickies

We will start with small 5 minute gesture studies then proceed to 10-15 minute studies. The goal is loosening up and using confident color. Think of creating rhythm and expressive strokes. Make a mark and try to leave it. Vary the pressure on your stick. Bring in uncomplicated pre-select a few color palates to save time. Any medium you like or want to try.

Week 3: Make your colors POP

We will work on black Uart or canvas. You can tone Uart even darker with a few dark pastels and alcohol. Bring in reference that is mostly dark with a little light. Even “dull” colors look brilliant against the black.

Week 4: Color temperature

Let’s do underpaintings that reverse your color temperatures. Where you have a cool area, make it warm but match the value and visa versa. The color choices are up to you. Push it if you dare.

Week 5: Colors You LOVE

Start with a palate that excites you. Create it yourself or bring in art/photo/fabric/object with colors that resonate. If you are a fast painter, bring in 2 or 3. Also bring in photo references of subjects that are different from your inspiration palate. The point is to come up with more creative color choices and not to use local/true-life color.

Week 6: Bring In Your Duds/Unfinished Masterpieces

Anything goes today. No fear when working on something you have put aside. Start with a fresh vision and push it.

Note: If it is a beautiful day and not too hot, we may paint outdoors. Individual choice.

MATERIALS: (I use Dick Blick online)

Soft Pastels: 

The goal of the class will be to demystify watercolors, from planning, materials, composition, washes, shapes, perspective, values, edges and anything else that comes up. 

Watercolor artist Jack Haran is the past president of the New England Watercolor Society (NEWS) and past President of North River Arts Society (NRAS). He sits on the Board of Directors for NRAS. He earned a BS in Fine Arts from Northeastern University and a School of the Museum of Fine Arts Diploma. He has studied with Tony Van Hasselt and Judi Wagner, Zygmond Jankowski, John Kilroy, Alvaro Castagnet and Joseph Zbukvic.

Materials List

Backing Board and Masking tape to mount paper – a backing board is anything stiff enough to mount your paper onto, I use Coroplast white corrugated plastic.  It is the stuff that politicians make sign out of (you can get it cheap after an election – pick it up at the side of the road).

Easel - anything to allow you to work on your paper at about a 35 degree angle,

Water Bucket and Spray Bottle,

Palette with mixing wells,

Paper should be good quality 140 pound at least.  I use Saunders Waterford rough.

Brushes: Some of the brands mentioned below come in a series of sizes and shapes, so it would be worthwhile looking them up and comparing prices.

The size of the brush is important.  There should be 3 brushes, one large, one medium and one small.

1 Large soft brush for washes, ie. Escoda Aquario Mop # 18 OR Princeton Quill # 6 OR 1¼ inch Flat Wash OR Cheap Joe – Dream Catcher # 16 (this is made by Escoda) OR Blick Escoda Ultimo Synthetic Squirrel Flat ,3/4 or 1 inch OR Blick Master Squirrel brushes (these are made by Escoda and are cheaper versions of the Ultimo) OR Mary Whyte’s cat tongue 3/4 inch made by Artexpress

1 Medium Round, ie. Cheap Joe Golden Fleece # 12 OR Escoda Perla # 16 OR Cheap Joe – Dream Catcher # 12 (this is made by Escoda)

1 small rigger, ie. Cheap Joe Golden Fleece rigger # 4

The brushes listed above are good brushes but if you already have brushes that are equivalent then yours will be fine. 

Paints

Three primary colors, a warm and a cool of each, such as:

Reds – Alizarin Crimson and Quinacridone Red,

Blues – Cerulian and Cobalt

Yellows – Lemon Yellow and Raw Sienna

Neutral Tint, Gouache White

The goal of the class will be to demystify watercolors, from planning, materials, composition, washes, shapes, perspective, values, edges and anything else that comes up. The day will start with a short talk and demo followed by the class trying to paint following the advice.

Watercolor artist Jack Haran is the past president of the New England Watercolor Society (NEWS) and past President of North River Arts Society (NRAS). He sits on the Board of Directors for NRAS. He earned a BS in Fine Arts from Northeastern University and a School of the Museum of Fine Arts Diploma. He has studied with Tony Van Hasselt and Judi Wagner, Zygmond Jankowski, John Kilroy, Alvaro Castagnet and Joseph Zbukvic.

Materials List

Backing Board and Masking tape to mount paper – a backing board is anything stiff enough to mount your paper onto, I use Coroplast white corrugated plastic.  It is the stuff that politicians make sign out of (you can get it cheap after an election – pick it up at the side of the road).

Easel - anything to allow you to work on your paper at about a 35 degree angle,

Water Bucket and Spray Bottle,

Palette with mixing wells,

Paper should be good quality 140 pound at least.  I use Saunders Waterford rough.

Brushes: Some of the brands mentioned below come in a series of sizes and shapes, so it would be worthwhile looking them up and comparing prices.

The size of the brush is important.  There should be 3 brushes, one large, one medium and one small.

1 Large soft brush for washes, ie. Escoda Aquario Mop # 18 OR Princeton Quill # 6 OR 1¼ inch Flat Wash OR Cheap Joe – Dream Catcher # 16 (this is made by Escoda) OR Blick Escoda Ultimo Synthetic Squirrel Flat ,3/4 or 1 inch OR Blick Master Squirrel brushes (these are made by Escoda and are cheaper versions of the Ultimo) OR Mary Whyte’s cat tongue 3/4 inch made by Artexpress

1 Medium Round, ie. Cheap Joe Golden Fleece # 12 OR Escoda Perla # 16 OR Cheap Joe – Dream Catcher # 12 (this is made by Escoda)

1 small rigger, ie. Cheap Joe Golden Fleece rigger # 4

The brushes listed above are good brushes but if you already have brushes that are equivalent then yours will be fine. 

Paints

Three primary colors, a warm and a cool of each, such as:

Reds – Alizarin Crimson and Quinacridone Red,

Blues – Cerulian and Cobalt

Yellows – Lemon Yellow and Raw Sienna

Neutral Tint, Gouache White

This 10-week, bootcamp-style course will re-center you on the fundamentals of producing paintings that not only speak with your particular voice, but are produced in a way that will engage your viewers. Each class will start with exercises that revisit the fundamentals in producing a painting: composition, value, color, line, edges and more. Each class will end with a small study of something from life, where we reinforce the day’s lesson. Every painting, even abstracts, needs a solid knowledge of these ‘bones’, and it is good to reinforce our facility with them. Basic knowledge of your medium required. Kelley will be painting in acrylics but other mediums are welcome. 

Kelley has been painting and making art for 40 years. She has won numerous awards and loves being a painting instructor.  She was a watercolor painter first, then an oil painter and now has found her joy in the acrylic medium.  Until 3 years ago she was strictly a representational painter, but discovered the world of Intuitive Abstracts and is enthusiastically exploring this exciting method every day.  Kelley loves to travel and paint plein air as well, and has painted in Holland, Canada, numerous times in Mexico as well as across the United States. She will be bringing plein air students to San Miguel de Allende, along with her friend and fellow artist Paula Villanova in February on a painting workshop.  An Art History major at Wheaton College, she fell in love with the actual making of art. Living presently in Providence RI, she is an exhibiting member of the Providence Art Club and a devoted member of the North River Arts Society.

This class explores how some pre-planning can give you the freedom to work more confidently and expressively! When starting a painting, the placement of your major and minor shapes is of paramount importance. What a great place to begin, right at the foundation of a painting. Many artists get overwhelmed by the complexity of a particular subject, We will be starting with the biggest shapes and finishing with small. We will also be delving into focal points, balancing your composition, lead in lines, editing our original scene, and cropping. I find that when I start a painting, if I have planned well, I’m going to finish with a much more successful painting.

Jory has been inspired by a family of artists. Her grandfather, John R. Neill was an eminent pen and ink illustrator, best known for his imaginative work in over 34 volumes of Oz books. Jory moved to Italy for 2 years, there she attended L’Instituto D’Arte in Pietrasanta Italy and had her first solo exhibition. Jory is an enthusiastic artist who has exhibited in Boston, New York, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Italy. Her work has been showcased in “Strokes of Genius 8: Exploring Texture!” by North Light Books, ART Tour International 2019 Winter Issue – Editors’ Picks, The Contemporary Art Curator Magazine, and Biafarin’s International “Children” publication. She has achieved “Master Pastel Painter” status with the International Association of Pastel Societies and is a popular instructor and juror of awards.

This course will teach basic drawing skills to the beginning artist and refresh the more practiced to see, measure and express a creative illusion of light and dark on a two dimensional surface with the moveable medium of charcoal. 

This class will have fun working with still lifes to learn the rules of composition and perspective with the dramatic use of darks and lights, shadows, shapes and lines with eraser being just as important as the charcoal. It will feel like we are sculpting on paper! 

Jo Killion Wildes is a Marshfield Hills, MA Artist who works primarily in oil, acrylic and charcoal. Jo is a graduate of the Art Institute of Boston and Massachusetts College of Art (BFA). Her works are colorful studies of people, land and seascapes, interiors and still lifes. Jo is a former instructor at the Lighthouse Center for the Arts in Tequesta ,Fl. and the Ellison Center for the Arts in Duxbury, Ma. She is a member of the North River Arts, South Shore Center of the Arts, Cohasset, MA and Duxbury Center for the Arts. Her works hang in private collections throughout the United States and England.

This is an intermediate level drawing course designed to be applied to the student’s painting process. Contour drawing, perspective, shape, value, form, and color will be stressed to create the illusions needed for success.

Marguerite Moore is an oil painter living on the South Shore. She enjoys painting subjects consisting of New England elements including seascapes, marshland, boats, blooms and cityscapes. She has been awarded Copley Artist status and is a Gallery Artist with the South Shore Art Center Cohasset,MA. She is also a Juried Artist Member, in Fine Arts, with the Caped Cod Art Center, Barnstable.

She has been an art educator, working in public and private institutions throughout New England. Her major influences have been painting with Master Colorists Margaret McWethy and Sue Charles. Her more recent influence has been with Kim Alemian, Realism to Abstraction explorative environment. Marguerite’s paintings stress a sense of time, place and perspective. She fractures her images with the application of paint using a palette knife. Drawing is a large part of her creative accomplishments.

Class will be carving and painting a snow bunting. All necessary materials will be supplied for the carving including wooden cutouts for the body and wings, eyes, toes, and paint.

Some carving experience is recommended. Carving with micromotor power tools and detailing with woodburners is emphasized but use of hand tools is possible.

Photo of a Snow Bunting taken by Carola von Kapff at Duxbury Beach.  

Kevin Dunn has been carving birds for over seventy years and his birds have been sold in gift shops and galleries in Washington, D.C., Cambridge, Cohasset, Martha’s Vineyard, as well as the Marshfied Fair, the South Shore Science Center Corn Festival, and the South Shore Audubon’s Webster Farm Day. “There is such creativity involved. A lot of decisions go into creating something,” he said. “But at the same time it’s very therapeutic. You lose yourself in what you’re physically doing. Mentally, all the cares of the world just fade away.”
- Kevin Dunn in Patriot Ledger