This one day workshop will include studies of the most basic elements/features found in landscape paintings. We will paint, trees, shrubs, hills, mountains, skies and water. We will improve our skills and knowledge of the creation of depth in our work. Our discussion will also include what makes for good composition when painting the landscape in watercolor.
“Jo-Neal was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and has taught for more than 40 years. She attended what is now called Cal State University East Bay. Although retired from teaching high school in Santa Cruz, California, she is still teaching…adults. She studied fresco painting and restoration as well as oil painting and restoration in Florence, Italy as part of her preparation for teaching art. Teaching at the secondary level encouraged her to add to her repertoire a variety of media. She remains the eternal student!
Create a lovely painting using layers of watercolor in the historical grisaille value under-painting method, while also developing wet-in-wet, wet-on-dry, and glazing painting techniques in this info-dense workshop. So park your brushes here and discover the Value of Grisaille, an amazing technique that will enhance your rendering in any medium! Suitable for beginning to advanced artists.
Hajra Meeks is an Author-Illustrator, fine artist, and Lecturer from the Bay Area. She has a BSc in Physics from the Univ. of San Francisco, an MSc in International History from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and a Picture Book Certificate from the MA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was a Lecturer in Art History, International History, and Calculus at UC Merced for 4 years, and has taught watercolor, gouache, and ink in-person and online for a decade. Her Youtube channel currently has 1.5 million views, her art has been in exhibitions in Union City, Mariposa, Vermont, Santa Clara, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Merced (where it was viewed by First Lady Michelle Obama), and she had a successfully funded online Kickstarter campaign for an environmentalist picture book about the real wolf OR-7. She also collaborates on digital, interactive Data Visualization projects that combine art and information. Currently, she’s teaching at SCAL, SCMNH, and via Patreon. You can learn more about her artwork and instruction at http://hajrameeks.com
Color Theory can be intimidating and tedious, but not anymore! Learn about the various color schemes, how to choose an emotive limited palette suited for any painting, and create a stack of custom color wheels & limited palettes from your paints in this info-dense workshop for tangible color scheme examples you can return to over and over. So park your brushes here and let the epic color adventures begin! Suitable for beginning to advanced artists.
Hajra Meeks is an Author-Illustrator, fine artist, and Lecturer from the Bay Area. She has a BSc in Physics from the Univ. of San Francisco, an MSc in International History from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and a Picture Book Certificate from the MA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was a Lecturer in Art History, International History, and Calculus at UC Merced for 4 years, and has taught watercolor, gouache, and ink in-person and online for a decade. Her Youtube channel currently has 1.5 million views, her art has been in exhibitions in Union City, Mariposa, Vermont, Santa Clara, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Merced (where it was viewed by First Lady Michelle Obama), and she had a successfully funded online Kickstarter campaign for an environmentalist picture book about the real wolf OR-7. She also collaborates on digital, interactive Data Visualization projects that combine art and information. Currently, she’s teaching at SCAL, SCMNH, and via Patreon. You can learn more about her artwork and instruction at http://hajrameeks.com
Buds and flowers and new leaves – Spring offers fresh colors and textures, and many beautiful plant subjects to paint. In traditional botanical art we strive for a beautiful portrayal of our subject that is both artistic and accurate in detail. In this watercolor workshop we’ll begin with close observation of our live plant specimens (to be provided) and draw a small composition. We’ll work on approaches to color mixing, and practice techniques of watercolor brushwork particular to botanical art – layering colors and small moist-brush work that allows us to capture fine details of our subjects. You’ll get plenty of individual attention as you draw and paint, to challenge and encourage you at your own level of skill.
Instructor: Maria Cecilia Freeman is a professional artist with 25 years of experience bridging scientific illustration and botanical fine art. Her award-winning drawings and paintings have appeared in solo and juried exhibitions across the U.S. and in Europe, and in the Filoli Florilegium. You can see her work at her website: mcf-art.com.
Working with the accomplished artist Thalia Stratton, students will be learning valuable fundamentals in the beautiful art of floral oil painting. She will cover important processes and techniques to help students in their understanding of crucial subjects such as, canvas preparation and composition of floral design and back ground. Thalia will also focus on educating students in the portrayal of light sources, defining values, color mixing, use of materials, and framing of their artwork. No drawing experience is required for this workshop.
Thalia will be providing all materials needed to students for a $35 materials fee, you are free to just come to class! Detailed list available by clicking blue“Materials List” link below.
If you do not need to purchase a kit, please notify audrey@scal.org, ASAP before 1/26/20
Thalia Stratton graduated with Honors & Distinction from the University of San Francisco/Academy of Art University 1989 with a Bachelor’s of Fine Art Degree in Fashion Illustration. She received a Master’s of Fine Arts in Painting from the Academy of Art University in 2010. She has taught at the college level since her graduation . Professional projects include illustrating for Givenchy-Paris, Neiman Marcus, Playboy Enterprises, the San Francisco Ballet and I. Magnin and Co. She has also developed product lines for the Wine Industry of Sonoma and Napa Valley.
Thalia works have been sold throughout the U.S and have been published in Gentry Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, American Art Collector, Southwest Art and Fine Art Connoisseur. She has won numerous awards and published two books, The Art of Dining and The Art of Dining :Epicurean Delights. She is a current member of the California Art Club in Pasadena, California and the Salmagundi Club in New York City, where she has also exhibited, and is a member of Oil Painters of America, where she has exhibited in both the National and Western Regional Juried exhibitions.
CREATIVE WATERCOLOR METHODS AND TECHNIQUES
This class is for people who like to paint watercolors or who would like to get back to painting. This easy one-day workshop will teach you new ways to create beautiful watercolor paintings. You will learn:
- new ways to experiment with watercolor
- a variety of secrets for creating skies, trees, rocks, and water
- over twenty-five techniques to create patterns and textures including resists, brush techniques, and alternatives to the brush
- the correct use of sprays and spatters to create colorful textures
- when and how to use color, gray, black, and opaque white
- how to create new ideas for paintings
You will watch step-by-step painting demonstrations, try them, and come away from the class with many new and easy techniques for painting in watercolor. If you have had some previous watercolor painting experience with Mr. Dvorak, on your own, or in some other class, you will find this workshop will open you up to many new and exciting ways to paint. Please bring your own watercolor brushes, watercolor paint, palette, No. 2 HB pencil, water container and cotton rag (not a paper towel) and one full sheet of watercolor paper.
Materials Fee: $6 for one full sheet of 140 cold pressed paper (if you don’t bring your own). $4 for a mouth atomizer (if you don’t have one). A basic materials kit (one round brush, a hake brush and a travel box of 12 watercolors) will be available from the instructor for $22 for those who need them.
Instructor: Robert Regis Dvorák has been making drawing and painting easy to learn and fun to practice for 35 years. A California artist and keynote speaker on subjects of creativity, he has authored: Travel Drawing and Painting, Drawing without Fear, The Magic of Drawing, Experiential Drawing, and The Practice of Drawing as Meditation, The Pocket Drawing Book, and articles on drawing and watercolor painting in American Artist Magazine and Watercolor Magazine.
DRAWING PORTRAITS THE EASY WAY
You can easily learn to draw a portrait. Don’t waste your time trying to learn to draw portraits from a book, or an expensive on-line course, the slow way—practicing bad habits that will frustrate and disappoint you.
If you have always wanted to be able to draw portraits of friends and family, know that your lack of success is not because you don’t have talent or artistic ability, or because you don’t practice enough. Most people who try to draw faces practice the wrong way. In this workshop you will learn how to do amazing drawings of faces. You will surprise your friends and family and most important yourself.
You will learn the basics of portrait drawing—the good habits that will give you hours of fun and increase your ability, every time you draw. You will learn:
- easy to remember portrait proportions,
- how to take advantage of lighting so that your faces don’t look flat,
- how to place the face on the paper,
- how to make your drawing quickly without a lot of fuss,
- where to begin and how to proceed,
- how to practice to increase your skill
a number of different media to use for the best results and much more. No matter what your skill or background, this workshop will have you drawing faces and loving it. Bring to the class–a watercolor brush No. 10 or larger, a water container, a cotton rag. Other drawing supplies, paper, handout materials will be provided for the $16 materials fee. A brush will be available for $6.00 or you can borrow one from the instructor.
Instructor: Robert Regis Dvorák, has been making drawing and painting fun and easy to learn for 35 years. He presents workshops and lectures on creativity, drawing, and painting. He has taught right-brain drawing and painting methods for 35 years and is the author of the books: Drawing Without Fear, Experiential Drawing, Travel Drawing and Painting, The Pocket Drawing Book, and The Practice of Drawing as Meditation.
Watercolor and pen and ink are the perfect portable media through which any place or setting can become a springboard for a creative sketch. An illustrated record of travels and seasons, sketching allows for a window into the moment. Bonni will demonstrate her facility with different approaches to sketching by melding water-soluble ink with watercolor paint and producing dynamic results. Discover the power of the imperfect line and how a simple blush of color can convert so much! Bonni will demonstrate simple ways to launch into using pen and ink for all levels. The class will begin inside the classroom and weather permitting we’ll sketch outside as well. Bring a brown bag lunch. For more of Bonni’s work, please visit her website at www.carverart.com.
Bonni Carver has been teaching her craft for years both locally as well as internationally. Bonni is an active member in the arts community as a member of the Santa Cruz Art League, California Watercolor Association, Santa Cruz Watercolor Society and Pajaro Valley Arts Council and has also has exhibited in shows through out California.
“My style is primarily impressionistic and my medium is watercolor. Simply put, watercolor has captured my heart. In addition to studio art classes I’ve taken at Cabrillo College and the San Francisco Academy of Art, my work reflects the influence of workshops I’ve taken with Charles Reid, Alvaro Castegnet, Barbara Nechis, Frank Webb and Skip Lawrence. In turn, I translate what I’ve learned into instruction through the workshops/classes I lead….
…A wise teacher once told me to paint what I love and learn to love what I paint; I apply that
maxim to my work.”
Colored pencil is a versatile medium that is portable, inexpensive and great for mixing with other media from watercolor to marker. A huge variety of styles are achievable with colored pencil, from detailed realism to painterly abstraction. We’ll work with layering techniques, proper use of materials, effects of different paper, and so much more!
This is an excellent class for water colorists and mixed media artists, as well as colored pencil lovers and people wanting to expand into color drawing. We’ll practice layering over marker or watercolor, sketching directly with colored pencils, and learn transfer techniques to create artwork by using photos. Students will need to bring reference photos to work from to create an artwork during the workshop. Alternative materials will be available for students to experiment for a materials fee of $5.00.
Laurel Bushman is a Santa Cruz based artist whose love for drawing began as a teenager when she first encountered figurative realism. As a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Laurel studied painting, drawing and art history. Using her understanding of foundational drawing techniques has allowed Laurel to express her ideas across multiple platforms, including painting, murals and more recently, caricaturing. Laurel’s teaching philosophy is one of openness to innovative ideas. Both she art and her teaching are fueled by inspiration from a broad spectrum of influences, while being fundamentally rooted in the fine art tradition.
The talented Wayne Jiang will be returning to California and will teach another 3 day workshop at the Santa Cruz Art League, March 2020. His 2019 workshop was a wonderful success, we are very excited to host another workshop in 2020!
This new class is designed for anyone who wants to refine their acrylic painting skills. The focus of this workshop is the individual. Through demos and painting sessions, Wayne will help each student get to the next level in their acrylic painting.
Topics covered:
- Combining opaque and transparent painting
- Preparing surfaces for acrylic
- Applying right combination of colors to create the mood you desire
- Create dramatic and subtle colors with your own limited color palette
- Understand how to balance dominate color with supporting color
- Layering and glazing
- Improve the flow and focal point of your painting with soft and hard edges
- Apply simple color theory to improve your painting.
About the Instructor:
Wayne Jiang is an acrylic realist painter. Combining the aesthetic of 17th century Baroque paintings and the composition of modern documentary photography, his works have been described as the contemporary interpretations of Van Eyck, Vermeer, and Hopper. His work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries such as the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Triton Museum, Crocker Museum, Sanchez Art Center, History San José, Solomon Dubnick Gallery, and Lan Su Chinese Garden.
Wayne specializes in teaching acrylic. He has 26 years of experience working with acrylic and more than a decade teaching with the medium. He teaches artists with diverse skill levels: from someone who has never painted to professional artists who want to refine their acrylic technique or learn a new medium.
