Wrapped up a 3 day art camp with the Rec department of Fraser Lake for a dozen energetic little gals. I made them start with the heavy lifting which consisted of a morning of drawing and scrutinizing facial proportions and transferring a fairly finished image over to different surfaces for chalk pastel and watercolor. In the afternoon we were treated to a fabulously fun activity where we glued beads and yarn to a prepainted canvas depicting a simple flower. The results were anything but simple! 
The instructor's sample is on the left and one of the students' on the right. The second morning found me in charge of the graffiti workshop...because the scheduled instructor backed out last minute. Wasn't something that the girls were going to want to miss so the facilitator and I forged ahead and kept them all happy with a slideshow and tutorial re: graffiti style font and then a mass 'sprayathon' out back in the field on cardboard I'd prepainted. Due to the absence of fancy spray can tips we had the students fine tune with markers and many of the results were awesome! The next couple of sessions explored their portraits in chalk pastels and then watercolor with marker. I was kept hopping so much that I kind of forgot to take close up photos of the finished pieces...so I just have some shots of the exhibit we put together at the end for family, friends and admirers! meanwhile...
Two weeks ago I stood at the very center of the continent.
I'd flown to Winnipeg to attend and assist decorating the bff's daughter's wedding and... I've never been sooo far east!! The wedding was a magazine quality, country wedding in a tastefully decorated barn, (with much sweat and stress...then again, what wedding isn't??) but very much worth the results, as was the reception, topped off by a 10 piece, oh so! professional family band consisting of relatives from the groom's side and the very essence of Manitoba country culture. It felt almost alien... so, so very far removed from the B.C./west coast community life I've experienced over the last 50+ years, but extremely interesting and enjoyable. We only got the tiniest taste of Winnipeg The City but the little I experienced - The Forks on a perfect summer evening, a walk along Portage then Main, transcendentally delectable naan and dinner at an Indian restaurant - revealed a small, very congenial and cultured little city that I'd very much like to visit again.
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Mountainview Lodge invited me in to paint with their citizens again on Monday. I chose an Autumn theme; one tree glowing with shades of gold and orange in watercolor with a few purty scrapbooking flowers adorning the meadow area at the end.
It was a most delightful experience. Really helped that there were only 11 participants this time - 9 residents + 2 staff - so rather than running around willy nilly as I did previously with up 20 (which included increasingly severe impairments) I was able to pace myself, joke around and savour their efforts. The only hitch was that 2 ladies - practiced painters in their earlier life - noticed an ocean/lighthouse painting on the back of my example and were more than eager to paint >that! I explained that the composition was actually a rather challenging one even for advanced painters but yes indeed, it made for a great painting. The excitement generated when anyone happened to see the 'wrong' side of the example gradually made me resolve to figure out how to design a workshop that will deliver their ocean and lighthouse. And to never use the other side of a painting again. |
Author: Eileen Hutson'You need the dark to see the light'. Advice picked up in painting workshops has become a treasured mantra in both life and art. Archives
November 2018
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