Fred Lisaius Shares his Three Favorite Brushes

Fred Lisaius is one of our artist-teachers (with classes in Watercolors and Acrylics) and he recently let us film him in his studio. Thank you, Fred!

 

Cat Bennett’s New Class is OPEN for Registration!

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“Making Art a Practice: In and Out of the Sketchbook”
with Cat Bennett
Six-Week Class; 12 Video Lessons

Class Dates: April 19 – May 26, 2016

In MAKING ART A PRACTICE: In and Out of the Sketchbook, we’ll spend two days drawing in the sketchbook with a focus on color, line and shape then jump out of the sketchbook to do a bigger project. We’ll draw and paint the world around us— food, clothes and the objects in our homes, plants and landscape, and people. And we’ll do so in different ways—painting using only lines, making cut-paper images using only shapes, then bringing line and shape together in different ways.

Our goal is to draw and paint in experimental ways and to get ideas for our own work. We’ll mostly work on a larger scale outside of the sketchbook and try things out. We’ll approach everything we do with a spirit of adventure and discovery!

This is a new and different class to the first “Making Art a Practice.” If you missed that one, no worries—this class is for everyone. And anyone who would like to is invited to post work on the private Facebook page for this class. At the beginning of each week, I’ll introduce the class in the online forum and offer some examples from well known artists that might inspire us as we do the exercises. We’ll all share comments and I’ll offer feedback and a few additional ideas every weekday morning.

Click HERE for the SUPPLY LIST.

CLASS ITINERARY:

Week 1: FOCUS ON LINE / FOOD

After a brief chat about color, we’ll work in the sketchbook painting lines in various ways to gain assurance with drawing with the brush. For our project, we’ll draw food with paint using only lines. We’ll make simple contour drawings in black before launching into color and we’ll learn how to distill complex information into simple lines that suggest rather than describe in a literal way.

Week 2: FOCUS ON SHAPE / PLANTS

We’ll draw and paint abstract shapes in our sketchbooks and talk about how we can create compositions in an instinctive way as well. For our project, we’ll work on a larger scale and learn how to paint papers in flat colors to make bold cut-paper images of plants that are imaginative rather than literal.

Week 3:
BRINGING LINE AND SHAPE TOGETHER / LANDSCAPE

We’ll work with landscape, first by drawing from the world around us or from imagination in our sketchbook with brush and black paint. For our project, we’ll work from sketches we’ve made or from imagination in two ways. In the first, we’ll begin with line and then add color. In the second, we’ll begin with shape and add line. We’ll work on small paper and paint large landscapes quickly on an intimate scale.

Week 4: USING A STENCIL / CLOTHES

In the sketchbook, we’ll draw with pencil or crayon using a 2-color way to practice drawing. We’ll draw the things we wear—shirts, shoes, hats, scarves. For our project, we’ll use a stencil to create the shape of our subject then add shading and line as we choose. We can also alter our subject in imaginative ways by adding details that don’t exist to say whatever we might like to say. We’ll move away from being literal and take a more playful approach to describing what we wear or might like to wear.

Week 5: MIXING MEDIUMS / OBJECTS

In the sketchbook, we’ll return to pencil drawing and do both line and shaded drawings of objects around our homes. We’ll work with things that interest us. For our project, we’ll choose several objects then mix mediums in different ways as we make our drawings and paintings. For instance, we might paint part of the image and render another part in pencil. Or start by painting the whole object in paint, then add details in pencil or watercolor crayons. Our goal is to try several approaches and have fun with it.

Week 6: ALTERING APPROACHES / PEOPLE

In the final week of this session, we’ll collect about 20 photos of people and paste them on the left hand page of a small sketchbook. On the facing page, we’ll make straightforward contour drawings and looser half-blind contour drawings. For our project, we’ll explore making a portrait by starting with a painted shape for the face then adding details in pencil and leaving details out as well. We’ll also explore making the whole portrait in looser way in paint.

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Join this class today, and spend 6 weeks with Cat Bennett!

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS AND TO SIGN UP!

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Cat Bennett is artist and author. In her Saturday Morning Drawing Club, she teaches drawing as a way to meet the true creative self. Her book, The Confident Creative: Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind, published by Findhorn Press 2010, was a gold medal winner in the 2011 Nautilus Book Awards. Her book Making Art a Practice: How To Be the Artist You Are, and her newest book, The Drawing Club of Improbable Dreams: How to Create a Club for Art, are also published by Findhorn Press.

Cat worked as an illustrator/designer for about thirty years. Her illustrations have appeared in The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, The Baltimore Sun and Time Magazine, Houghton Mifflin, Scholastic, Harcourt Brace and many other publications. She has also made short animations for CBC-Sesame Street, Nickelodeon TV, WHDH-TV, WGBH-TV and various non-profits. She has exhibited her art in group shows in Boston, New York, and Tokyo.

Her essays have appeared in The Huffington Post, The Los Angeles Times, LA Yoga Magazine, Yoga Magazine UK, Integral Yoga Magazine, Red, The American, Lightworker, High Spirit Magazine and others. www.catbennett.net

Check out Cat’s wonderful books:

          

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Ink People

This week we’ve been filming Cat Bennett‘s newest online class!

It has been so inspiring to watch her draw and paint all week.

This week I’ve also been inspired by the book “Drawing with Ink,” with the wonderful drawings of Norman Laliberté.

Cat returned to Boston last night so the first thing I did this morning is get out the ink and make stuff!

It felt good.

Dogs & More

A demo piece from the workshop in Mexico. Mixed-media on wood (collage, watercolor, pencil, gesso).

My attempt at an abstract!

And one of the little dogs I made for the participants of #sparkoaxaca.

I’ve been home almost two weeks now, and am JUST TODAY feeling caught up with sleep.

(What is happening to me?!! 😀  )

Have a great day!

Teaching Trip to Oaxaca

I was fortunate to spend last week with these women in Oaxaca, Mexico. Thank you everyone who came all that way! (Lynn Whipple and I co-taught a workshop through  Bellissima Art Escapes … #sparkoaxaca)

Here are some images from the trip:

You see I had animals on my brain even when away! The above guy was created during one of Lynn’s teaching days.

A HUGE thank you to Kathie Vezzani (Bellissima Art Escapes) for a wonderful trip!

 

 

Registration now OPEN for Karine Swenson’s New Abstraction Class

Abstraction: Diving Deeper
Instructor: Karine Swenson
Drawing, Painting, Mixed-Media • $85
Class Dates: March 22 – April 1, 2016

Have you ever asked yourself “how do I know when a painting is finished?” If you have ever struggled with this question, this is the class for you.

In this painting class, we will dive deeper into our abstract paintings in order to make discoveries and learn, but we will also be constantly asking the question “is this painting finished?”

The focus of the class will be to work through three stages of a painting – the start (so fun, such excitement!), the middle (“oh NO! I ruined it!”), to the finish (Wow! I did it!). I will offer suggestions to help you through each stage as we work towards a resolution. You will be encouraged to use your preferred kind of paint, whether it be acrylic, oil or watercolor. (I will be using oil, but will try to offer tips for other kinds of paint as well.) You will also be encouraged to find your own approach to each part of the process. I do not teach specific techniques as much as I wish to help you find your own techniques and style.

At the end of the class, depending on how quickly you work, you will have finished at least one, if not two, larger sized works. (if you prefer to work small, that’s fine too!) I do encourage you to try a larger painting, if you have been wanting to do it. I encourage risk taking, and I will help you find ways to “save” a painting if you think you’ve pushed it too far. We will be spending a lot of time painting in this class, so push up your sleeves and get ready to move around some paint!

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Click HERE for more information and to Sign Up!