Tanis Bula Sunflower Workshop

Tanis Bula had a full classroom for her workshop on Friday, October 11, and by the look of it, everyone was enjoying the chance to try some new techniques.  "Mixing up the Mediums on Sunflowers" was the title of her workshop, where watercolor was combined with oil pastels, watercolor pencils and charcoal to create unique effects.  I was working the front desk at the gallery, but got to listen in and peek at the beautiful sunflowers everyone was painting.

Catching Tanis for a brief hello, I reminded her of how much I learned from her when I took her classes years ago.  She was instrumental in reinforcing the necessity of strong values in a painting, good composition and asymmetry,  and always showed so much joy in just trying a new hue or experimenting with a new technique.

Her love of painting flowers was evident from the examples of her work that she brought to display, and the subject for today's lesson.  She provided everyone with a sunflower photo to work from.

I heard Tanis exclaiming over the gorgeous yellows and burnt oranges in her palette, generously sharing her paints with the students.  They all got to work on crafting petal shapes, shadows and centers.  Kathy Cranmer, a student in the class and talented botanical artist and instructor herself, added helpful information about how sunflower centers, pinecones, pineapples and many other items from nature all follow the Fibonacci sequence in their patterns.  Tanis instructed on the use of oil pastels to create texture in the middle of the sunflower to add that extra sparkle.

Unfortunately, my shift was up before the class was over, but I got to see some masterpieces in progress.

What a beautiful sight seeing sunflower paintings all lined up in row!  There's nothing more cheerful than that!

Good reception for "Charlie & the Girls" and Terry Schultz

Last night's reception for "Charlie & the Girls" artists' challenge and the photography of Terry Schultz brought in lots of visitors eager to view the artwork, enjoy the refreshments, and mingle with friends.  With quite a number of sales, those visitors were happy to take some of the artwork home with them too!

The themed displays upstairs made it fun to see the different interpretations each artist made for subjects such as hats, dogs, reflections and wild animals.

  Downstairs, Terry's photos of his travels, including Greece and Scotland gave me the travel bug and made me appreciate his artist's eye in capturing the architectural and natural beauty of those destinations.

  Hopefully you were able to join us for this celebration of art last night -- if not, stop in the gallery during the month of October to take in this visual feast! 

Charlie and the Girls

The second annual Artists’ Challenge deadline is finally here and the show will be hung this weekend.  What started out as a fun, themed show last year among five artists has continued to grow with the addition of 2 more artists and a few more themes.  The idea behind the challenge is that a few willing artists submitted 2 or 3 exhibit themes each and over the year artwork was created to creatively interpret those themes.  Last year, some subjects were cows, fish, comfort, patterns, and ocean.  This year the subjects are: Spiky Things, Letters, Safe Harbor, submitted by Ann Quinn; Dogs, Carnival, submitted by Gail Firmin; Wild Animals, Civilizations, submitted by Charlie Casper; Hats, Glass, Stripes, submitted by the late Kathy Berls, Reflections, Insects, Sunrise, Chairs, Oriental, Mountains and Citrus submitted by Barb Tobiska, Barb Benik and Lynnette Kupferer.

Ideally, all the work should have been created over the past year, but with busy schedules and painting time being the first activity to be bumped, it was necessary to go through my inventory to find a few existing pieces that fit the themes.  My original plan was to create a new piece of artwork every month starting last October to satisfy the painting challenge and I fulfilled that requirement for a few months.  So there are a number of new pieces as well as older works that are going into this show.

I know the main question that everyone wants answered is why is the show called “Charlie and the Girls”?  Well, I’ll tell you.  Charlie, being the token male in the group of six women, and with a joke for everything, wanted to call the show, “Charlie’s Angels”.  As you can imagine, the six of us nixed that!  So it remains, "Charlie and the Girls". The show will hang through the end of October, with an opening reception Thursday, October 10 from 6:30-8 pm.  Come on out and see the show!

"Fetched" ink and watercolor by Gail Firmin for the "dog" theme

2013 National Marquetry Show

The opening reception for the 2013 National Marquetry Show is tonight, September 12 from 6:30 - 8pm at the LAC gallery.  Come on out to see some beautiful wall hung pieces in addition to hand-crafted furniture and utilitarian items, all with finely finished wood inlay.  If you're not able to make the reception, the show will be on exhibit through October 4.  And here's some photos to whet your appetite!  Don't forget to bid on the silent auction items in the lower gallery -- it's a fundraiser for the LAC!

Children's Art and "Art & Soul" Exhibits

Two groups thrilled to exhibit their artwork at the Lakewood Arts Council Community Center and Gallery are the Art & Soul program of the DDRC (Development Disability Resource Center)

                      Art of some of the mentors and students of Art & Soul.

 and the Lakewood Youth Summer Arts Program students.  A reception was held Thursday evening for these two groups to show their work and enjoy some refreshments and socializing. 

The Art & Soul program currently has eleven students, with age ranges from 30 to 90, and six mentors: Marje Walsh, Gail Firmin, Myron Eckberg, Paul Gesso, Jim Rothrock, and Andy Dubois. 

                      Myron, Andy, Jim and Marje enjoy the show.

 The class meets once a week in a classroom provided by the Clements Community Center in Lakewood.  Mentors take turns giving lessons on various watercolor techniques and, a favorite part for many students, providing a healthy snack!  (Ok, sometimes it’s not-so-healthy cupcakes and donuts.) As Marje Walsh states, “This class is a closely knit group of students and mentors.  It is comprised of compassionate, caring, and cooperative individuals who make watercolor painting an important part of their lives.”

Some amazing artwork has been produced by these students over the years (and most have been in the class for at least as many years as I’ve been there – 7 years now!).  Stop by the gallery to view their exhibit if you haven’t already done so.

 A paper dragon from the Youth Summer Arts Program was a cooperative effort.

Upstairs in the loft gallery, a dragon sits on its nest, a beast snakes down the wall and a black, scaly face stares at you with beady eyes. 

 Fun sculptures in bright colors show vivid imaginations at work, comic book strips are drawn creatively and the portraits on the walls make it hard to believe they’re drawn by teenagers. 

 These artworks by students of the Lakewood Youth Summer Art Program show a lot of creativity and joy of their craft.  These artists range in age from 7 to 17.

Talented and experienced teachers help the students with clay figures and paintings.

 Classes are held at the Washington Heights and Lakewood Cultural Center and include Weaving, Pottery Painting, Drawing, Comic Strip Cartooning, Mudslinging with Clay, Designing Dragons, Portrait Drawing and more.  Along with these visual art camps, Lakewood also offers classes in theater, magic, singing and others.

Jim Olson from the City of Lakewood indicates, “These art classes encourage experimentation, creativity and work, and familiarize the young artists with the principles and elements of design and to have fun.” And viewing this exhibit, it is certainly evident that these kids had fun!  I just want to know if I’m too old to sign up for the Dragon Designing Class!