WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOPS UPDATE: Due to ever-changing Covid numbers and safety for all concerned, I have postponed offering workshops in my studio for the unforeseeable future. Thank you to all my former students and artists who have inquired about workshops for 2025. Stay safe and wishing everyone happy art-making in peace and safety!
In 2013, my artist friends asked me what my favourite courses were as an instructor at Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD). It’s a difficult question for a passionate teacher, but a couple of courses that I co-authored immediately came to mind: Design Colour Fundamentals (colour theory) and Design Fundamentals 101 (fundamentals of composition).
I feel strongly that learning and practising colour and composition fundamentals improves observation and critical-thinking skills and expands the artistic vocabulary, enabling artists to analyze their progress and others’ work more quickly and effectively, and participate more fully in a universal discussion.
My enthusiasm for the basics prompted me to rework my ACAD courses and begin teaching at my private studio in Black Creek, Vancouver Island, B.C.
The workshops have gained popularity over the years, and I’ve enjoyed meeting artists who crave solid art fundamentals, no matter how long they’ve been making art and regardless of their preferred media.
Net profit of all workshops will be donated to the Comox Valley Transition Society, which provides services in the Comox, Cumberland and Courtenay areas and beyond (including Denman and Hornby Islands) to women and children who have experienced violence.
Joy of Colour Workshop Series
How do colours relate and react to each other? How does the eye respond to colour? How can you create colours that look and perform better than what comes out of the tube? How can you use colour to create richer, more unexpected results?
The Joy of Colour helps artists at any level gain an understanding of colour, while enhancing their ability to work with it. Whether you struggle with colour relationships or have an intuitively good colour sense, this workshop series will help you build skills faster and with more confidence. Charts and practical applied projects are used in a casual classroom setting to reinforce knowledge. All acrylic paints, handouts and templates are supplied.
The Joy of Colour is a series of four workshops. Each workshop in the series consists of four 4-hour sessions, usually a week or two apart. Class size is limited to 6 to allow students to benefit from individual input and instruction. Cost is $130/workshop or $240 if taking both.
Composition Fundamentals Workshop
Does your work capture the viewer’s eye? Composition fundamentals are critical in creating art or design that draws, directs and holds attention.
During this hands-on workshop you’ll examine and use the basic visual elements and principles of organization for composition. Dot and line, shape, structural abstraction, texture and tone, figure/ground, balance, contrast, structure, emphasis, and variety within unity are among the elements and principles we identify and explore.
The Composition Fundamentals workshop consists of four 4-hour sessions, usually a week or two apart. Class size is limited to 6 to allow students to benefit from individual input and instruction.
In 2013, my artist friends asked me what my favourite courses were as an instructor at Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD). It’s a difficult question for a passionate teacher, but a couple of courses that I co-authored immediately came to mind: Design Colour Fundamentals (colour theory) and Design Fundamentals 101 (fundamentals of composition).
I feel strongly that learning and practising colour and composition fundamentals improves observation and critical-thinking skills and expands the artistic vocabulary, enabling artists to analyze their progress and others’ work more quickly and effectively, and participate more fully in a universal discussion.
My enthusiasm for the basics prompted me to rework my ACAD courses and begin teaching at my private studio in Black Creek, Vancouver Island, B.C.
The workshops have gained popularity over the years, and I’ve enjoyed meeting artists who crave solid art fundamentals, no matter how long they’ve been making art and regardless of their preferred media.
Net profit of all workshops will be donated to the Comox Valley Transition Society, which provides services in the Comox, Cumberland and Courtenay areas and beyond (including Denman and Hornby Islands) to women and children who have experienced violence.
Joy of Colour Workshop Series
How do colours relate and react to each other? How does the eye respond to colour? How can you create colours that look and perform better than what comes out of the tube? How can you use colour to create richer, more unexpected results?
The Joy of Colour helps artists at any level gain an understanding of colour, while enhancing their ability to work with it. Whether you struggle with colour relationships or have an intuitively good colour sense, this workshop series will help you build skills faster and with more confidence. Charts and practical applied projects are used in a casual classroom setting to reinforce knowledge. All acrylic paints, handouts and templates are supplied.
The Joy of Colour is a series of four workshops. Each workshop in the series consists of four 4-hour sessions, usually a week or two apart. Class size is limited to 6 to allow students to benefit from individual input and instruction. Cost is $130/workshop or $240 if taking both.
Composition Fundamentals Workshop
Does your work capture the viewer’s eye? Composition fundamentals are critical in creating art or design that draws, directs and holds attention.
During this hands-on workshop you’ll examine and use the basic visual elements and principles of organization for composition. Dot and line, shape, structural abstraction, texture and tone, figure/ground, balance, contrast, structure, emphasis, and variety within unity are among the elements and principles we identify and explore.
The Composition Fundamentals workshop consists of four 4-hour sessions, usually a week or two apart. Class size is limited to 6 to allow students to benefit from individual input and instruction.
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Setting up for Johannes Itten's infamous mixture square -
Joy of Colour: Level 1 -
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Joy of Colour: Level 1 -
Joy of Colour: Level 2 -
Joy of Colour: Level 2 -
Joy of Colour: Level 2 -
Joy of Colour: Level 2 -
Joy of Colour: Level 3 -
Composition Fundamentals student presentation -
High Discord Self-Portrait
by Helen Garson -
Low Discord Self-Portrait
by Helen Garson -
Low Discord Self-Portrait
by Susan Armstrong -
Low and High Discord Self-Portraits
by Blaza Edwards -
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In Studio E
