Grace Church Paint & Sip

Saturday afternoon I hosted at Paint & Sip event at my inlaws' home in Ellicott City, MD, for members of their church.

We intended to paint poppies--for remembrance--since Memorial Day weekend is around the corner. Our final paintings were definitely flowers but all different kinds. Everyone had a great time, including me.

A week before the event, I made my husband Robb do a test painting following my instructions, so I could practice teaching. The next morning our older daughter asked if she could hang his painting in her bedroom. :)

Beginning Drawing Class

In late summer 2007, I taught a beginning drawing course at the Worcester County Arts Council. The classes were one evening a week for six weeks in the hottest part of the summer, but the students hung in there with me and were extremely serious about their work.



By the end of the course, I think everyone--including me--was sick of seeing my collection of plastic fruit. Unlike my painting classes, this was a very traditional series of lessons beginning with contour drawings and measuring and eventually working our way to perspective and shading. Drawing is the foundation for every other discipline in the visual arts (except maybe interpretive dance), so I hope that they left the class feeling more confident in their skills and with a few extra tools up their sleeves.

(More photos from art classes are here.)

Acrylic Painting Class

The third acrylic painting course that I taught at the Worcester County Arts Council, in Berlin, Maryland, was in the spring of 2007. These students--Judy, Betty, and Tom--were not afraid of color.



This was Tom's purse, which might sound funny, but his wife and sister-in-law hand make and sell high end purses. (Unfortunately their website does not appear to still be up and running, but they sell under the name Linanz.) Tom used a photo of one of the purses as his source for this painting.



Betty had too much energy to sit down and paint for two hours--me, too!



Judy found a photo of this woman in a magazine, although I think that Judy's rendering is more striking and inspired than the photo.

(More photos from art classes are here.)

Acrylic Painting Class

The second acrylic painting course that I taught at the Worcester County Arts Council was much larger--seven students I believe. Again, the classes were one evening a week for six weeks. We had a lot of fun experimenting with painting techniques (Sue pictured above) and attempting some abstract painting (Ken pictured below).





And here are the results of the Monet Color-Mixing Challenge from the last night of class. Each student received a piece of paper canvas with a sliver of a Monet landscape painting in the middle. The challenge was to imagine and create the rest of the painting on both sides, matching the paint colors and brush strokes well enough that the printed strip would be camoflauged. More difficult than it sounds. I think the students impressed themselves with the results.

(More photos from art classes are here.)

Acrylic Painting Class

This was the first acrylic painting course that I taught at the Worcester County Arts Council in Berlin, Maryland. Class was one evening a week for six weeks, and I was very fortunate to have three dedicated and adventurous students: Sarah, Kristie, and Robin.



More photos from art classes are here.