Galveston Art League has three workshops on tap in August, and little or no experience is needed to participate and then take home your creations. The low-cost workshops fit into the nonprofit Art League’s mission to advance visual arts, art education and regional artists in the greater Galveston County regions.
The Galveston Art League Gallery, 2117A Postoffice St. in Galveston, will host the classes. You can sign up and pay at www.GalvestonArtLeague.com (click on “Workshops”). If you need more information, please email nghouse1@verizon.net. Enrollment is limited.
Here’s what’s coming up:
IMAGINING FIGURES AND CREATURES: Two-day drawing workshop; session 1 – 9:00am to 12:00pm Wednesday August 4; session 2 – 9:00am to 12:00pm Thursday August. 5; $50.
Instructor Mark Greenwalt welcomes artists of all ages, regardless of skill level, and emphasizes skills and concepts related to design and animation in this drawing workshop. Attendees will focus on basic concepts such as cross-contour drawing (showing the form or dimensionality of an object) and gesture drawing (capturing a subject’s action, form and pose). Attendees will design figurative subjects, and then reconfigure and reimagine them.
A professor of art at College of the Mainland, Greenwalt also teaches life drawing for the Glassell School of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
Participants should bring varied graphite pencils (e.g., 2H, HB, 2B, 6B leads), an eraser (e.g., Faber-Castel), drawing paper (can be a sketchbook), and a small housepainter’s brush to remove eraser crumbs from paper. Stumps (tortillons) are useful but not required. A 16-by-24-inch drawing board and clips will be provided to each participant.
COLOR WORKSHOP: 9:00am-12:00pm Saturday August 7. $40 (includes all supplies)
Instructor Sally Knight invites participants to use Spectra paper to play with color relationships while blending them and devising color composition techniques. No experience is necessary.
Spectra tolerates folding and crinkling to give depth to patterns. It responds to sprinkling to add textures to fabric or paper. The paper can be layered over natural objects such as flower petals, small flowers and leaves. Left in the sun, they dry to leave behind natural designs on silk.
This technique lets you express yourself artistically by overlapping and blending with Spectra art tissue to make a beautiful, watercolor look of translucent colors on whichever objects you chose. Workshop participants can use paper or silk in creating unique cards, pictures or clothing accessories; each attendee will leave with two complete projects.
BEGINNER/INTERMEDIATE TRIPTYCH ACRYLIC POURING CLASS: 9:00am.-12:00pm Saturday, August 21; $50 (includes most supplies)
Troy Knight will teach how to create a triptych, a work that has three sections or canvases and displayed together as one. Although this class is aimed at individuals who have basic knowledge of acrylic painting and pouring, even people with no experience are welcome and like everyone in the class, will leave with a finished triptych.
Knight will touch on pouring methods, materials and supplies and will demonstrate canvas preparation. Two techniques being taught include using a blower (hair dryer) to move and blend paint and using a kitchen torch in your painting. Bring a hair dryer and torch if you can; if not, Knight has extras.
Bring an apron or wear clothes you don’t mind staining. In addition, because wet acrylic paintings are challenging to transport, bring cardboard boxes or plastic garbage bags that are big enough to place three 11-by-14-inch canvases on in your car. All other supplies (canvases, paint, gloves, paint cups, stir sticks, paper towels, etc.) will be supplied as part of the class fee.
