Discover your creative side and join artist Christina Theobald every Monday in October from 10:30am-12:00pm at Alicia Ashman Library as she leads participants through this four-week exploration of acrylic paints, watercolors, brush techniques, and more. Whether a beginner or an experienced artist, each class is designed to build on skills learned in the one prior while leaving plenty of room for experimentation and improvement, which means they can also be taken individually, so come to one or come to them all.
Space is limited and registration is required. Registration opens for ALL 4 classes on September 23 at 10:00AM.
UPDATE 09/24/24: This class is currently full; to be added to the wait list, please email fmcdaniel@madisonpubliclibrary.org or call 608-824-1780.
Week 1: Intro to Acrylic Paint – Monday, October 7
- discussion about color wheel, and the different color schemes
- step-by-step demo and hands-on experience of mixing colors to create own palette
- create three small, abstract paintings based on different color schemes, principals
Weekly goal: to be introduced to the materiality of acrylic paint, get familiar with mixing colors, building compositions based on shape and color relationships
Week 2: Brush Techniques, Layering Color – Monday, October 14
- continuing with acrylic paint
- experimenting with different brushes, brush applications to learn how to create textures blending, sense of space
- reviewing of mixing own color palette, focus on creating beautiful, neutral colors
- intro how to paint from observation, create paintings by looking at real, fall leaves that I will bring in!
- mixed media option at the end to turn leaf illustrations into collage
Weekly goal: to build off of color skills from previous week, learn how to layer color to create textural and spatial effects, learn how to create rich, neutral colors, how to work from “real life”
Week 3: Intro to Watercolor – Monday, October 21
- overview of differences, similarities between acrylic and watercolor
- discussion of Impressionists, Fauvism art movements
- introduce idea of making “master copies”, using a pre-existing work of art as basis for own painting
- introduce using ViewFinders as a way to find compositions
- use print-outs of Fauvist artworks as inspiration for personal works
Weekly goal: to try applying the painting skills we’ve been learning into watercolor, learn about famous art movements, learn a new way to approach creating compositions, continue pushing compositions by further exploring mixed media options
Week 4: Mixed Media Still Life/Open Studio – Monday, October 28
- do a demo of different ways to approach working from a non-photo reference
- work from a fall-theme still life
- try doing one or two different viewpoints, room to experiment with approach and combination of materials
Weekly goal: try working from ‘real life’ references, opportunity to revisit and practice techniques and combination of techniques learned up to this point