Plein Air Class + Manakintowne Workshop

If you are missing my plein air class at VisArts, this should help fill the gap. I’m offering a five week class on Wednesday mornings, October 19 through October 26, 9:30-12:30. We’ll meet at different locations around Richmond beginning at Pony Pasture (James River Park System) on the 19th. Classes are $30 each.

If you only have single day or weekend availability, the fall Manakintowne Workshop is coming up on October 15. We’ll meet at Huguenot Springs for a day of drawing or painting and a gourmet lunch. Bring your favorite medium or try out our oil pastels with beginner instructions – all supplies provided for oil pastel. The workshop is 9:30-3:30 and the tuition is $120 (If you bring a friend who is new to the workshop, you each get a $10 discount!).

Contact me here for more information or sign up for either of these plein air opportunities!

Capture the fall colors at Huguenot Springs!

Experiment

In printmaking, monotype is a wonderful way to experiment with materials and open the door to chance and surprise in the process. If you aren’t familiar with monotype, it basically involves making/painting an image on a plate (plexiglass, metal, even paper) and transferring that image to the printing paper by running the two together through the printing press. Unlike other forms of printmaking where multiple images can be pulled from the same plate, monotype results in a unique image with the sometime possibility of a paler ghost print from a second pull. In truth the possibilities for techniques in making monotypes are endless, and I couldn’t even begin to describe them here.

Last summer I took a short four session class just to have an opportunity to play a bit. I suppose it should have been no surprise when my printing did not go at all in the direction I had imagined. Under the guidance of the excellent artist and teacher Chris Palmer at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School, I experimented with something I hadn’t tried before: using newsprint as the  printmaking plate. Caran d’Ache water soluble wax crayons can be used to draw on a surface and when run through the press with wet printing paper, the image transfers. I had tried this in the past using a plexiglass plate and was very disappointed in the result. But I had never tried drawing and layering the Caran d’Ache on paper. This allows the layers of wax crayon to be built up in much thicker layers than are possible on the plexiglass plate, and it also transfers the drawn strokes and marks which have a very different appearance than painted ones. There are, of course, still surprises in the printing, and that’s the beauty of the monotype process. My interest at the moment is to use the monotype as the base of mixed media images, adding in drawing, collage, trace monotype, etc., and this class allowed me to begin to experiment with that.

If you want to see some of the results, Hill Gallery is having an opening of the show CHRIS PALMER: TWENTY celebrating 20 years of Chris’ instruction at the VMFA with work from his students this Friday night, January 23, 5:00-8:00 PM. Stop in if you can!

Friday is a busy night. VisArts will be opening the annual [work] show featuring work by faculty, staff, and board members. Drop by 6:00-8:00!

Real Art, Real Food, Real Richmond

Come see what’s in the works in the studio when Real Richmond Food Tours begins the tour here this coming Saturday, April 20 at 2:00. There is still room to sign up here for this Northside tour which also includes alpacas, chickens, Tastebuds, Stir Crazy, Little House Green Grocery, Once Upon A Vine, The Mill, Grey Hill Cafe food truck, and more!