December Get Together at Land's End

Hello fellow Watercolorists,
After getting positive feedback for last year's holiday get together at Land's End, we decided to do the same this year. We have reservations set at Land's End for December 8th, a Thursday evening at 6:30 pm. All members are invited, and we opted to forgo the gift exchange this year again in lieu of donating Christmas gifts and other necessities to a family in need.  We will contact Share the Spirit and get more specifics on a family.  Details will be forthcoming in future emails.

Please bring your spouses or significant others and of course, some Holiday Cheer. This is a no host dinner event. If you plan on coming please RSVP to the email with number of people attending, so we can give the restaurant a count.

November's First Saturday Paint-Together

 

November's First Saturday paint-together was a very productive card making session.  Not only were a lot of quirky, painterly, and simply creative cards made, but we enjoyed sharing techniques, news, chatter and some tasty nibbles.  Stop by Fireweed Gallery  and take a look at the new cards.

Gift to the City of Homer Unveiled

Friends of the Library commissioned Janice Peyton to do a painting of the Homer Public Library. It was unveiled at the Library's ten year anniversary celebration on September 17th. The painting was a gift to the City of Homer to celebrate all that the library does for this community. More of Janice's paintings are on display until the end of October.

Annella Campbell Workshop by Michael Murray

Annella Campbell's three day workshop September 16 through 18, 2016
was divided into three distinct demos but also allowed for ample
painting time for individual interests and instructor guidance as well
as a review and discussion of individual works at the end of two of
the days.

Day one Annella showed how one can combine ideas from several photos
to create a unified composition.  She used three photos she took in
Homer three years ago and created a thumbnail sketch to compose her
idea.  She then drew the composition on a half sheet of 140# cold
press paper. As she worked she showed a variety of techniques to
create texture, deal with shadow, adjust positions of characters and
objects to make the entire work hold together.

At the end of the first day we gathered for a nice social time which
was a great way to visit after our busy day.

Day two, at the requests of some students, Annella demonstrated
creating a still life using transparent objects (ie glass).  Her
completed composition featuring jars, fruit and fabric was completely
developed and painted that day. In between Annella circulated among
the participants offering suggestions, answering questions, and
problem solving with the group and individuals.

Day three Annella presented a "surprise". Each participant was given a
sheet of watercolor paper with Masa paper adhered to it. Masa is
Japanese paper made of bark.  She explained how to do the preparation,
but had these premounted to 140# paper to save the time of drying.
Masa lends itself to softer detail and varied texture. Her demo was of
a North Dakota farm scene. She also brought other examples of her
works on Masa so people could see them and the effects created.

The results by participants were considerably varied all three days.
The space at Lands End was excellent and each person had a large
painting area on a large table (each person had their own).  The porch
offered beautiful views and a chance to observe boats and people
fishing as well as the sound of waves and the sweet smell of the salt
air.  The staff served the group well and met our needs.

Annella Campbell Workshop

Our 3-day workshop at Land's End was wonderful, as usual. It is always fun to get together and have our members from Kenai-Soldotna and Anchorage join us as well.

Make your first wash "tea" consistency

Start with a small value sketch

Annella told us how to make this colorful mat border

A painting from the 14-year-old Annella

Glass painting, day 2.

Day 3--painting on MASA paper

September 2; First Friday

Two of our long-time members had shows in September. Janaan Kitchen showed her fabulous batiks on paper at the Ptarmigan, including some from Australia. She had a solo show Down Under and brought back some Outback inspired batiks. Congratulations, Janaan!

Marlyn Kramer had a show at the Fireweed Gallery with beautiful paintings of everything from flowers to caribou.  Be sure to check it out.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Plein Aire group met at Baycrest to paint in the sun.

Janaan Kitchen and batik art

Marlyn Kramer in her flower garden

Workshops with Featured Artists

2017--Gayle Weisfield, September 15-17, See www.gayleweisfield.com/

2018--Bev Jozwiak, September 14-16. See www.bevjozwiak.com/

Garden Paint Out

Sorry if you missed it! We had a great time at Brigitte Suter's garden. The sun came out, and it was a beautiful day. There were apple and blueberry muffins, watermelon, and cheese to snack on and beautiful views and flowers to paint.  Thanks so much for hosting us, Brigitte!

Brigitte welcomes us to her garden.

The group enjoys flower painting.

Renee' with her paint backpack leaves as Mary Bee arrives.

It was warm enough to go barefoot!

Marilyn and Cindy enjoy the garden.

The Suter's lovely home.

Future Workshops

Arizona artist, Annella Campbell, September 16-18, 2016 at Land's End Resort.

2017--Gayle Weisfield, September 15-17, See www.gayleweisfield.com

2018--Bev Jozwiak, September 14-16. See www.bevjozwiak.com/

August 5, 10 AM Plein Air

Paint Outside at Baycrest Hill overlook park at 10 AM on Friday, August 5.

Summer Events

PLEIN-AIR PAINTING:  The Plein Air painters will meet at 2 Sisters to paint from their back porch on Friday, July 29, 1 PM for lunch; 1:30 PM for painting.

JULY 30, 10-4:  Mini-workshop with visiting artist Bruce Sink; $50 members; $60 guests.  Beginners welcome. Bruce will be working with 3 primary colors, in the style he learned from Chinese Artist Lian Quan Zen. Any profit after expenses will be donated to Homer Food Pantry.  Check with Homer Art and Frame for details and supply list.   Gallery online at brucesink.com.      

AUGUST 20; 1-4 PM:  Paint Out at Brigitte Suter's fabulous garden and farm. Bring a sack lunch and your outdoor paint gear. 

Fun with Don Kolstad

Sorry you missed a good time and great lesson from Don Kolstad. He took us through a seascape step by step, and we turned out some great paintings!

Don kept us laughing while we were learning.

Nice paintings. We learned a lot.

One-day Workshop with Don Kolstad

 
April 2—10am until 5pm—Cost $50 - Classroom at Homer Art & Frame—Class size limited to 12. To reserve your space, mail or drop by check payable to KBWS to Homer Art & Frame, 4001 Lake St. #3 –Homer 99603.

The landscape painting we will be working on for this session will be a seascape with cliffs, rocks, water rolling onto the shore, etc. I want to focus on how to paint and create rocks by using a palette knife or something similar like a credit card to move paint around. Rocks always seem to be a problem to most artists and they end up looking like a bunch of potatoes...here's a great controlled and spontaneous solution to that problem. Along with the rocks we'll be learning about rendering reflections, the water on the shore and many of the typical elements of shore lines found around Homer and Alaska.

March Paint In--Chinese Brush Painting with Sharlene Packer Klein

 Sharlene led us once again in an afternoon of Chinese-style painting. This time she demonstrated painting birds with color. Notice that an old oatmeal container makes a good brush holder.

Sharlene holds up one of her paintings.

Hummingbirds by Sharlene

The birds are done with a minimum of brush strokes.

Marilyn shows us her Hake brush.

We practiced the techniques but couldn't match the beauty of Sharlene's work.

A flower demo--the brush is loaded with 2 or 3 colors.

Paint-in: Valentine's Day Theme

Today, nine KBWS members came together to have an early celebration of Valentine's Day.  After a brief presentation on the use of projectors, they watched a video on painting flowers by Janet Rogers.  And the fun began as they painted their own while eating chocolate cake (among other things - thanks Lynda), and  visiting with each other.  The following are some pictures from this afternoon's events.  Thanks to all who contributed to this event.



Renee brought in various types of flowers

Cindy worked with pink roses

Visiting from Kenai

Lynda & Marilyn socialize for a bit

Fun at work



And the work in progress



A red rose



Renee's pink roses



Another single rose

Working on the leaves

Also from Kenai - how nice to see them in Homer again!

See you at the next paint-in!

Paint In Events

The following Paint-In events are scheduled for the first Saturday of each month during the Spring of 2016 (1:00-4:00PM unless otherwise specified):

February 6, 2016: Valentine oriented paintings.  Bring photo reference or paint from floral still life.  Bring snack to share if you like.  Free to members - Guests $10.

March 5, 2016 :  Oriental style brush work with Color with guest instructor Sharlene Cline.  Bring snack to share if you like.  Free to members - Guests $10.

April 2, 2016:   Mini workshop with Anchorage artist Don Kolstad.   Cost to be announced.

May 7, 2016:  "Painting from Life Model . . .(more information to follow)