In-Person Workshops at the Sedona Arts Center offer an intensive experience that will provide inspiration and information to distill and practice for months and even years afterwards. A wide variety of disciplines and mediums are offered with a special focus on studio and plein air landscape painting, mixed media and abstraction. Workshops are appropriate for all levels of students and are presented through demonstrations, individual instruction and group presentation. Instructors are experts in their field – experienced teachers with national recognition.
Beginning Sculpture with Suzy Allan
February 2 – March 9
Unlock your visions and dreams! In this workshop you will learn sculpting basics in clay and you will be making one medium-sized sculpture. You will learn how to cut, hollow out, then reassemble your piece. On the final day we will explore different glazing techniques.
Please bring your clay tools and several photos of what you want to sculpt, or better yet a 3-D example.
Embedding Technology into 2D Art with Erin McGee Ferell
March 2 – 4
In this workshop participants will learn to embed audio and video into 2D paintings, integrating smartphone app technology with traditional painting materials. Viewers will then be able to scan where the NFC (Near Field Communication) sticker is located underneath the paint and hear sound or see an accompanying video that compliments the work.
Contemporary Maine Artist, Erin McGee Ferrell, will demonstrate and guide you into the exciting new world of making 2D work interactive. Paintings come alive with accompanying sound and video. Participants will work with watercolor from photographs. Erin McGee Ferrell will provide the NFC stickers that will be embedded in the works of art.
Elements of Perceptual Painting with Christine Lafuente March 6 – 9
Discover the excitement of perceptual painting! This oil painting workshop relates perceptual painting to an understanding of light source for back-lit, side-lit, and front-lit compositions. We will explore the following elements: “drawing for painting”, tone, temperature, palette organization, and how to key a palette in response to direction of light source. We will work from still life in a spacious environment where students will each have a personal painting space where they will be able to individually compose set-ups or work from shared set-ups. There will also be the option to paint en plein air on the Arts Center’s campus incorporating elements of the Sedona landscape. Mornings will focus on lecture and demonstration of specific techniques; afternoons will include individual instruction.
Mixed Media Transfer Techniques I with Michelle Sales
March 10
Artists from the past and present have often used images taken from existing materials such as magazines, postcards, old books, photocopies, and more to enhance their artwork. There now exists a multitude of transfer techniques available to artists.
In this six-hour workshop you will learn to transfer images from various sources such as magazines, photographs, and ink or laser jet images onto cradled wood board and canvas utilizing transfer paper. Many of the transfers created in this workshop can be incorporated into other images. We will explore various methods of layering images using acrylic paint, stamps, and other mixed media to create dimensional effects. This class is appropriate for all levels of skills or experience.
Drip, Drag, Scrape:
Introduction to Encaustic Painting with Helene Farrar
March 11 – 14
Drip, pour, drag, layer, heat, and incise! This extended workshop will allow participants to dip deep into the medium to develop their own voice. Encaustic is an evocative medium that lends itself into varying approaches and topics. Investigate the art of encaustic painting in this very hands-on workshop using pigmented wax, and a heated palette! Explore a rich variety of marks and surfaces while doing image transfer, etching, and collaging in this seductive medium. Take your flat collections of drawings, collected papers, pictures, and incorporate found objects. Class time will be divided between demonstrations, individual work time, and discussion about historical and contemporary practices. We will also touch on proper studio ventilation, wax safety, and how to “finish” artworks in terms of framing and care. Students will leave with multiple finished pieces and the understanding of proper studio set-up.
Cracking Comics: Fundamentals of Cartooning with Jillian Sander
March 18 – 19
This workshop will be a two day course exploring all the necessary basics of cartooning. We will focus on creating solid characters, conveying emotion and movement both exaggerated and subtle, utilizing a sense of time and pacing in a story, and the art of lettering and speech bubbles. Students will then shift to combining all those skills to create a comic book of their own! We will explore layout, cover design, and book making, and each student will go home with their own zine. Join me for a workshop jam-packed with chuckles and good advice, whether you’re an aspiring cartoonist or just looking for a good time!
Towards Amazing Color: A Plein Air Workshop with Carol Douglas
March 20 – 24
This workshop is aimed at helping painters refine their personal technique in watercolor, pastel, oils and acrylics. It will help you find your own voice and style without becoming anyone’s clone. This is an intensive class, with morning and afternoon on-site painting sessions and lunch-time discussions and demos. Classes are kept small so every student gets the attention they deserve.
We stress painting protocols to get you to good results with the least amount of wasted time. That means focusing on drawing, brushwork, and accurate observation. You will learn to paint boldly, using fresh, clean color. You’ll learn to build commanding compositions, and to use hue, value and line to draw the eye through your paintings.
Meditation to Creation with Ann Brownfield Meara
March 23 – 24
At the Meditation to Creation Workshop, find inner guidance to create something beautiful in addition to reflecting, writing and art making. You will also learn and practice the ancient art of meditation. Out of meditation, profound creative insights arise.
Creativity is a process of allowing. It begins with an inner spark, which you feed, develop and actualize. Creativity must be nurtured into being. It can be both magical and astounding. But it arises when we relax enough to invite it in. Coaxing forth its flow, a wellspring of creative solutions bubble to the surface. Inner wisdom helps us initiate skillful, creative action. Freeing the mind through meditation creates the ground for equanimity–that fertile state where brilliance breaks free.
Oil Over Acrylic Painting with Phil Garrett
March 25 – 27
In this 3-day workshop we will explore strategies for combining the expedience of an Acrylic Imprimature (Colored Ground) and further refined Acrylic Underpainting with layers of Luscious Oil Overpainting and Glaze.
One of the first issues in this approach to Oil over Acrylic is which comes first! It’s the Acrylic! Adhesion is the key and Oil will adhere to the dry layer of Acrylic and Acrylic won’t adhere to the dry layer of Oil paint.
Intuitive Expressive Painting with Jesse Reno
March 30 – April 2
In this mixed-media painting class you will learn to create paintings that emerge from an abstract base of markings, colors, line, and shape to form expressive and organic creations. You will learn painting and mark-making techniques that will encourage imagery and connection to your work. Through a series of painting exercises, you will explore and express your ideas by imagining what could be created from abstraction rather than confining your ideas to predetermined outcomes.
Within the process, we will create narrative dialogue by noting what we see and feel in our work. Through the practice of subtractive painting we will remove the parts that are no longer relevant or keep us trapped from progress. This teaches us choice and freedom to change direction in our work. We continually build layers within our paintings combining fragments of past ideas with the new until we arrive at a feeling of completion. Through this engagement we learn to experiment, take risks, re-associate our work from perspectives unconfined by our expectations. This allows us to see things clearly and move to a more expressed and personal engagement when painting.
