Details for "Acrylics - Using Transparent Paints to Make Your Work Glow"

Acrylics: Using Transparent Paints to Make Your Work Glow

with

Louise Nicholson

 When: Saturday, January 28 + Sunday, January 29, 2023

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m

. 

Where: West Vancouver Seniors' Centre, Arts Studio

Scroll to the very bottom for the sign up button; please read the refund policy near the bottom of the page prior to registering.

Course Description

Louise will demonstrate how flexible transparent acrylic paints can be in both establishing an interesting background as well as creating glowing passages in the main body of the painting. By working on the entire canvas right from the start, problems with the background can be avoided.

Louise will demonstrate how transparent glazes and opaque passages can push both colour temperature and values easily back and forth, allowing the artist to keep control of their subject matter. This technique is useful regardless of the subject matter of the painting, so this is not a “how to paint a bear” workshop. It is a “how to use transparent paints to create interesting paintings” workshop.

This is an acrylic painting workshop. While the same techniques could be applied to oil paints, the drying time required makes oil paints unsuitable for this weekend workshop.

 Supply List

• 2 or 3 small bottles of transparent fluid acrylics (I like to use Opus Essential Fluid acrylics in quinacridone magenta, quinacridone gold, and phthalo blue and/or phthalo turquoise)

• Bring your usual heavy body acrylic paints, plus some transparent colours.

• Definitely bring white and black as well 

• My favourite transparent colours are:

• Yellow iron oxide
• Transparent earth red
• Ultramarine blue
• Phthalo blue
• Phthalo green
• Quinacridone magenta

These are MY favourites, but yours can be different – it is YOUR painting! 

• Acrylic medium, or glazing liquid – gloss, satin, matte, whichever you’ve got. 
• Brushes – bring a selection of sizes. You don’t need to buy special brushes (unless you’re looking for an excuse to do so!). Just bring what you are comfortable using. My personal preference is flats, but again, that’s just me. You do you!

• Support: Depending on your preference, you may choose to work on two smaller pieces or one larger one. No harm having an extra with you. I’ll demonstrate on a 24x24 pre-primed canvas and this is possibly as large as you might want to go, given the space restrictions of a workshop. I find another layer of gesso applied to the factory-applied pre-primed canvases allows the paint to move and stick better. Please do this at home prior to the workshop so that you aren’t held up by wet gesso when you want to start painting

All the rest:

• Apron
• Paper towels
• Water container
• Palette
• Scraper – I have a catalyst wedge I like to use, but I’m also happy with the side of a credit card. Bondo spreaders are also handy and inexpensive. Really though, don’t spend money on something you may never use again. If you have one, bring it. If not, I’ll have extras and an old credit card will work just fine as well.
• Water spritzer, if you need one to keep your paints moist.
• An easle
• Something to cover tables
• 2 photo references…may project or draw prior if you wish 
• Lunch/drink
• Class starts at 10; arrive anytime after 9:30 to set up

Artist Biography

Born in Ontario and now living in North Vancouver B.C., Louise Nicholson is a passionate painter of the figure, wildlife and landscapes in oils and acrylics.  She earned a Bachelor of Science from Simon Fraser University and worked in the medical field. As a mother of three, Louise had a breakthrough moment when she participated in a drawing class at night school.  She was so excited to glimpse the possibilities of creating again after having it paused for “life”.  She continued to educate herself with a hunger for knowledge, progressing her drawing with charcoal and pastel then moving into painting. Inspired by the play of light and her love of movement in the figure, she explores the emotion behind both human and animal gesture with clarity of colour and confident brushwork. Her artworks of bears with people in peculiar places or situations are a mix of inspiration from stunning images snapped by photographers in “extravagantly wild places” and her own creativity and love for wildlife and nature.

To Register

If you are a NSAG member please login prior to registering for this workshop to pay the member rate. 

Registration Confirmation

Payment confirms your registration and participation in the workshop. If you do not receive an email confirmation within an hour of paying please check your junk mail/spam folder, and if you do not see a confirmation email contact the guild immediately at contact@nsartists.ca.

Cancellation Policy

If you are unable to attend a workshop, refunds are not issued, but you may find another person to take your place. 

If the workshop is full and there is a willing replacement on the waitlist, you can cancel through Kolina Logan (kolinalogan@shaw.ca) in which case a refund will be issued.

No refunds will be issued within 24 hours of the workshop start time.  NSAG reserves the right to cancel the course.

Cost & Status