Weekly classes and Saturday workshops are going strong over at the Oak Park Art League! I started to offer weekly classes again in January, after dipping my toe back into life at OPAL last Fall with a handful of Saturday workshops. It is so nice to be back there and feel like it’s a home away from home again. It’s this old carriage house in the Frank Lloyd Wright district that has one big classroom and a little classroom on the second floor and a gallery on the ground floor. As an art non-profit it is going to turn 100 years old next year! When we first moved to Oak Park from California in 2010 one of the first things I did once I got my feet on the ground was apply for artist membership at OPAL, so it’s been an integral part of my Chicago area experience from almost day one. It’s so charming and I love a lot of the people there, and am so glad that it’s still a place I teach even though I don’t live in Oak Park anymore. It’s always like going home for a visit, so lately I get to go home for visits every Tuesday and a few Saturdays a month.
I want to share some of the details and photos of the workshops, as they will be running again, in addition to new ones, in Spring and Summer. I will be continuing to teach Mixed Media Techniques on Tuesday afternoons from 4:00-6:00 pm, too, for Winter 2, a five-week session which runs February 17-March 21. Register here.
The workshops often take elements of my weekly class and expands each one into a three hour exploration at a time, like Image Transfer, Gel Plate Printing, and Working Small in Mixed Media. Sometimes they are specific projects, like the Accordion Sketchbook and Farmers Market Still Life.
The next workshop will be on Saturday, February 22, 9:30-12:30, Working Big in Mixed Media! Last Saturday was Working Small, so it’s a bit like a companion workshop in that we’ll be covering scaling up, but it’s for anyone who wants to explore working 18×24 or larger, using the right tools, sizes of shapes, lines and making big marks.
Coming up on March 14 is Mixed Media Still Life, from 9:30-12:30 in the gallery, where I will have a big still life with organic and inorganic objects with mixed sizes, shapes, textures, fabric, and colors, plenty to explore with painting, collage, gels and texture techniques, and drawing tools. Students can work on bristol board, canvas, or boards, or any combination of those things. Just whatever surfaces you bring, be sure to make them at least 18×24.
Next, in April I’ll be teaching a workshop covering fundamentals of composition, value and color in acrylic paint and collage. In May and June, after the Farmers Market opens, there will be still life workshops using Farmers Market produce for watercolor and mixed media. Register here.
