Fall Zoom Art Classes - 4 sessions for each theme
Saturdays, 10-12:30noon EST

• Animal Crackers: September 7, 14, 21, 28

• Fauve Landscapes: October 12, 19, November 2, 9

• Into the Night: November 16, 23, 30, Dec 7

Art Mass - 9 sessions package (half price of regular classes)

• Sunday, September 8, 15, 22 from 10am-12:30noon EST

• Sunday, October 13, 20 from 10am-12:30noon EST

• Sunday, November 3, 10, 17, 24 from 10am-12:30noon EST

dates that have changed are noted in BOLD text

CONNECT TO THE SPIRIT OF THE LAND, WATER & SKY

When: SUNDAY, AUGUST 18 - SATURDAY, AUGUST 24 (6 NIGHTS)

Where: THE LODGE ON AMHERST ISLAND ART RETREAT

Cheers to the 5th year that The Lodge on Amherst Island welcomes us to their magnificent studio on Stella Bay, which promises to ignite passion, awe, and wonder in every corner of your soul! This is an opportunity to create and be inspired by the beauty of Amherst Island (between Kingston & Glenora) on Lake Ontario, Canada.

Master Impressionism

July 22-26 (5 days, 9am-4pm)

Study the Masters of Impressionism to inspire expressionism in your future brushwork and colour explorations! Look at the history and apply the theory Monet and Renoir developed in mini studies to explore what influenced these Impressionist artists, their work and how painting has since been profoundly affected by the movement. These classes will focus on colour theory, technique and stylization to support a final project of your own Impressionistic landscape painting. This is an open-media intermediate workshop, with demonstrations offered in acrylic and soft pastel (oil and watercolour painters are welcome).

“The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.” - Claude Monet

The Magic of Charcoal (Mixed Media)

July 29-August 2 (5 days, 9am-4pm)

Charcoal is a cosmic medium with many formats and exciting possibilities, from traditional to contemporary applications. This charcoal-focused workshop will show its versatility in mixed media ‘drawing and painting’ applications on a range of elegant surfaces. Master drawing skills developed during the Renaissance by studying Chiaroscuro and the hazy beauty of Sfumato for dimensional portraits and still life, to experimental and expressive landscapes and abstract designs. Embrace lively discussions, innovative projects for all levels, inspiring demonstrations, constructive critiques, and finding joy in the process of creating beautiful, exciting works of art!

Materials to be explored: charcoal, gold leaf, glitter, soft pastel, coloured pencil, water-based paints (ink, watercolour, gouache, acrylics) on mylar, paper and birch wood.

Call 1-877-309-0317 ext. 0 or 613-332-1743 ext. 0 

Material lists will be emailed to students by June 1st

I have scheduled a few dates for ARTROPOLOGY SUMMER GAMES 🌈🥳🤩😎

You can sign up for any of the following dates, $15 CAD to register. Registration is open until the day before the game date when the ZOOM link will be emailed. Let’s plan to PLAY! 🤩🥳😍

Artropology Summer Game dates:

• Sunday June 23, 11am EST

• Friday July 5, 11am EST / 2pm PDT *Im hosting from Merrit, BC

• Monday August 12, 7pm EST

A weekend ‘plein air’ art retreat with music, yoga and meditation in the beautiful countryside.

When: Friday, June 7th to Sunday, June 9th (2 nights). Arrive for Friday dinner, leave after Sunday lunch.

Location: 6724 County Rd 9, Stayner, ON L0M 1S0 (Parking on site).

The Magic of Charcoal • Experimental Mixed Media
Charcoal is a cosmic medium with many formats and exciting mixed media possibilities, from traditional to contemporary applications. Explore gold leaf and water-based paint combinations while mastering Chiaroscuro and the hazy beauty of Sfumato for portraits, landscapes, still lifes and abstract designs. This is a safe space to experiment and play, with inspiring demonstrations, constructive critiques, and Open Studio-style sessions to work independently and discuss photography, archiving, and framing final works. 

Great Canadian Animals
This wild adventure explores uniquely Canadian animal portraits and environments. Grow in the confidence of knowing basic drawing materials and rendering accurate proportions and realistic details. Each class studies an animal such as the Atlantic Puffin, Canadian Horse, Polar Bear, Snowy Owl and Cougar, and the art of choosing good reference photos that capture spirit and personality. Colour theory, composition, design, personal style and expression are met with one-on-one direction and group critiques!  All projects feature ink and watercolour, soft pastel or watersoluable coloured pencils, with the goal of planning a complete series of works that can be merchandize into greeting cards or prints.  

Acrylic Confidence
Everyone deserves to paint with confidence, and this series of classes provides all levels of artists with the technical knowledge of acrylic paint and mediums to do just that. Learn essential techniques, starting with the anatomy of polymers, grounds and additives, pigments and colour mixing, plus many innovative possibilities of this modern medium, from glazing to palette knife tools, textures and mixed media. Subject matter will include abstractions to landscapes, and a Master Study with plenty of studio time to finish all projects. Benefit from demonstrations, critiques and personal guidance for beautiful paintings that combine knowledge with the joy of painting!

Bone Wind Fire • Master Class
For the love of nature and everyone who has dreamed of walking their own path! Explore the lives and works of Georgia O'Keeffe, Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo. These remarkable women listened to their own voice at a very interesting time in art history, defining a legacy with connection to nature, passionate drive and skill-based process. Learn from the Masters by studying key works of flowers, landscapes and symbolic imagery, with step-by-step demonstrations, critiques and OpenStudio time to create your own themed artwork inspired by one of these great women and personal interests. 

Your choice of media: watercolour, acrylics, oils or soft pastels.

Fresh Wilds 
Paint looser, bolder, freer and lighter! Push the boundaries of expressive mixed media that explore composition for bouquets and flower portraits in various styles. Have fun learning about colour, value, texture, tools and experimental acrylic mixed media combinations while strengthening your observational and conceptual skills to work more intuitively. These classes will be upbeat and liberating, fearlessly wild and philosophical, inspiring your creative courage to bloom.  

Expressive Landscapes 
Journey into the magical realms of your imagination with intuitive painting methods for abstracting from nature’s inspiration. Explore photo referencing tricks, dynamic compositions, unconventional tools, brushwork and colour harmonies, acrylic mediums and mixed media experimentation, all to help convey new ways of representing what you see and how you feel about the world around you. Inspiring demonstrations and exercises support Open Studio time for work with guidance in a nurturing and collaborative environment, celebrating fearless expression! 

These in person classes will be offered in the Spring 2024 schedule at Visual Arts Mississauga.

Bone Wind Fire • Georgia O'Keeffe, Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo
For the love of nature and everyone who has dreamed of walking their own path! Explore the lives and works of Georgia O'Keeffe, Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo. These remarkable women listened to their own voices at a very interesting time in art history, defining a legacy with a connection to nature, passionate drive and skill-based process. Learn from the Masters by studying key works of flowers, landscapes and symbolic imagery, with step-by-step demonstrations, critiques and OpenStudio time to create your own themed artwork inspired by one of these great women and personal interests. 
Art materials to be explored: Acrylics and Charcoal

Saturday mornings from 10am-12:30noon EST on ZOOM

• March 2, 9, 16, (skip 23), 30 (4 sessions)

• April 6, 13, 20, 27 (4 sessions)

• May 4, 11, 18, 25 (4 sessions)

Desert & Underwater Landscapes
Experience the light, colours and spirit of the desert and sea with inspiration from my recent art residency in Arizona. Take a deep dive to explore all the wonders below and above, focusing on technical and conceptual such as colour palettes, layering textures and creating magical compositions of unique landscapes, creatures and remarkable diversity.

Art materials to be explored: water-based paint, charcoal and open drawing media such as soft pastels, coloured pencils, and ink.

Sunday mornings from 10am-12:30noon EST on ZOOM

• March 3, 10, 17, (skip 24), 31 Easter Sunday (4 sessions)

• April 7, 14, 21, 28 (4 sessions)

• May 5, 12 Mother’s Day, 19, 26 (4 sessions)

Bonus Buys!

• $400 for 12 classes = bundle pack of your theme choice = 2 classes FREE / $80 value). Includes recordings for all classes.

• $800 for 24 classes = bundle pack of all weekend ZOOM classes for 12 weeks = 4 classes FREE + PLUS a 30min consultation or critique). Includes recordings for all classes.

Experience the light, colours and spirit of the desert with inspiration from my recent art residency and study of Georgia O’Keeffe’s selected works. Explore painting rocks and mountains, expressive sunsets and skies, harmonious desert colour palettes, and textures of plant life that will nurture a love and appreciation of this enchanted landscape.

Art materials to be explored: water-based paint, coloured pencils, markers, charcoal and open drawing media.

Dates: Sunday mornings from 10am-12:30pm EST

5 sessions: Nov 5, 12, 19, 26 and Dec 3, 2023

Take a Deep Dive into an underwater fantasy world! Vibrant, thriving coral reefs, waters teeming with sea life where sharks, fish, sea urchins, and dolphins thrive. Explore mixed media drawing techniques, layering textures and colours to create magical compositions of our unique ocean landscape, sea creatures to abstract expressionism, filled with remarkable diversity.

Art materials to be explored: water-based paint, coloured pencils, markers, charcoal and open drawing media.

Dates: Saturday mornings from 10am-12:30pm EST

5 sessions: Nov 4, 11, 18, 25 and Dec 2, 2023

Mini Masters • Fauvism • Wed 1-Nov to 29-Nov from 9:30 - 12:30 pm

For Lovers of Colour! These sessions will study the history and theory of the Fauvists, to inspire colour explorations in your personal artwork. Demonstrations will primarily be in acrylic, with variations for soft pastels. Oil and watercolour painters are welcome. These classes will focus on colour, technique and stylization as we learn about this brief, yet powerful art movement that follows Impressionism and leads into expressionism. Previous experience in your chosen medium is essential. Artists for study: Henry Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, Andre Derain, and Auguste Herbin.

Mini Masters: Group of Seven • Wed 1-Nov to 29-Nov from 1:30 - 4:30 pm

These sessions will study the history, adventures and artworks of Canada’s beloved Group of Seven & Tom Thompson. These classes will focus on composition, process, technique, and stylization - what we can learn from the group, take away and implement into our own works, with modern insights, resources and materials. Demonstrations will primarily be in acrylic. Oil, watercolour and soft pastel artists are welcome. Previous experience in your chosen medium is essential. Artists for study: Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, and Tom Thomson. 

Fearless Drawing • Thurs 2-Nov to 30-Nov from 9:30 - 12:30 pm

Fearless Drawing provides the technical confidence required for experimentation, imagination and joy in the creative process. This courageous adventure explores understanding various drawing materials, eye-hand coordination, chiaroscuro shading, expressive mark-making, value studies, atmospheric perspective and relative proportion. Benefit from exciting projects featuring wild animals, motivating critiques and being proud of your artwork.

Fantastic Animals • Thurs 2-Nov to 30-Nov from 1:30 - 4:30 pm

This wild adventure explores projects of uniquely fantastical animal portraits and environments using soft pastels. Fantastic Animals provides the technical confidence of knowing your materials, colour play and artistic expression, rendering accurate proportions and realistic details. Each class features an animal portrait project, motivating critiques, being proud of your artwork and experiencing joy in the creative process.

Saturday, Sept 30th, 2023

“The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.” - Claude Monet

Study the Masters of Impressionism to inspire expressionism in your future brushwork and colour explorations! Look at the history and apply theory Monet and Renoir developed, in mini studies to explore what influenced these Impressionists artists, their work and how painting has since been profoundly affected by the movement. 

Sunday Oct 1st, 2023

“Fauvism was our ordeal by fire... colours became charges of dynamite. They were expected to charge light... The great merit of this method was to free the picture from all imitative and conventional contact.” -Andre Derain 

For Lovers of Colour! Create your own fauvist self portrait! This workshop will focus on colour theory, technique and stylization as we learn about this brief, yet powerful art movement that follows Impressionism and leads into expressionism.

THE LODGE ON AMHERST ISLAND 2023
HOSTED BY THE LODGE ON AMHERST ISLAND AND SHARLENA WOOD

• SUMMER 2023 • AUG 20-26 (6 NIGHTS)

This is the year for FUN!

The Lodge on Amherst Island and their magnificent studio are setting out fresh linens in cozy bedrooms, and setting the dining table for us to be together again! This little gem on Stella Bay will ignite passion, awe, and wonder in every corner of your soul …. an opportunity to create and be inspired by the beauty of Amherst Island (between Kingston & Glenora) on Lake Ontario. This is where we connect to create - it’s needed and much deserved. 

Mornings will begin with inspirational challenges to exercise your imagination and expand your knowledge of materials and techniques, leading into open studio time in the afternoons for personal projects and requests. There will be unfettered guidance, demonstrations, critiques, drawing, painting in your chosen medium, mixed media expertise, specially catered meals, board games, artropology painting games, pictionary, movie night, massage therapy, bonfires, country walks, swimming, plein air painting excursions including Topsy Farms with lamb visits - music, love, hugs, laughter and fun! 

AMHERST ISLAND ART RETREAT is a nourishing, liberating experience for all levels of artists. All mediums welcomed! (oil, acrylic, watercolour, collage, monotypes, drawing). Demonstrations will be in acrylics and drawing materials.

See Retreats for more info