John Hofman described the act of urban sketching as drawing on location with minimum equipment. He gave us a handout that illustrated many different ways to get the illusion of depth.
He went on to show examples of many artists that succeeded in quickly drawing and sometimes enhancing their piece with shading or colouring. They needed to estimate proportions of objects, shapes and angles of perspective.
Our Winter Challenge was to create a Masterpiece by opening a dictionary and, without looking, choose two words to put together a painting. This might have been tricky if you chose an adverb, or
preposition but you were allowed to pick again. You could do a little write up explaining your choice. In the end, there was a tie for people's choice but Janene's painting and creative explanation proved to be the winner.
At our Christmas Party 2025, we were to create an original Christmas card for exchange, bring a gift for hospice and food for potluck. Judith, Anne and Janene led us in the following activities:
Blind drawing Partner into twos at each table . First person does the first portrait; then partners switch. Do the same for the remaining two drawings. Drawing with non-dominant hand Drawing upside down . Trivia quiz and Pictionary Game
Our Sept. workshop was cutting edge, palette knife painting with our very own Rich Williams.
Rich demonstrated watercolour in a forest of hands-on, loose landscapes. Everyone absorbed the demos, then wielded their own knife in a...
A small gathering met at Sway-a-Lana for plein air.
Most of us just visited , but some brave and creative members did produce some art …. with a very cool “rain shower” effect.
Colour with Purpose Workshop by Courtney LeBaron
Our exercise was first to challenge ourselves by making a grid with a limited colour palette using one or two colours with black and...
Lynn Saunders was the winner of our Spring Challenge for 2025, entitled April Showers - May Flowers. We combined the day with a delicious potluck luncheon.
We were to create a painting using Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue, Cadmium yellow, and white or the transparent equals e.g. quinacridone...
Doug Swinton did a workshop on "Setting Yourself Up for Success: The Art of Pre-Painting Preparation."
We learned the essential steps to prepare for a successful painting, from planning composition and selecting colours, to choosing the...
At the “Facing” the Group workshop led by Diane Williams, we created a 5x7 portrait of a member of our Nanaimo Group of Artists. Several black and white images of selected "vectorized" faces......
(photo edits) were provided and we transferred these to canvas panels that were also provided. We used our powers of observation, our...
February's workshop was with Joanne Ayley and was titled "Starting an Abstract Landscape on a Black Canvas".
She uses the "You Doodle Pro App" to both help her determine the shapes in her reference material and to help figure out her next steps.
