Watercolor success!

It's hard to use watercolors successfully without getting them muddy or too opaque! So the 9 participants in Steve's watercolor class at the Wake Forest Art and Frame shop were delighted to create beautiful watercolors in the April 28 class!

Starting with a single image of a palm tree on the beach at sunset (or sunrise!) he showed them how to lay in the background wash before adding the tree. You would be surprised how many people want to paint the tree first then add the background! A simple tip with amazing results! Not all the participants are in this collage but the happy faces of those that are, say it all!

Next class is a unique outdoor class at our studio May 7 to paint the blooming roses! Learn what it takes to paint "plein air" :-)

Painting by the LAKE!

The lake where our ART workshop was held

Wow what a great day we had outside Wilson, NC in a little lake house near Stantonsburg! Who would not want to paint next to this gorgeous lake?  A group of the Wilson Active Artists met here on Saturday April 23 and painted their little hearts out! The cool morning fog gave way to warm afternoon sun and by the end of the day (3:00 pm) everyone had at least 1 painting completed and one had completed 3!

Steve, during lunch, deciding maybe we can paint without him!

Lunch was ham, fried chicken, potato salad, deviled eggs, fruit....oh my!  There are Art workshops and there are ART parties and this was a party!  Our Thanks to Susan and Don for graciously providing the beautiful  location for our two START classes today and additional thanks to the Wilson Active Artists for asking us here!  A great time was had by all!

Students coming in!

Working away!

Her beautiful painting!

Painting her own horse!

First cat!

One of 3 paintings completed in one day!

Happy with her first dog painting!

Delighted with her efforts!

Beautiful horse!

A wonderful dog!

Susan graciously loaned her Lake Cottage to the group!

Delighted to paint her own dog!

Anyone for cows?

Cindy also painted the same cow!

Betty brought her niece,Mary Beth

Kat decided there was something about this particular cow.......

Betty has been to a number of our classes!

A few of our painters in Steve's April 9 class all picked the same cow to paint with wonderful yet different results!    Many non-painters think that if everyone paints the same subject, all the paintings will look the same-close maybe, but even the same artists, painting the exact same image will never paint it exactly the same each time! That is the beauty of human individuality. We are not computers, able to point and click and duplicate each effort.

Every time we paint, we bring a little something else to the table...a little more experience, a little more of our own style!

What's coming up next

We have some easy features for you to know what's happening next in our classes! We have several locations where we hold our classes. Our main art studio is in Franklinton, NC and we partner with Wake Forest Art and Framing in Wake Forest, Franklin County Arts Council in Louisburg, NC, and Hills Music Shoppe in Henderson, NC. But don't worry. To the right of our blog will be our newest upcoming class and a google map for its location! 


So the next class?


Painting Horses! Wed, April 20 from 6-8 pm at the Wake Forest Art and Frame Shop in downtown Wake Forest.  This is a popular class where we paint the head and shoulders of a horse  in acrylics. We like to keep it simple but efficient by using our own system of colors and techniques.
We'll learn to add expression to the horse's eyes and use light and shadow to create a 3 dimensional horse! Sound complicated?  Don't worry! Wait until you see what you'll create in two hours!

Welcome to YOUR blog!

In reality, for all the Art Student Academy students,  this IS your blog! Without all of your amazing paintings and drawings, there would not be a blog so enjoy the images of your efforts!
Have something you painted or drawn outside of class? Then email it to me and I will post it here. We never outgrow "show and tell" so what better way nowadays than to display on the Internet?
Watch for our next classes and our art tips!