Summer Creativity Workshops

Summer is a great time to expand your creative potential! 

Here are three new workshops to enjoy. 

Collage works well for those of you who haven't drawn or painted, but want to dip your fingers into the image-creation arena. And it's fun. This is where I go when I'm stuck, creatively speaking.  

I have discovered a hidden gem of a location for a one-day Plein Air workshop just an hour and a half south of Denver, guaranteed to inspire.

And excited by the Denver Art Museum's "Modern Masters" exhibition of paintings and sculpture from the Albright Knox Gallery, I'm offering a one day class titled,"Abstraction For (Mostly) Realists", a bit of history, discussion, and painting. 

There are still a few remaining spots left in my North Fork Valley Plein Air workshop, September 18 to 23, 2014. We will visit numerous locations in which any Plein Air painter should want to paint, including the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. 

And don't forget that I do private critique and artistic coaching sessions by appointment.

Collage Workshop 

Wednesday, June 11, 2014, 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM

In Sandra's studio

We will discuss the history of collage, explore some techniques, and consider how a collage becomes a complete artistic statement.

Most of our materials will be pictures from old magazines, photos, packing materials, and any other 2-D images you can find. We will use stencils, acrylic transfers, positive and negative forms, and many other methods to create our personal statements.

  

Location: Directions will be sent when you register.

Tuition: $75.  This class is limited to only 10 participants. Your place will be held only after your tuition is received.

Registration: Please contact Sandra at: sandrakaplanart@gmail.com

Plein Air Workshop

Wednesday, June 4, 2014, 9 AM to 3:30 PM

Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Calhan, Colorado

 Spend the day exploring this visually exciting area about a 40 minute drive east of Colorado Springs, (or a 1 1/2 hour drive from Denver), and be astounded by it's amazing, other-worldly rock formations.

  Develop a personal style to express the landscape in your own unique way. Work in the medium of your choice, but plan to do a bit of walking, so make your supplies as light and portable as possible.

 We will discuss different methods for approaching the landscape in the limited time available. Each student will receive ample individual attention, and we will have a group critique at the end of our painting day.

Please bring a sack lunch, and plenty of drinking water. Either drive down in the morning, or plan to enjoy the previous night in one of Colorado Springs' B & Bs.

Location: Directions will be sent when you register

Tuition: $95. This class is limited to only 10 participants. Your place in the workshop will be held only after your tuition is received.

Registration: Please contact Sandra at: sandrakaplanart@gmail.com

Abstraction For (Mostly) Realists

Wednesday, July 9, 2014, 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM

Sandra's Studio

What exactly does "abstraction" mean in an artistic context? Is there any reason for realists to care? Why did so many artists begin to paint this way, and during what time period? Who are the important abstractionists? Is it true that "Any child could do that"?

These are a few of the questions we will discuss in this workshop. We will see examples of important paintings in the abstract tradition, then do some exercises, using both cut paper and paint, to help understand how we might incorporate these ideas into our work.

Location: Directions will be sent when you register

Tuition: $75. This class is limited to only 10 participants. Your place in the workshop will be held only after your tuition is received.

Registration: Please contact Sandra at: sandrakaplanart@gmail.com

Bluebird Bird Mansion

A number of years ago, I met Toni Saiber, the now director of The Eating Disorder Foundation (EDF). She had recently been through a life and death struggle with her eating disorer, and  on her road to recovery, had enrolled in a class I taught at the Art Students League of Denver. 

 We became friends, and I have been a supporter of the foundation she started (with several others). I have remained committed to helping the Foundation in its efforts to educate the public about the ravages of eating disorders and the many pathways to recovery.




As a symbol of EDF's mission to become a stop on each individual's journey of recovery, EDF members and volunteers paint birdhouses to be given in exchange for specified contributions. The birdhouses are  small replicas of the EDF center.

This year, a larger version of the birdhouse was built by architect Jonathan Saiber, and I was asked to paint it. It was then auctioned at the foundation's fund-raising Gala.

Above is my finished, multi media  piece.

Below, I am pictured with the birdhouse, mid way to completion.

Star Gazing and My Totally Updated Web Site

                        "Star Gazing", 18" X 18"on canvas, mixed media

"R = 15 KPC", 18" X 18" on panel, acrylic

Please check out  my totally up-dated and re-organized web site at www.sandrakaplan.com. 

There are seven galleries of my work, plus listings of my future workshops and other services. 

The two images above, "Star Gazing" and "R = KPC" are from my latest project, "Space Stories", which was initially inspired by some Hubble images that my daughter, Sacha Wolff sent. Sacha is an aerospace engineer, and our discussions, which often consist of her trying to explain some aspect of her interests to me, or telling me that she can't, have pointed my work in unexpected directions a number of times.

I found historical astronomical images, and many intriguing scientific charts in astronomy books. My initial plan was to playfully do a chronological survey of cosmological  concepts. But as I became more immersed in Egyptian, Sumerian, Chinese, Arabic and European images of day and night, or our cosmos, constellations, and comets, I began to think that chronology should have nothing to do with my plans. Yesterday's "proven" scientific ideas about the nature of our world constantly are replaced by new discoveries, and become today's folklore. 

In my extremely liberal misinterpretation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, I would  almost randomly organize my multi-panel paintings. And give myself the liberty to come up with my own "Space Stories".

                    "Space Stories", 54" X 54" on 6 canvases, multi media

Regeneration: Aspen (this painting completes the series)

After doing a line drawing of my Aspen Tree, the background
was painted in gradations of blue. Shadow areas were painted in purple, and I experimented with color.

The lower right leaves were defined by color. I decided that
because the sapling was painted in spring greens, the cycle
would be more complete by making this a fall tree.

Leaves were developed further, and some definition added.

Another step.

The leaves are now filled in, but the composition looks too
chaotic, with very little massing of color. 

More orange and yellow-green is added to the upper left,
and the lower left is darkened.

I continued to add orange to warm up the bottom of the
painting, and to visually connect it to the top.

To complete this painting, I wanted a feeling of leaf canopy
above. I feel that this gives a secure and protective  quality
 to the tree. I needed to eliminate some bits of sky on the
upper left to accomplish this.

These four oil paintings, each 32" X 32", (please read my past three posts) will be permanently displayed outside the chapel at the Castle Rock Adventist Hospital in Castle Rock, Colorado. I appreciate the opportunity to paint this Regeneration Cycle, and to have it presented in such a meaningful location.

Regeneration: Sapling, The Third Painting

My drawing for "Regeneration:Sapling", with a grid used
to enlarge my small sketch.

This canvas was first painted a light blue-purple. The overall
tone of the rocks was close to that color. Once the drawing
was traced onto this colored canvas, I  re-painted the foliage
with white. This clarified my composition, and made my
color choices for the greens easier.

I painted a line image of the rock details, and began to choose
 some variations of rock colors.

Dark areas were defined, establishing depth in the com-
position's shallow space.

Basic color of the foliage is established.

Rocks are modeled and defined, and detail is added to the
 leaves.

Minor tweaks in the rocks. Most importantly, the orange leaves,
which I had really liked for the color contrast they added, were
distracting, so I eliminated them. I did leave a bit of the orange
behind the green leaves as a compliment to the blue.

This new tree represents the regeneration after the fire, my symbol of hope.

This painting is an oil on canvas, 32" X 32", the third painting of "Regeneration", a four part painting commissioned by Noyes Art Designs for a new hospital.

"Regeneration: Scarred", The Second Painting

Beginning stage of my oil painting,"Regeneration: Scarred".
The composition and color established.

Further definition of areas of burn and texture in the landscape.

Areas in the distance are desaturated and softened. 

Texture is integrated, and color palette broadened.

Completed painting, "Regeneration: Scarred",  an oil painting,
32" X 32". This is the second in this series, painted for a hospital,
and commissioned by Noyes Art Designs

I enjoy looking at a subject from many different vantage points. In this painting, our point of view shifts from the close up involvement in the fire shown in the first piece of this series to a view of the larger landscape, with its implications of the inter-connectedness in nature.

Regeneration: Aspen, A Hospital Commission

The first stage of my painting, "Regeneration:Fire"
The background has been painted yellow, then the image painted in  black 

The flames have been developed, but the log is, as yet, undefined by color.

This is the completed oil painting, 32" X 32".
Glowing embers  of the log are now defined, and the flames have been
 softened and colors more differentiated.