— from Maggie Sharkey —

Orcas Art Studios is now offering several summer art workshops right here on Orcas! Figure drawing and painting, pastels, landscape painting, compositional studies and more are on the schedule. These workshops are all taught by locally- and internationally-known instructors.

Orcas Art Studios, founded by local artists, is a dedicated space for teaching and learning visual arts and open to the community of artists, students and art educators. We have a furnished art studio space available for art teachers of any kind, for classes, workshops, kids programs, demonstrations or art talks. We also run weekly life drawing sessions and art workshops throughout the year.

Orcas Art Studios is located at the Airport Center, suite A4 in the front building. For more information about these workshops and more, please visit our website.

EVENT SCHEDULE:

June 20, 21, 22 9:30 am-4:30 pm
Art Workshop: Drawing the Figure in Ink, Wash and Charcoal with With Gage Academy teaching artist Terry Furchgott – $375

Discover the freedom and expressive quality of drawing the nude and clothed figure using the versatile mix of ink, wash, charcoal and white chalk applied to tinted paper.

In this intense 3-day workshop you review and improve your ability to accurately draw the figure, learn to render the human form, drapery and clothing using simplified planes of light and shadow, and explore diverse mixed media techniques. You complete gesture work, bold value sketches and several more finished drawings on tinted paper, learning to capture the essence of the nude and clothed figure in space with incisive lines and strong tonal values.

For more information and to register:
Orcas Art Studios
1286 Mt Baker Road, Suite A4 (Airport Center)
Eastsound
info@orcasartstudios.com
https://orcasartstudios.com

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July 8,9, 9:30 am-4:30 pm
Orcas Art Workshop: Introduction to Soft Pastels with With Seattle teaching artist Barb Noonan – $205

If you have always admired the vibrancy of pastel and the textural qualities of this medium, you will enjoy this class. Learn and experiment with various types of Soft Pastel sticks as well as Textured Papers. Try using a pastel stick that offers a rich hard line and compliment it with a “buttery” soft pastel. Blend or layer. Choosing paper with different textures will allow 2 – 25 layers of pastel. Some paper allows watercolor under paintings and washes and we will experiment with this process as well.

In addition, this class will show you how to create quick studies for future studio painting. We will focus on blocking in shape, color and using line for energy.

For more information and to register:
Orcas Art Studios
1286 Mt Baker Road, Suite A4 (Airport Center)
Eastsound
info@orcasartstudios.com
https://orcasartstudios.com

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July 28,29,30, 9:30am-12:30pm, 3:00pm-6:00pm
Orcas Art Workshop: Landscape Painting in Pastel With Seattle teaching artist Barb Noonan – $325

Working outdoors is a marvelous experience and humbling at the same time. Students with little or no experience in outdoor pastel painting will truly appreciate the immediacy of this saturated dry pigment. In addition, students will learn the benefits of layering and mark making as well as observational skills.

Whenever I paint outdoors, “en plein aire”, I bring my indoor experience of looking closely at bounced light and surrounding colors and values. We will start off with this indoor instruction. Segments will include observation through still life, familiarization with outdoor equipment and the importance of simultaneous contrast in your painting. Before you work in color some elements in design and composition will be focused upon as well.

For more information and to register:
Orcas Art Studios
1286 Mt Baker Road, Suite A4 (Airport Center)
Eastsound
info@orcasartstudios.com
https://orcasartstudios.com

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August 26,27,28, 9:30 am-4:30 pm
Orcas Art Workshop : Degas Dancers in Pastel With Gage Academy teaching artist Terry Furchgott – $375

In this intense 3-day workshop you create a series of lively alla prima studies working from nude and clothed models with set ups and costumes inspired by the colorful ballerina works of Impressionist Master, Degas.

Starting with a review of figure and pastel basics, you quickly progress to a hands on exploration of Degas’ colorful and inventive palette choices, his masterful manipulation of composition, and the sumptuous layering of light and color over the complex surfaces of his images. You closely study the intention and techniques of the Master, including his contribution to both Impressionist and more modern abstract Expressionist sensibilities, and learn to strengthen your own work with those elements you most admire in his.

For more information and to register:
Orcas Art Studios
1286 Mt Baker Road, Suite A4 (Airport Center)
Eastsound
info@orcasartstudios.com
https://orcasartstudios.com

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October 4,5, 9:30 am-4:30 pm
Art Workshop: Understanding Composition through Shape and Notan, With Mitch Albala, teaching artist at Gage Academy and author of Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice (Watson-Guptill, 2009) – $225

Every composition is fundamentally an arrangement of abstract shapes. To truly “compose” and take command of those shapes, we must first be able to identify them. The notan is a unique type of study that allows us to explore the essential energies of a composition through an arrangement of dark and light patterns. Notan is a Japanese word that means “light-dark harmony.” In the Western tradition this is called the “dark-light composition.” This strict dark-light arrangement has a unique way of revealing the underlying structure of a composition, thereby allowing us to take an active role in the manipulation of the compositional energies.

For more information and to register:
Orcas Art Studios
1286 Mt Baker Road, Suite A4 (Airport Center)
Eastsound
info@orcasartstudios.com
https://orcasartstudios.com