Fall Painting Classes in the Beach

 Watercolour, Acrylic and MixedMedia

      Watercolour can be so much fun. It's a joy to share the fun of washes, colour and all that watercolour will do in my six week ongoing painting sessions. This Fall there are three one day Saturday workshops that will cover some of the great things that can happen with mixed media. This is when a painting might start as a watercolour but find that a bit of ink, pastel, or acrylic has found it's way into the mix.

My ongoing weekly sessions start Tuesday evening September 13th and Thursday evening September 15th. If you can't join a weekly session try a one day Saturday session. The first one is Saturday September 17th with more being offered throughout the Fall: October 1st and October 15th. These one day workshops will offer more of a taste of acrylic and ways to use it on it's own or mixed with watercolour and inks. The classes are limited in size so register early. The location is the Beach.  Imagination is the limit.

Check under classes on my web site for more details.

Art Camp

Summer Art Camp for Grown ups

The call of Summer is here with all it's beauty and my summer art camp. 

August has been full for a while but July had cancellations so there is space available.

July 11-15th paint each morning by the beach or inside. My studio is located a few doors from the lake so there is opportunity for both. Bring your inner child or dreamer and just play.

Time is 10 am-1 pm each day for a week. 

The week is always special to me because of the wonderful sense of creative play.

Art and Magic

Perhaps the winter is really gone and at last the soft warmth of the sun is to be trusted. Another real  sign of spring seems to be a creative awakening on all fronts from music to art to theatre. The human spirit seems to reaffirm itself after the cold and dark of winter whether it is a winter of dry unproductive work or snow and cold temperatures. In my own studio activity and excitement is growing with the completion of new work and the coming of the Beach Studio Tour April 29th , 30th and May 1st.

Memories of Sunlight
Watercolour Collage

The Beach Studio Tour is a great walking tour of the artists in the Beach. I always find it a pleasure to see whoever cares to drop in. The times are Friday evening 6-9 pm , Saturday 10 am-6:00pm and Sunday 11am-6:00pm. New watercolours and Acrylics and Mixed media will be on display. The magic of light and colour has returned to play across some of my new pieces for the Spring Tour. Hope to see you at 17 Fernwood Park Ave.

New painting classes Spring and Summer

A new series of watercolour classes will be starting Thursday May 26th and Tuesday nights

May 31st. They run Tuesday or Thursday evenings 7:15-9:15 pm.

Check Class Page for more information.

Art Camp for Grown-ups

painting intensive every morning indoors or out on the beach

July 11th-15th or August 8th-12th

Monday - Friday 10am-1:00pm

fee $200.00 plus $20.00materials fee.

Register early

Alternate Hand Painting

    There is theory which is what we study in a classroom and then real life where theory often flies out the window. So what happens when an artist loses the use of their dominant right hand?

Blue Chaos

An interesting exercise in my painting classes has been to draw and paint with the non-dominant hand to facilitate a shift in seeing and viewing the world. Theory says that one side of our brain is more intuitive and the other more linear and logical. Fun to do in a two hour session. Due to an accident that broke my right wrist real life has crashed my world of theory and I have had to rethink everything I do. For the past two months I have been trying to function with one arm and the non-dominant one. It has been frustrating to say the least. I just want to pick up a brush and paint the way I have always done. That isn't happening. When I use only my left hand I find the shift is into chaos and I feel anger that my right hand seems unable to step in.
I love loose abstraction so it isn't that I am a tight detail painter. I am still sorting it out and will be glad when my right hand is in full use again. An awareness has developed of how important both sides are in creating from a place of centered wholeness. Hopefully some of the chaos will have settled into finished paintings for the Beach Studio Tour April, 29th, 30th and May 1st.

Working the Darks in Painting

Working the Dark

Evening Light      Watercolour    Ruth Hayes

Struggling with darks in painting, loving the dark, working the dark all become metaphor. December is the darkest time of the year and getting through the dark days of winter or life can be a challenge. I have had to work hard to say anything good about winter most of my life but started succeeding when I began noticing how beautiful it could be. Without getting too philosophical it is often the contrast, or the light, that becomes all the more vibrant due to the dark. In painting it is the strong rich darks that make the light areas appear luminous and glowing. This is especially true in watercolour.
In other areas it is the dark rich soil that grows the the first shoots of spring, and in the dark night of our sleep that dreams shape new creative visions. So, there it is, might as well work with it, accept it and appreciate dark for the positive that will emerge.
It is also the dawn of a new year. This can be a great time to set new creative goals and work with them in the long nights of winter. Once again I offer a series of six week sessions or one day Saturday workshops. Working with the energy of a group provides extra warmth and enthusiasm. My classes are small and supportive. The six week sessions start Tuesday or Thursday evening January 12th or 14th and the first Saturday workshop is January 23rd.
For more information click on Classes or email me: shamanstree@gmail.com

May the hopes and visions born in the dark of winter bring you light and happiness in the year ahead.

Mixed Media

                                            Mixed Media

"Love and Light" Mixed Media   Ruth Hayes

                                   
After years of working in the media of watercolour I still love it.

I love the washes of pure colour, the playful textures, the "happy accidents", the spontaneity, and a hundred other reasons why it seems to be my media of choice. However I started in oil and have always loved pastel and now "works on canvas" seem to be part of the scene and this often includes a mix of several media from watercolour, ink, collage, pastel or acrylic. Mixed Media could be done on paper, canvas, illustration board or wood panel. What can I say  except that it is all such fun. Whatever I want all in the same painting with few rules?

Where I might have hit an impasse with a work in only one medium I can now give it new life and new energy with a coat of gesso,  a few strokes of pastel, a bit of collage, or some torn newspaper. A bit of imagination and risk-taking and a work becomes a dynamic exciting piece that I could not have envisioned when I started.

Art making is truly a journey, and the journey is the excitement of the creative process. Some of my mixed media works will be displayed during the upcoming Beach Studio Tour Oct 23rd, 24th and 25th. 

The Dance of Light

Light That Dances

It's a hot Sunday afternoon as I sit near the water. Some things delight the eye and some things delight the soul but some do both and more. I  live near the lake and have seen it so many times but I never cease to be  entranced by the the dance of light on the water. Everything sparkles in the shimmering light and the artist in me would like to paint it, capture it, put it in a painting. I think of Monet and his ongoing efforts to capture the light. Everything vibrates with light and colour and movement and I think capture is the wrong word. Capture would pin it down and it would be gone. It is free and beyond containment. Hopefully my painting might evoke, elicit, suggest the magic of the summer's day. I could resort to taking a photo. That never does it.
I love the challenge. Art always does more than reproduce a picture. I hope I will remember the warmth and beauty of this moment in the cold grey of January.