For an one hour seminar, Anne Olwin was able to give a lot of information, tips and techniques packed into that space of time! For the watercolor portion, Anne worked on a sheet of the Wallis paper (about 16 X 20) which she had lightly sketched some sunflowers. Beginning with the watercolors, Anne applied watercolors to the sanded surface. While she was doing it, she passed around to her audience, a sample of the paper with watercolor paint on it, so we could feel how rough the surface was (nice tooth to it) and what watercolor looked like.
As Anne began painting the watercolor onto the Wallis paper, we could see in the demo mirror how she applied it and how it was looking. We could see the sunflowers begin to take shape. Then Anne turned the demo painting into mixed media by working some Sennelier Soft Pastels into some of the watercolor and into the plain surface. Anne began playing around with the surface and the media producing some very interesting results!
Anne’s ongoing chat about what she was doing began moving towards the idea of Having Fun With Painting! To not be afraid of playing around just to see what kind of results might happen. She said that if she liked the results, then that was something to remember to use another time, if she did not like it, well then Anne would remember that too.
The essence is that making art should fun, to not be afraid to play around, indulge in our natural child-like curiosity and experiment. We should also try not to treat our art supplies as so precious that we “freeze up” and stifle the creative flow or process, and to remember, that we can always start over on another piece of paper. Anne said that sometimes adults need “permission” to play with our art materials…and she gave her permission to the class with a laugh!
Everyone in the audience was really warmed up now about the idea of playing with the art materials, and ready to follow Anne’s play with the pastels on the Wallis paper.
Thanks to Anne Olwin for sharing with us some fun and exciting ideas with the watercolors and pastels on Wallis paper!
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Anne Olwin will also have a Workshop, Sunday, April 6th, 2008
“Get a jump on the spring flowers, learning how to capture their freshness and beauty.
Painting from the bounty of her own spring garden, Anne will show you how to capture the effects of light as it dances over fresh flowers and creates a vivid colorful composition.
Let Anne help you with her expert knowledge to arrange flowers in your spring compositions. $75 per day 11 am to 4 pm”
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Originally published April 1, 2008
