Details for "Lalita Hamill November 4 and 5 2023"

Expressive Mark-Making

 With Lalita Hamill www.lalitahamill.com

Art Group: TNSC – FCA Chapter

Date: Sat/Sun Nov 4-5^th, 2023

Location: The Old Courthouse (Kamloops, BC)

Times: TBD (1/2 hr lunch)

Bio:

Lalita is a sought-after instructor and juror who specializes in contemporary realism, especially of figures, still life and landscapes.  She attended the Vancouver Academy of Art for four years, where she studied traditional painting methods from classically trained instructors.  Lalita is a Signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, and an Associate Member of Oil Painters of America.  She has been teaching for over 35 years, facilitated public monthly critiques for 10 years, and has been running a weekly contemporary atelier program out of her studio for six years. Lalita designed the Foundations Program for the Federation of Canadian Artists. She is accomplished in oils, acrylics and watercolour, and specializes in art assessment and jurying.Lalita has a degree in Philosophy and English, is currently completing a Masters in Clinical Psychology,  and is also a writer, musician, & facilitator.  “I paint to gently awaken in myself and others that which has been lost, hidden, or buried.”  - L.C. Hamill   Visit www.lalitahamill.com

Description:

The way you move and use a tool such as a palette knife or brush contributes substantially to your artistic ‘style’ or ‘voice’. If your marks are heavy-handed, tentative, sloppy, unintentional, uninteresting, and/or overworked, you are not living up to your full artistic potential.

Those of you ready to take your brushwork and mark-making to the next level of expressiveness, join Lalita as she guides participants through a series of step by step demos and exercises, to be applied to several small or medium studies.

Main topics will include the following:

• Planning vs experimentation
• Applying paint with a palette knife
• Grips, stances, gestures and pressure
• Mixing colour on the palette vs on the canvas
• Edges & eye flow
• Hesitant vs confident marks
• Preventing overworking
• Creating variety within unity
• Fundamentals of abstraction
• Use of other tools for mark-making
• What to do when things go ‘sideways’

Supplies:

Regular oil or acrylic supplies (water soluble oils and open acrylics too)

Substrate: Canvas or board is preferable, and enough canvas to complete two studies as well as a few exercises, which could be in the form of:

• Loose gessoed canvas (cut into roughly 12”x 16” pieces), or
• Stretched, gessoed canvas
• Canvas boards (please add another 2 coats of gesso to be dry before class)

Note: the size of canvases to bring depends very much on your comfort and painting speed. I recommend choosing a size and shape that is familiar, erring on the side of slightly smaller so you are more likely to finish at least one. At least 12”x16” to max 16”x20”.

Colours: please have available at least 1 white, 3 yellow, 3 red, 3 blue, 1 umber (raw or burnt) & 1 black

Palette: if your palette is smaller than 12”x16”, you may need two – one for laying out paints and the other for mixing colour. Brushes: the more, the better. Please use what you have, and ensure some are new enough that they will leave a clear mark. Palette Knives: bring what you have. If you need to purchase, I suggest getting three (1 sm, 1 med, 1 large) that are a triangular shape (like #1, #3 and #5 here).. Mark-making tools: This is where it gets interesting! Lalita will bring a tub of tools for people to try. However, if you have any of the following, feel free to bring it along: Bubble wrap, old kitchen utensils (will get covered in paint), clay scrapers (below), silicone wedges (below), color shaper brushes, and anything else that looks like it might make an interesting mark!

Other:

Several photo reference images, or you can opt to use photos provided by Lalita.

Small cotton cloths and paper towels.

Recommended:

Acrylic painters are recommended to have a small bottle of Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid (see image below - matte, satin or gloss) because it has retarder in it and enhances viscosity and the creation of soft edges and long gestures.

Some kind of a ‘blender’ brush is recommended, especially for oil painters. Lalita prefers the series 444 1” blender brush from Rosemary & Co in the UK. https://www.rosemaryandco.com/oil-brushes/blender-brushes

Questions? Please email Lalita at lalitahamill@gmail.com

Testimonials

“I enjoyed Lalita's workshop immensely.  Lalita is not only an outstanding artist, she is one of those rare people with the ability to teach.”  - C. Evens

“I was most impressed with the manner of Lalita's teaching and her knowledge about her subject...I would recommend her classes to anyone, be they a beginner, an aspiring amateur or a more advanced artist.  I'm grateful that I took in the class.”- TM Kronstrom

“In her critiques, Lalita provides honest and gentle suggestions for improvements at the same time she lets the painters know what really works in each painting.  Over the past four years I have learned so much from her.  What a lovely soul she is.”  Marion Iherg

“I have learned more about colour and tones in these two [Opus demo] sessions

than I have ever learned from any other professional artist or class.”  - E. Johnston

“I really appreciate Lalita’s knowledge delivered with such a friendly, inclusive style” - J. Dixon 

Cost & Status