Well, January was a blur…for us anyway. Workshops, painting, photography, writing…the time just slips past. Check out this month’s newsletter for a look at what we’ve got going on.
Here's what we're covering this month:
Our art 2022 workshops are filling up fast! Don’t miss out!
What are giclées? Let’s take a closer look
Save An Inexpensive Canvas With Canvas Keys and Gesso
You might enjoy: Five must-try tips for slaying your creative demons
Our favourite thing this month: Watercolour crayons
Our 2022 art workshops are filling up fast! Don’t miss out!
Don’t delay if you’re interested in taking one of our art workshops! Our January workshop went really well (and was a lot of fun!) and our February workshop is already filling up. Not to mention we just announced an April workshop. Whew!
Here are the details on our coming workshops and how you can take part:
February 26-27, 2022 — Show Off Your Treasures in an Abstract Painting! Do you like to pick up treasures when you walk, hike or go on vacation? Pebbles, shells, pieces of bark or leaves? Are those treasures just taking up space in a drawer somewhere? Let’s do something beautiful with them! In this weekend workshop led by Diana Skelhorne, you will learn how to incorporate your treasures into a piece of abstract art you can enjoy in your home or at work. You’ll learn the entire process of laying down paint, adding your treasures, playing with colours and using a variety of mediums to create textures and bring out the natural beauty in your treasures. To register and for more information, visit our website.
April 9-10, 2022 — Exploring the Wonderful World of Colour. In this workshop, led by experienced artist Lynne Marand, beginning and intermediate artists will learn how colour can add excitement to a painting. Participants will explore both theory and techniques for applying and using colour. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a completed painting and a much deeper understanding of the colour wheel and colour schemes. To register and for more information, visit our website.
Both workshops will be held at the Leir House Cultural Centre at 220 Manor Park Avenue in Penticton. We’d love to see you there!
What are giclées? Let’s take a closer look
If you’ve been around the art world for any length of time you’ve likely run into the term “giclée” or “giclée print.” Often the words are spoken in hushed, reverent tones, as though describing something rare and exotic. So what are these mysterious giclées?
Simply put, a giclée (pronounced zhee-clay or jee-clay) is a high-quality inkjet print of an image. And while the name connotes some arcane, old-world art process, the term has only been around for about 30 years.
The term “giclée” was coined by California printmaker Jack Duganne in 1991. He was looking for a name to describe a new process for creating high-quality fine-art prints and chose giclée from the French noun “gicleur” (a jet or a nozzle) and the French verb “gicler” (to squirt out). The name stuck and is used to this day to describe fine-art prints made using special inks and papers on advanced inkjet printers.
The words “special” and “advanced” are important, because while all giclées are inkjet prints, not all inkjet prints are giclées. You and I may have inkjet printers in our houses or studios, but that doesn’t mean they’re capable of producing giclées. There are no giclée police (yet), but a number of criteria must be met for a print to be considered a giclée…
Want to learn more? Read the full article here on our blog. And when you’re finished, let us know if you have any questions or would like help making your own giclées!
Save An Inexpensive Canvas With Canvas Keys and Gesso
So you bought an inexpensive canvas and when you took off the shrink wrap you discovered the canvas was a little floppy and the primer was a little thin. What to do?
In a video we posted in January, Diana shows you how to save an inexpensive canvas and get it ready for painting. She solves the mystery of canvas keys — those little pieces of wood you’ve probably seen stapled to the back of some canvases — and shows how to gesso the canvas properly to ensure it’s a good base for your creative efforts. As a bonus, she goes over the importance of painting the sides of your canvas before beginning your main painting, especially if you plan to paint in oil.
Check out the video here on our Make Art With Diana YouTube channel and get ready to learn and make better use of those inexpensive canvases!
You might enjoy: Five must-try tips for slaying your creative demons
Do you ever suffer from “creative demons” like procrastination, doubt about the value of your work, fear of criticism and more? If so, you might be interested in Creative Demons and How To Slay Them, a book by Richard Holman due to be published later this year.
Until then, check out this short article from Creative Boom, which offers five tips from the author on how to slay creative demons.
One great example in the article is the Demon of Convention, which would always prefer you to walk the road more travelled, limiting your creativity and forcing you to repeat yourself. The article offers one interesting antidote that, honestly, we had to read a couple of times to wrap our heads around but then found quite insightful. His advice on making deals with demons is also one we’ll try.
Check it out, and let us know if you find any of Holman’s suggestions useful!
Our favourite thing this month: Watercolour crayons
It’s a watercolour! No, it’s a crayon! Wait…it’s better! It’s a watercolour crayon!
We just love these watercolour crayons. You can use them to draw on paper or canvas using a wide variety of colours, then add water using a brush or a rag or your finger to create effects you just can’t get with paint or pastels. Diana used them recently for an interesting memoir project in which she painted scenes from her life around a giant painting of her head (you can see it above). The watercolour crayons were perfect for this project, allowing a level of control difficult to duplicate with a brush and providing the ability to blend and shape colours easily.
You can find the crayons in a number of online locations, but sticking a little closer to home they’re available here at Opus (though they don’t include the price, oddly…they’re about $23 for a set of 24 if we recall correctly).
Thank you for reading our newsletter! Get in touch if you have questions, feedback or want to talk.
If you know anyone who would enjoy or benefit from the content in this newsletter please forward it to them. And be sure to visit us in our homes online:
Website: timidturtlecreative.com
Youtube: Make Art With Diana
Instagram: @timid_turtle_creative | @dianaskelhorneartist | @paulskelhorne
Facebook: facebook.com/timidturtlecreative
Diana and Paul Timid Turtle Creative
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