Archives: Past-workshops

Wednesday January 3, 2018

Ceramic Design: Working with Templates

Learn how templates can help you to improve the design of your pieces and enhance your efficiency. Participants in this hand building workshop will learn how to create templates for a variety of projects including making a set of matching cups, a vase, and lidded jars. We will also create some plaster texture templates using found objects and our own clay creations. A significant aspect of the workshop includes in-depth experimentation with surface decoration techniques using under glazes, and drawing through wax. Participants will also spend time creating their own stencils and carving stamps.

Course cost: $665          Supply fee:  $7      STUDENT SUPPLY LIST

Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks and is inclusive of all applicable taxes.
2018_Clay_Order_Form_for_MISSA

 

MARNEY McDIARMID is a self-taught potter with an MA in Oral History and an “all but dissertation” PhD in Cultural Studies. Since the mid 1990s she has been creating densely patterned handbuilt pieces out of porcelain, renowned for their grace and whimsy. Marney maintains an active studio practice and enjoys teaching at guilds, colleges, and for private workshops. In addition to her ceramic practice, Marney is actively engaged in social justice issues and is also a founding member of the Kingston Stilting Troupe.

She has exhibited work at Wall Space, the Ontario Craft Gallery, the View Gallery, Jonathan Bancroft-Snell and has been featured in the National Post and in Lark Books’ 500 Prints on Clay. She recently was awarded “Best In Show” at the 2017 FUSION Clay and Glass exhibit. You can find her work at galleries in Ottawa, Toronto, Almonte, and Kingston and online at makeanddo.

 

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Wednesday January 3, 2018

Ceramic Tiles: Seascape/Landscape/Cityscape

This weekend course focuses on making 3-dimensional clay wall tiles, with the natural beauty of the West Coast shoreline/majestic forest as the source of our inspiration as well as a source of our tools.  An interpretation of the environment in which each student lives, and how to express that particular place through similar methods with clay will be explored.

Each morning the class will go on short walks through the forests and shoreline collecting natural treasures such as bark, twigs, shells, rocks, ferns.  These found “tools” can be used to texture and decorate the wall tiles.   Students will explore ways to enhance and finish the pieces with “store bought” and “homemade” under glazes, recipes to be supplied.

Course cost: $285   Supply fees: $10  – slips and underglazes for use during class

Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks and is inclusive of all applicable taxes.



SANDRA DOLPH obtained a BS in Art Education from New York State University College. After graduation, she taught Ceramics at the Adirondack Center for the Arts as well as owned and operated a gallery in upstate New York. After immigrating to the Canadian Rockies in 1974 and establishing a homestead, Sandra taught part-time in the public schools and ran a clay studio specializing in salt/wood fired pottery. In 1989 she relocated to Galiano Island, British Columbia, where she has spent the past twenty-plus years making a home for her small family and establishing her studio and gallery set among the beautiful cedars of B.C.  She has hosted and run ceramic workshops from her studio on Galiano, as well as given numerous workshops in the lower mainland, Victoria, Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico.  In 1998 Sandra started making many annual visits to Japan, where she would study, make pots and meditate in a Zen Buddhist temple.

The waitlist for this workshop has been closed.

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Wednesday January 3, 2018

Surface Decoration & Coloured Slips

Students in this workshop will construct pots from thrown parts using red earthenware clay and decorate with colored clay slips on leather hard clay. Victoria will demonstrate a variety of application techniques for surface decoration: flat areas of color to loose needle carved drawing to delicate brushwork.  Students with an interest in exploring form construction and decoration techniques will enhance their sense of the relationship between form and surface in functional pottery. Open to all skill levels. Please note: work in the class will not be fired.

Course cost:  $285      Supply fee:  $20  STUDENT SUPPLY LIST

2018_Clay_Order_Form_for_MISSA

Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks. All prices are listed in Canadian Dollars and are inclusive of all applicable taxes.

VICTORIA CHRISTEN, MFA, lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is a full-time studio potter.  She has been a resident artist at Guldagaard, the International Ceramics Research Center in Denmark and the Archie Bray Foundation, in Montana. She has given many workshops across the United States. Victoria has been the recipient of an NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship Award, two Minnesota Arts Board Grants, and a travel grant to Japan.

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Wednesday January 3, 2018

Visual Writing: Reading the Emotional and Physical Landscape

French screen literature says that the un-said or “le non-dit” is just as significant as dialogue when reading a visual text. Alberta screenwriter and filmmaker Adam Bentley will facilitate a two-day writing intensive to help emerging and experienced writers read and interpret the emotional and physical landscape with the goal of honing their skills at saying a lot in their writing without saying very much. While this course is geared towards screenwriters, those wishing to improve other types of writing such as short narrative, play-writing, and poetry are welcome to join us.

Course exercises will include group-sharing, intense individual writing assignments, field observation, and one-on-one writing tasks set amidst MISSA’s idyllic natural setting. By course’s end, participants will have developed their own creative skills and tricks to write for visual mediums. Writers will be more comfortable writing dialogue through facial expressions, motivation through body language, and feelings through outcomes. Materials need only be your preferred writing surface such as a notebook, mobile phone, or laptop.

Course fee: $285  Supply fee: $0

Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks and is inclusive of all applicable taxes. 

ADAM BENTLEY is a mid-career Canadian filmmaker who produces films based on jarring personal experiences that occur in spaces within which we may have seemed comfortable such as the body, the home, the community, the institution, and the nation. His short films have been featured at film festivals across Canada, the United States, Europe, on Air Canada and CBC, and as part of educational DVD compilations. He is the recipient of the Edmonton Arts Council’s 2016 Cultural Diversity in the Arts grant; and two-time recipient of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts’ Cultural Relations Grant. He is also the producer of #yegfilm where he facilitates public screenplay table readings and writing workshops, and founder of the International Festival of Winter Cinema. @yegfilm

 

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Wednesday January 3, 2018

Bookbinding 123

This course is the fundamentals of bookbinding.  Participants will first spend a morning creating their own paste papers for use as they progress through a series of increasingly involved book forms.  Starting with single section pamphlets, then 2 and 3 section bindings, students will have learned the techniques and the many potentials of each structure for shaping and containing their creative ideas.  Whether the focus is on journals, sketchbooks or unique and beautiful notebooks for impressing friends, working in this ancient and very contemporary craft will be a deeply satisfying experience.

Course fee:  $665             Supply fee: $40  STUDENT SUPPLY LIST

Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks and is inclusive of all applicable taxes. 

 

DON TAYLOR has been working as a bookbinder and book artist since 1980. He has 35 years’ experience teachMaterials fee $40ing a wide variety of book arts related courses for schools across Canada, including The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild, MISSA, Red Deer College and The Haliburton School of the Arts.  Don’s design bindings and other book works have been shown in exhibitions and are found in collections in Canada, the UK, and Japan.

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Wednesday January 3, 2018

Low-Tech Screen Printing

Screen printing can be used to make fine art prints, cards, posters, shirts, signs, banners or stickers – just about anything that’s flat! This hands-on course will introduce a variety of techniques using water based inks and low-tech stencils such as hand-cut wax paper, resists, and sunlight-exposed photo emulsion.

Print runs will be short and in small formats in order to maximize the available time and to try out multi-colour registration methods. Participants will print in pairs for efficiency and the focus will be on simple methods that one can use in a home studio, without an expensive investment in equipment.

In order to present the widest possible range of methods, the learning process will be more important than attempts to produce flawless finished editions. Experimentation can lead to creative insights, so participants can expect to discover new imagery, compositions and transformations.

Classes run 9 – 4 pm each day. Students are welcome to work in the studio after hours.

Fewer solvents and toxic chemicals are used in water based printing than with oil based inks. However, if anyone is pregnant or has severe allergies, please let MISSA know.

Course cost:  $665         Supply fee: $15

Tuition includes lunches and daily snacks and is inclusive of all applicable taxes. 

 

Video: Music courtesy of Art Napoleon from “Creeland Covers”

BILL HORNE was born in Vancouver and studied painting and drawing at the Banff Centre, and film animation at UBC. He works primarily in silkscreen, as well as Painter®, sculpture and photography. He taught screen printing for five years at the Vancouver Native Education Centre and switched to water based inks from solvent systems in 1991. He has printed on a wide range of materials such as marble, moose hide and X-rays.

Bill has exhibited his work across Canada and has attended residencies at the Banff Centre, Engramme in Québec and El Hacedor in Spain. He was the recipient of CARFAC’s National Advocacy Award in 2015 (Canadian Artists’ Representation ~ le front des artistes canadiens) and was a Founding Director of Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre West. He and his partner, Claire Kujundzic have lived in Wells for over 20 years and are eventually moving to Victoria.

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Wednesday January 3, 2018

Pushing the Boundaries of Watercolour

Participants will cover the process of creating a painting in watercolour and demystify the medium so that they will be able to build a composition with big bold loose brush strokes. Learn how to create highly impactful beautiful colourful watercolours that virtually paint themselves, responding intuitively to the medium with confidence as you paint.

Classes run from 9 – 4 pm each day. Studios are open after hours. 

Course cost: $665     Course fee: TBD

Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks. Prices are in Canadian Dollars and are inclusive of all applicable taxes.

 

CURTIS GOLOMB’ s paintings are best known for his bold use of expressive colour, while anchored compositions firmly with strong design. Years of experience now give way to his painting of a unique vision of the landscape. His watercolours are known for their vibrant colours and high contrast – not typical of what watercolour paintings have been known for. They are created on archival watercolour board and then finished with varnish in such a way that no glass is required so that they are framed like any work produced on canvas!

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Wednesday January 3, 2018

The Painter’s Process

Are you a painter who sometimes can’t figure out what to paint? Or, feel that your paintings could be more interesting? This is a course for painters looking to renew their practice and take it to the next level. Through discussions and daily visual presentations of historical and contemporary painting we will look at effective strategies and creative problem solving for painters. Through painting projects that include collage studies and paint sketches you will learn ways to stimulate creative ideas and then develop them. Throughout the course emphasis will be on your own personal imagery/subject matter and concerns. Together we will explore the rich variety of painting processes that can inspire you and help you move forward in your painting practice. Technical instruction will be available when needed. This course will help you become a more self-sufficient painter in terms of finding your way and generating a body of work.   Note: this class is open to students working in acrylics or oils.

All classes are 9 – 4 pm each day. Studios are open after hours.

Course cost: $665     Class fee: $0 

Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks and is inclusive of all applicable taxes.

 

RENEE DUVAL  has maintained a full-time painting practice for over 30 years. Her work is influenced by her passionate engagement with the language of paint, her extensive knowledge of art history and her fascination with the natural world.  She graduated with honours from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver and received her M.F.A. from Concordia University in Montreal. She has exhibited throughout Canada as well as in the US and France and her work is included in many public and corporate collections.  Her work was included in Carte Blanche Vol. 2 – Painting (a survey of contemporary Canadian painting) and a catalogue of her work was published in 2014. She lives and works in Montreal where she has been a painting instructor for over 20 years.

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Wednesday January 3, 2018

Mixed Media Encaustics

Discover the wonderful opportunities mixed media encaustic has to offer. This 2,000 year old process uses refined white beeswax and damar crystals melted together to form a strong archival compound that can be used to fuse and transfer images to its surface. You’ll be amazed by its limitless flexibility and creative potentials using photography and mixed media. This class will focus on creative exploration and innovative mixed media techniques using encaustic medium and paints; image transfer techniques; plaster and joint compounds; sprayed stencils and masks; oil rubs and stains; incising; and much more!

Push your encaustic art up to the next level with this upbeat, technique-rich class. Relax and have fun. The class is suitable for all experience levels.

Classes run from 9 – 4 pm each day. Studios are open after hours.

 

Encaustic board generously provided by Ampersand

 

 

 

 

Pan pastels generously provided by PANPASTEL

 

 

Course cost:   $665       Supply fee:  $43

Tuition includes lunches and daily snacks and is inclusive of all applicable taxes. 

 

 

TONY BOUNSALL has been working professionally as a commercial photographer/graphic designer for thirty years and is a photo arts graduate (BAPA) from Ryerson Polytechnical University.

He is currently on the Faculty of The Vancouver Island School of Art teaching Collage, Alternative Photography, Photo-Based Mixed Media and Printmaking

Tony has also taught classes and workshops at The Coast Collective, The Denman Island Arts Centre, The Old School House in Qualicum Beach, MISSA ( Metchosin International summer School of the Arts) and UVIC-Continuing Studies, Camosun College-Continuing Studies and Red Deer College Series Summer Arts School and Leading Edge Workshops in Calgary. Tony is also past board president and participating Board member of MISSA.

Over the last 14 years, Tony has worked in several different mediums, including digital artwork, iphoneography, alternative based photography, mixed media, collage, printmaking and encaustics. His classes are innovative, relaxed and inclusive.

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Wednesday January 3, 2018

Storytelling for Everyone

This workshop has been cancelled. Thank you for your interest.

Have you got a tale to tell? Come explore the art of storytelling, including personal stories, tall tales, folk tales, and stories for little children.

This workshop will engage with the technical side of storytelling including character, voice, audience participation, and narrative structure. The workshop will also look at the meaning of stories and how we use them. Participants will explore the research and writing (or rewriting) of stories, and learn how to make a story their own no matter where it came from. This course will include performance opportunities within the group, but no one will be pushed out of their comfort zone.

Course cost: $285     Supply fee: $0    STUDENT SUPPLY LIST

Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks and is inclusive of all applicable taxes.

CAT THOM is a professional storyteller and writer who was worked in museums, nature centres, schools, and libraries, and has performed throughout western Canada. She frequently combines her storytelling with music as part of the band Juniper Tree.

She has previously served on the board of Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada and spent seven years working with children through the nonprofit artsReach program.

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