Painting with Wool

In this workshop students will explore the diversity of using wool fibers as a “painting” medium by diving into the world of two-dimensional needle felting.  Needle felting is a process that uses barbed needles to attach fibers to a base textile, often wool felt or linen. Dani will introduce techniques to help students learn how to create different effects with wool fibers, including how to blend, layer, and create different textures to compose beautiful fiber art.  Students will also explore how to use color in impactful ways.  Other topics will include useful tools for felting, exploring different materials and textiles, the forgiving nature and breadth of the medium, and framing and presentation techniques for wool paintings.  Demonstrations and various exercises will be available for those keen on practicing techniques.

Workshops run 9 – 4 pm each day. Studios are also open after hours.

Course cost: $665    Course fee:$12 

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

 

DANI IVES is a self-taught fiber artist based in Northwest Arkansas. Her inspiration comes from a love of nature, science and a past career as a conservation educator and working with animals. After indulging in needle felting as a hobby and creating hundreds of three-dimensional pieces, Dani discovered the thrill of felting two-dimensional images in 2014. She found this style more challenging yet more artistically fulfilling.  Over the course of a few years, Dani has developed a distinct style of needle felting that she calls painting with wool.  She attempts to mimic traditional painting and drawing practices with nontraditional materials like fibers and textiles and loves sharing these techniques with her students.  Dani has taught hundreds of students in workshops, classrooms and online courses across the US and internationally.

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Charcoal Noir: Creating Compelling Visual Narratives

Using baroque painting and Hollywood film noir as models, this workshop will introduce ways to layer meaning, enhance clarity and increase visual drama by applying film mis-en-scène principles when composing drawings and paintings. Working from still life and nude model in participants’ choice of willow (vine) or compressed charcoal, students will create painterly, atmospheric tonal drawings that resemble a film noir “still.”  The insights gained can be applied to any drawing or painting, figurative or abstract. No more mundane compositions or prosaic lighting!

Some of the topics to be covered include: How we “read” two dimensional images in drawing, painting and film; Implications of directional movement along X,Y & Z axes; Proxemics and blocking; Working with inherent physical forces and Light and shadow demystified.

Course cost: $285      Model fee:  $20  STUDENT SUPPLY LIST
Tuition cost includes lunch and daily snacks.

JOYCE KLINE’s interdisciplinary approach stems from her eclectic career as a visual artist, writer, playwright, dancer, storyboard artist and Leo award winning designer for film and theatre.  She has exhibited in public galleries and artist-run centres across Canada and Finland, received Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and Canada Council visual art and art writing awards, and was a finalist in The Writers’ Union of Canada’s 2009 Writing for Children Competition.

 A lifelong learner herself, Joyce is a supportive and innovative instructor who has led workshops at Cinevic and Royal Roads University. She teaches drawing, installation & public art, and visual narrative for storyboarding at Victoria College of Art.

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Pinhole Photography & Cyanotype Prints

In our time together, students will explore a brief history of pinhole imaging before setting out to load their own pinhole cameras with photographic paper and head out around the school environment to make unique photographs.  From here, we will enter the darkroom where the latent (invisible) image is translated into a paper negative with tones of black, white and greys.

Once our prints are processed and dry we will have the option of scanning them or making positive images in the darkroom. To round out the course, students will explore a very accessible alternative process called cyanotype printing, which is similar to making photographs in a darkroom where the only ingredients are coated paper, ample sunlight and water.

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

Course cost: $285     Course fee: $30

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

 

BOB St. CYR was granted the Canadian Association of Photographic Arts Maple Leaf and Associate Fellowship Awards for photographic achievement, service and exceptional contributions to photography in 2010. He has also exhibited and won national & international awards with his fine-art images. Although Bob is familiar with digital photography and employs it from time-to-time, he primarily works with medium and large film format lens and pinhole cameras. He also enjoys the challenge of constantly working to better himself not only as a photographer but as a darkroom craftsman from processing film to printing archival processed silver gelatin fiber black and white prints.

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The Singing Soul: Improvisational A Cappella

The Singing Soul = A Swingin’ Swayin’ Funk Bump Afro Gospel Sacred Soulful Blues Chant Jam Feelin’ Mash-up!!

Humming a tune while washing the dishes…tapping out a rhythm on the steering wheel…wanting to hear a certain kind of song to suit our mood…emotional surges and absent minded creative moments. What happens when a space is made for conscious improvisation, grounded in the body and carried by the voice? Magic! We are moved by the preciousness of our own music, our own stories, perhaps for the first time.

The Singing Soul is spontaneous, in-the-moment singing; the unveiling of our very uniqueness in melody, harmony, and rhythm…our stories, in words, and beyond them. By turns edgy, hilarious, challenging, and deeply moving, each moment is an original composition that is unrehearsed, precious, and irreplaceable. And as fate would have it, it’s also profoundly fun!

The Singing Soul is for those who are ready to let go of “getting it right” and are ready to embrace letting it just happen.  Join in and raise your voice in joyous a cappella grooves of our own making. The Singing Soul explores two primary foundations: the intuitive skills of improvisation and the architecture of music.  Experience both non-conventional and conventional uses of the human voice in the co-creation of authentic musical expressions of the moment.  There are no wrong notes and there’s nothing to memorize, just breathe and sing….ahh.

Workshops run from 9 – 4 pm each day. 

Course cost: $285     Supply fee:  $0    

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

 

DAVID HATFIELD, is a lover of vocal music and has led The Singing Soul nationally and internationally since 1997. He was the conductor of the improv choir House of Song and his music experience includes percussion, bass and guitar and ranges from street performing to off-Broadway, from fully choreographed to fully improvised. David has won numerous music scholarships including trainings at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Simon Fraser University.  He is also a leadership consultant and facilitator specializing in communication, conflict, masculinity and rites of passage. He holds an Associate degree in Jazz Studies, an M.Ed. in Social Ecology and an M.A. in Process Oriented Facilitation and Conflict Studies.

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Knots, Slots & Boxes: Rings that do Tricks

The trio of rings you’ll make in this class each has its own magic, and for each there are tricks to smooth the path to triumphant and smug success. You will learn to tie wire into cunning knots, cut sheet precisely to form a slotted prong setting for a faceted stone, forge a sculptural ring band, and build a dimensional hollow box ring.  All basic materials provided.

Some jewelry making experience is highly recommended, especially some familiarity with using a jeweler’s saw.

Course cost: $665         Supply fee:  $147  STUDENT SUPPLY LIST

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

JULIA LOWTHER, a professional jewelry artist, was raised in Monteverde, Costa Rica, and has been teaching jewelry making nationally and internationally for 15 years.  An active member of the vibrant Pacific Northwest metals community, she has studied and worked with many internationally recognized jewelry artists, including Mary Hu, Komelia Okim, Doug Harling, and Megan Corwin. Lowther’s jewelry is comfortable, chic and stunning. Her work has been published most recently in the books 500 Gemstone Jewels; Chain Mail Jewelry; Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet; and Art Jewelry Today 4. She lives and works in Seattle, WA.

 

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Garden Photography with a Zen Twist

Using the format of a Zen master giving his students a ‘koan’, a seemingly unanswerable question designed to open the student’s mind, Allan will guide the participants along a path toward creating compelling photographic images.  Shooting on location on the MISSA campus and in Hatley Park gardens, students will work on a series photographic ‘koans’, then download and edit their digital images in the classroom at MISSA.  Critiques will be honest and supportive.  We will work toward a new understanding of what it means to practice photography.

Note: There will be a morning day trip on July 1 to the gardens at Hatley Castle.

Course cost: $285   Supply fee: $10  STUDENT SUPPLY LIST
Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks and is inclusive of all applicable taxes. 

 

ALLAN MANDELL has worked as a professional garden photographer for 25 years with images published in books and magazines world-wide.  A long-time devotee of Japanese aesthetic, twice each year he leads small group tours to the gardens of Kyoto, Japan.  He lives and grows vegetables with his wife on Quadra Island, BC.

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Monotypes: The Painterly Print

Join printmaker Heather Aston for a week of monotype printmaking. This unique process provides the artist with tools and materials that yield unparalleled results that are often innovative and surprising. Exploring watercolour, oil based inks, lift prints, chine collé and layered techniques you will progress through a series of steps, that will open new possibilities for expression. Students will receive individual attention regarding drawing, painting and composition while ultimately pulling prints from the plexiglass matrix to paper using a manual press. The excitement of transformation and discovery is inherent in this media and is sure to inspire and fascinate participants. There will be discussion and class critiques throughout the week.

Workshop hours are 9 – 4 pm each day. Studios are also open after hours.

 Course cost:  $665    Class fee:  $75  

Tuition includes lunch and daily snacks and all applicable taxes.

 

HEATHER ASTON is a full time printmaker/painter who works out of her home studio and a studio on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC. Born and raised in West Vancouver she graduated in 1971 from The Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University) with Honours in Printmaking. She studied at the Santa Reparata Institute in Florence, Italy in 1990 where she fell in love with the immediacy and spontaneity of monotypes. It has been the main focus of her print work ever since. In 2001 she received a Canada Council Grant to go to Yokohama, Japan where she was guest artist in residence at the OM Printmaking Studio. She is also a 4 time Helen Pitt Art Scholarship recipient.

Heather teaches Painting and Printmaking part-time in schools, art institutions and studios. Her work is exhibited regularly in galleries locally and internationally and is also represented in numerous collections throughout the world.

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Botanicals with Acrylic and Metallic Leaf

Taking inspiration from our natural setting we will paint the plants that surround us, combining them into magical landscapes reminiscent of memories or dreams. We will capture the changing ocean light by using copper, aluminum and ‘gold’ leaf. This course combines the rigours of botanical observation with some hippy drippy acrylic spontaneity. Prepare to sharpen your drawing and observational skills while expressing your love of nature with loose and juicy acrylics. No drawing experience is required. You’ll be amazed how good you already are with a little instruction and a lot of gentle encouragement. Students may also choose to include animals that they observe during our time in the workshop such as insects, birds and whales!

Course fee: $665  Supply fee: $15  STUDENT SUPPLY LIST

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

JEAN BRADBURY,  a Seattle based painter, explores her love of nature with large scale acrylic and metallic leaf works that depict plants and animals in whimsical landscapes. Her use of metallic leaf allows her to capture the changing light of day so that her artworks reflect light in even the darkest spaces. Bradbury has a BFA from Queen’s University and grew up on an organic farm in rural New Brunswick. She currently works with the United Nations teaching farm women in the country of Jordan about natural dyes and textile design. She is the founder of Studio Syria which brings art classes to Syrians living as refugees in Jordan.

Her large scale public art pieces are found in collections around the world including Starbucks in China and Kuwait, as well as schools and hospitals in the Western United States and Maritime Canada.

 

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Throwing Relaxed, Gestural Forms

As experienced throwers hone their skills, they often begin to show an affinity for working more precisely. Precision throwing can lead to sublime beauty or to mechanical repetition that leaves pots a bit stiff. As potters develop their eye along with their technical skills, they sometimes yearn to make forms that breathe – pots that look as though they are still soft and pliable after they are fired.

This workshop will be structured for the potter with at least 5 years of throwing experience, who would like to make more relaxed forms that feel more gestural. You won’t be encouraged to unlearn any of your hard won technique, but rather to expand the ways of gently altering thrown forms.  We will start with drinking vessels and bowls before moving on to larger and slightly more complex forms.

Course cost: $665   Supply fee: $2      STUDENT SUPPLY LIST

Tuition costs include lunch and daily snacks. All prices are in Canadian Dollars and are inclusive of applicable taxes.

 

STEVEN HILL has a BFA from Kansas State University and has been a studio potter since 1975. Although he is probably more known for his sprayed and layered glazing work and his fairly recent conversion to ^6-8 electric firing, he considers form the most important aspect of his work. His pottery is exhibited and sold in nationally juried shows and is featured in many ceramics books. He has conducted over 300 workshops throughout the United States and Canada and has written ten ceramics articles for Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated. In 1998 Steven co-founded Red Star Studios in Kansas City, MO and co-founded Center Street Clay in Sandwich, IL in 2006. Currently Steven is doing what he does best… Making pots, writing about ceramics, teaching workshops and letting someone else take care of business!

 

This waitlist is now closed.

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Handbuilding Pots for the Table

What is missing from your kitchen that you have always wanted? A platter to serve guests? A bowl for berries?

This workshop is for clay artists of all levels of experience.

Participants will spend the week exploring a multitude of ways to hand build tableware; bowls, cups, plates, pitchers, platters, butter dishes and more, all without the use of a potter’s wheel.

Don’t you wish you had a good fish platter, or a tall vase, or perhaps a set of sushi plates? You name it, we will try to make it. Participants will use terra cotta clay and colorful under glazes, slips and stains to embellish their pieces. There’s a cornucopia of decorative techniques to explore.

Your aesthetic will dictate the look; be it classic or crazy, wild or sublime. After the pieces are fired in both bisk and glaze firings, they are beautiful and safe to use for food and drink.

 

Course fee: $665    Supply fee: TBD

STUDENT SUPPLY LIST

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

 

JAN EDWARDS has been making pots and tiles and teaching Ceramics for around 40 years. After an education in the fine arts, design and Art History, Jan learned to make pots at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Colorado and has mostly been working with clay ever since.  Her work has evolved into combining her love of design, painting, drawing and color with clay work.  Architectural Tile work is especially good for exploring the many ways of putting line, pattern and color on clay.

At home in Portland, Oregon, Jan regularly teaches ceramics at Mt Hood Community College and the Multnomah Art Center.  She especially loves traveling, teaching workshops, and has taught In Mexico, Italy, Canada and many locations around the US.

In her sweet solar studio Jan, works mostly making pots for the table, paintings and drawings on clay and on paper, and custom tile Installations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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