Expressive Mixed Media

Expressive Mixed Media

We will paint with watercolors, draw with sticks and ink, play with and draw using natural art supplies like leaves and sticks, create small art books and journals, learn drawing basics, and create works of mixed media that include acrylic paints, watercolor, ink and pastels. We’ll practice traditional painting and drawing techniques combined with non-traditional practices, learning to tap into deep places within our spirits and souls where art wants to come out and play.

Artist Statement: When I prep a large canvas for a painting with acrylics — or when I tack a blank sheet of Arches watercolor paper up — I welcome the nervous excitement of expressing myself with paint, charcoal, pastels, India ink, or maybe a mix of red dirt from the Berkeley hills. I do not find a large, white, gessoed canvas frightening — for me it is an opening into a part of me that needs to come out and be seen — it’s a deeply personal journey. I trust that process of expressive painting and am usually surprised at the results. I also am often frustrated and full of doubt.

I need to paint. I need it as much as I need to breathe. I am humbled and grateful I have found myself here — to wonder where all these colors, splatters, drips and scribbles come from.

And I want to express deep gratitude to Leigh Hyams and all I learned from her (or, perhaps I should more accurately say, all she pushed me into!). I stumbled into her painting workshops at Esalen on the California coast in 2008 and had no idea she would split me open like a watermelon. Thank you, Leigh.