One of the advantages of having a large group of artists painting together is that we all can learn from each other.  The Blind Bay Painters often incorporate art/technique demonstrations in their weekly program.  Each demo is a technique that the artist/demonstrator has worked with, and then shares their knowledge about the technique, answering questions and often showing how the technique is done.  We have been fortunate to have quite a few demos over the years and I always find them interesting and an opportunity to learn another way to use paint.  I find that if I actually proceed immediately with trying out a painting, using the techniques being shown, that I learn the most from actually doing it.  The demonstration process covers several learning methods in this way, by both visually showing artists the technique, providing verbal instructions and answering questions, and then time to physically “try it”.  Covering several learning styles enables a lot of the artists to learn whatever way they learn best and maximizes the educational process.

We recently had a demo from Nancy Alison, a long time member of the Blind Bay Painters.  Nancy has used a unique technique in some of her art that I was anxious to try out.  It’s painting on black canvas by first drawing shapes using white conte pencil or chalk to portray your stylized landscape.  You then paint “within” the lines, and once the paint is dried, you take a damp cloth and wipe out all the chalk lines to reveal a “stained glass-like” masterpiece!    Stay tuned for future posts to see our attempts at using this technique!  Maybe you would like to try it?