2010 to 2011 Program Schedule

Following is the program schedule for this coming year, 2010 to 2011:

• September - ART 180 with Nisha Grant
• October - Larry Robinson: "How to Paint Cheap"
• November - Duane Keiser: He started "a painting a day" in 2004
• December - Luncheon
• January - Susan Stuller: Painting trip to Bermuda
• February - Christopher Wynn: Kinetic watercolor painting
• March - VCU Scholarship winners
• April - Ginger Levitt: What corporations look for when purchasing art
• May - VMFA - Beth O'Leary: "From Henry to Hopper: American Realism"
• June - Luncheon

VMFA Poll

The vote is finished and the results are in! The next step is to see what can be scheduled for the May, 2011 meeting. As soon as we know, we will let you know.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Holbein's Acryla Gouache

A week ago, I finished a painting done in Holbein's new product called acryla gouache. Overall, I like the paint and plan to use it again. The main drawback I found was that the 20 ML tubes seem to be more empty than full.

The paint is very smooth and creamy making it very easy to apply a layer to a canvas. It dries water resistant and with a matte finish, unlike other types of acrylic paint. One thing I especially liked about this paint was its ability to do work effectively with a dry brush. The close-up of the rocks is shown to the right. Bottom layers of paint create significant drag when other layers of paint are applied using a dry brush -- the result is wonderful stippling.

You can see the above painting, "Past The Rocks" completed step-by-step on my techniques blog at http://melissasgouache.blogspot.com/2010/06/past-rocks.html. I am going to use acryla gouache and regular acrylics together on my next painting. I will also bring samples of acryla gouache to the September meeting so you can see it first-hand.

I give this paint 4 stars out of 5. You can purchase the paint online, but I drove to Jerry's Artarma in Virginia Beach where it was about $5 per tube.

Picasso DVD

We just saw a fascinating DVD from the Bon Air Library called "The Mystery of Picasso." In it you can watch the actual process of him creating drawings and paintings.