Tags
acrylic, adult art classes, Adventure Travel, Banff, Cypress Hills Inter Provincial Park, Dark Sky Preserves, Explore Sask., group travel, Guest Artist in Residence, hiking, Jewelry Techniques, Melody Armstrong, oil painting, Open Acrylics, painting, Painting Holidays, painting on copper, Painting Tours, Plein Air Instruction, Portraits, Rocky Mountains, Saskatchewan Tourism, sketching, Taking New Artistic Ground, Travel with Cultural Connections, watercolour, West Block, Youth Att Classes
Melody Armstrong
Every now and then you have to shake things up a little. I find it renews excitement and vigar in what I do.
As many of you know, I have been painting landscapes on copper plate of Cyress Hills, Sask. for quite a while. Cypress Hills has been an inspiration for my non-portrait paintings since 2013 when I was first a Guest Artist in Residence there. It was my job to hike and paint the park and teach art classes to visitors in the park for 6 weeks in each of 3 years. This richly diverse area of Saskatchewan is so inspiring. If you have not visited, Saskatchewan is known for being flat but with fantastic sunsets. Cypress Hills, Sask. will blow that misconception out of the water!
Did you know for example that parts of the Cypress Hills are at the same elevation as Banff in the Rockie Mountains? Because of this many types of mountainous vegetation, flora and fauna live there. There are tall vaulting log pole pines, evergreens and winding creeks ( in the west block). It is also a dark sky preserve and has its own astronomical observatory! Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan also has a higher cougar population per square km than anywhere else in North America!
This summer I’ll be hosting my 6th Paint Plein Air in The Tradition of the Canadian Group of Seven Painting Tour there on July 18 – 25th, 2022. You can now place a deposit at my site to Reserve your spot!
* Painters of any level of experience are welcome.
* Youth are welcome when accompanied by a registered adult.
* Includes 2 – 3 hour plein air painting classes most days and a host / guide. Plein are painting is painting outdoors from life.
* Instruction in acrylics, sketching media, watercolour and oil is included.
Recently I enrolled in a class with Melody Armstrong. She is I highly recognized jeweler in Sask. and I have always admired her work. I wanted to see if some of the jewelers techniques could be applied to my paintings on copper. To go on this journey of discovery I had to take Jewelry 1 at the Neil Balkwill Civic Arts Centre where I’m normally an instructor. I’m having fun and think I’ll continue. I have already learned to piece cut outs in the metal, used the soldiering gun and more. We also cover different texturing techniques. I think these new methods may work their way into my painting practice. Future classes will also delve into enameling and chasing and repousee, all transferable skills. Wish me luck!
Nikki Jacquin / Art Instruction & Travel 