Oil Portrait Painting with Denice

4 consecutive classes on Thursday nights beginning April 18th, from 7pm to 9pm at the Gallery located at: 115 N. Main Street, Liberty, MO 64068. Classes are $35 each night.

 Denice Belcher is an American artist who enjoys painting many subjects. From a young age she enjoyed drawing and painting and this has continued throughout her life.  She grew up in rural Missouri and paints subjects that reflect the beauty of nature, people and animals.

She has attended Watercolor workshops with Western Artist, Earl Kuhn and Missouri Artist, Marilynne Bradley. She studied pencil portraits under Artist, Don Stoll. 

In 2013, she traveled to Putney, Vermont to attend a 5-day Oil Portrait Painting workshop with Artist, Michelle Dunaway. Here she was introduced to Living Master Artist and Author, Richard Schmid’s book Alla Prima and a painting style she would pursue for the next several years. 

Denice attended Artist, Tina Garrett’s first Portrait Painting workshop in 2014. She has continued to study in workshops with Tina and has attended a workshop with Romel de la Torre. It is in Tina’s workshops and private lessons she has continued to develop her mastery of the selective start method described in Richard Schmid’s book, Alla Prima.

Denice is a member of the Portrait Society of America.  

Canvas: 16 x 20-inch lead or oil primed canvas. The size is not critical, a 12 x 12 works as well… Just no tiny or gigantic canvases. Absolutely NO ACRYLIC PRIMED CANVAS. For portraits, please buy the smooth textured canvas made for portrait painting. A less expensive canvas panel made by Centurion Deluxe is affordable and great for learning. Jerry’s Artarama carries this canvas. These will work for portraits, still life and landscape paintings

Brushes:  If you already have brushes, bring what you have. Robert Simmons is a nice brand. A variety of sizes of filberts, flats and brights. If you need more direction in purchasing brushes, please let me know.

Paint: Use whatever brand you prefer except DO NOT BUY STUDENT GRADE. These brands are reliable and affordable: Windsor & Newton, Gamblin and Rembrandt. Please do not feel obligated to buy all the paint on this list. 

For those on a tight budget or very beginners, you may bring only these colors: Transparent Oxide Red, Ultra Marine Blue, Kings Blue, Cad Red Medium, Ivory Black, Yellow Ochre, Winsor Yellow, Permanent Mauve and Titanium White.

This a list of additional colors:

1. Phthalo Turquoise

2. Cad Orange Deep

3. Cad Yellow Deep

4. Quinacridone Magenta

5. Green Gold 

6. Indian Yellow

7. Indian Yellow Deep

Other Supplies:

1. Odor free solvent (Gamsol by Gamblin)

2. Solvent jar

3. Paper towels

4. A plastic grocery bag or sack for trash

5. Palette knife/ diamond shaped head ( no plastic, metal with a wood handle)

6. Palette ( I use a ¼”, beveled, non-tempered, glass palette)

7. Flat razor blade for palette cleanup 

8. Smart phone, iPad or digital camera 

Tuesday, April 23rd, choose from an afternoon session 2pm to 4pm or an evening session 6pm to 8pm. Located at the Artisan Market Gallery, 115 N. Main Street, Liberty, MO 64068. Workshop fee $40

     Art evokes beauty, emotion and thought – so does writing. The art of writing workshop will focus on how to engage readers, tell a story, get ideas across and a myriad of other purposes. 

To this end and facilitated by Max Garrison, freelance writer/editor and veteran writing instructor, participants are encouraged to bring their thoughts and questions about their writing, along with their work, if desired, to this interactive workshop.

     Writers, like artists, are free to experiment, to challenge themselves in new ways, to go outside the proverbial box. Their work will have differences in purpose, voice, structure and audience. There is, however, a commonality with anything they produce, and that is readability. 

     Effective writing will have a high readability level, and the way to create it can be learned regardless of the writer’s experience or genre. You are encouraged to come spend two hours with like-minded people to explore or expand your interest in the deliberately written word – everything from blogs to books. 

       Max Garrison is a professional freelance writer and editor. Given her career in secondary communication arts and masters in curriculum and instruction, her freelance start was in educational consulting, e-learning and grants. After retirement, it expanded to small and corporate business needs, personal communication, social and written media, websites and book editing. Her clients range from local to virtual, both nationally and internationally. 

     Her passion as an editor is helping other writers create exactly what they want, exactly the way they want it.  

Tuesdays, beginning April 30th, at 1pm. Located at the Artisan Market Gallery, 115 N. Main Street, Liberty, MO 64068. Workshop fee $40

    This class is perfect for those of you who have gone to the paint parties and realize that not only do you love to paint, you think you have a talent for it and want to take it to the next level. Shawn will take you through the basics and concentrate on the joy of creating. This class will be every Tuesday at 1pm. You will need a basic set of acrylic paint (intermediate to professional grade) and a selection of brushes. A good cheat sheet for supplies is located at: https://www.dummies.com/art-center/performing-arts/art-painting/acrylic-painting-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/ 

     Shawn Garland is the owner of the artisan market. She has been a professional artist for over 25 years. She primarily works in Acrylics and watercolors, but enjoys creating wire sculpture and woodburning as well. Shawn has been teaching adult art students for over 20 years and enjoys bringing joy to people through tapping into their creativity.