SaddleBrooke Fine Arts Guild – December 2023

Art Classes for Everyone Coming this Winter

Art is fun with the SaddleBrooke Fine Arts Guild! No matter what your skill or experience level, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to enjoy art in a comfortable and welcoming environment. All classes are held in the Topaz Room at the Arts and Crafts Center adjacent to the MountainView Country Club.

Visit the Guild’s website www.saddlebrookefinearts.org for the full schedule and convenient online registration/payment. Classes that start in January include:

Wrapped Coil Basketry, by Nancy McCluskey-Moore. Two Thursdays (Jan. 4 and 18) from 9 a.m. to noon. Learn to create wrapped coil baskets that can be embellished with beads, buttons, and found objects.

Watercolor for Beginners, by Karen Brungardt. Five Saturdays (Jan. 6 through Feb. 3) from 9 a.m. to noon. Learn watercolor from the ground up! Paint projects every week with personal guidance from the instructor.

Beginning Oil Painting with Water-Mixable Oils, by Karen Gille. Five Wednesdays (Jan. 10 through Feb. 14, except Jan. 17) from 9 a.m. to noon. Learn mixing and application techniques to create three finished paintings in a nontoxic, fun environment.

Step-by-Step Acrylic: Dandelion, by Tracy Holmes. Thursday, Jan. 11, from 9 a.m. to noon. Walk through all the steps of creating a 9” x 12” acrylic painting of a colorful dandelion—from under-drawing to layering and detailing.

The Artist’s Way Book Study, facilitated by Deb Kres. Thursday evenings (Jan. 11 through March 28) from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Complete assignments from three of Sonia Cameron’s books to free up your creativity, including homework, walking, journaling, and more. This continues a popular book study here in SaddleBrooke.

Pastel Mentoring, by Delys Nast. Third Tuesdays (Jan. 16, Feb. 20, March 19, and April 16) from 1 to 4 p.m. Enhance your experience with pastels. Each workshop has a planned project, critique session, and discussion. No registration is needed.

Beginning Drawing, by Laurie Brussel. Five Thursdays (Jan. 25 through Feb. 22) from 9 a.m. to noon. Learn to shift from your usual analytical processing (left-brain mode) to a more creative way of thinking and seeing (right-brand mode). Perfect for beginners and for more experienced artists who want to build confidence and deepen their artistic perceptions.

Learn to Draw Realistic Faces in Correct Proportions from All Angles, by Linda Nagy. Two Tuesdays (Jan. 30 and Feb. 6) from 9 a.m. to noon. Transform a simple oval shape into an interesting and believable facial sketch from different views. For beginners to advanced artists.

Learn to Draw Expressive Facial Features of Men, Women, and Children, by Linda Nagy. Two Wednesdays (Jan. 31 and Feb. 7) from 1 to 4 p.m. Learn to draw realistic eyes, ears, noses, and mouths for men, women, and children.

Membership in the SaddleBrooke Fine Arts Guild is only $25 per year and includes monthly meetings, open studio, noncritique sessions, Art Salon discussions, opportunities to exhibit and sell your work, and so much more. Guild members also enjoy a discount on class fees.

Join Us for December 20 Art Salon Discussion

Vincent Van Gogh (photo by Marilynn Davis)

Connie Kotke, Publicity Chair

The Art Salon, hosted by the SaddleBrooke Fine Arts Guild, is a place where like-minded artists come together in a friendly environment to bond, network, and learn from one another. Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the Topaz Room at the Arts & Crafts Center adjacent to the MountainView Country Club. All SaddleBrooke residents are invited to join—whether or not they’re a member of the Guild. Refreshments are provided, no reservations are needed, and there is no charge.

The next Art Salon is Wednesday, Dec. 20. The facilitator is Colleen Strening, a docent with a tenure of 13 years at the Art Institute in Chicago. She will lead us on a discussion of a somewhat complicated artist, Vincent Van Gogh, and, specifically, his time in Arles, France. According to Colleen, “We in modern times look at Vincent Van Gogh and find an exciting artist, one who uses his paint in a vibrant fashion. We enjoy his subjects and the color he uses. We are intrigued by this complicated man. His contemporaries had a different opinion, of course. We will explore the life of the artist and the progression from his early painting, through Impressionism, and on to Post-Impressionism. One example is La Berceuse, Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle. (Her husband was Joseph Roulin, the Postman who befriended Vincent in Arles.) Other images we will focus on include Starry Night, Café Terrace in Arles, The Reaper, and more.”

Membership in the SaddleBrooke Fine Arts Guild is only $25 per year and includes monthly meetings, open studio, non-critique sessions, Art Salon discussions, opportunities to exhibit and sell your work, and so much more. Guild members also enjoy a discount on class fees. Visit saddlebrookefinearts.org for details.