Workshops
Workshops are available to members first, before being offered to guests if any spots remain. Members can register by completing the sign-up form in the Member Login section.
​
​
Lambeth Art Association: Workshop descriptions and artist bios 2024/25
All workshops take place on a Saturday at Riverside United Church in London, Ontario in a large open space with kitchen facilities. We serve complementary coffee, tea and cookies all day. Workshops run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a one-hour break for lunch at noon, and end with a critique/show-and-tell starting around 3. Pack a lunch as there are no restaurant facilities nearby.
​
April 5, 2025: Sketch-based painting with Eleanor Lowden
Medium: Acrylics (but participants are free to use their medium of choice)
Website: https://eleanorlowden.com/
​
Biography: Eleanor Lowden has been teaching painting for over 20 years. Her primary medium is acrylic, but she has worked and taught extensively in watercolour too. She studied fine arts at the University of Western Ontario, and continued her studies at the Ontario College of Art and then at the Alberta College of Art. Throughout her career she has participated in various workshops and artist retreats to further her learning. Eleanor finds inspiration in everyday activities and universal themes. The common elements in her paintings are her use of bright colours and neutral greys, and how she layers colours and employs repetitive patterns in her work. She uses polka-dots and other marks to create depth and texture. Eleanor is a member of the Ontario Society of Artists.
​
Workshop description: Eleanor takes a sketch book whenever she travels and sketches little memories of the places and people she sees. She takes photos too. When she paints, she primarily refers to her sketches because it loosens up her approach and creates a more impressionistic and simplified piece. This workshop will explore this method of painting and help participants loosen up their approaches.
Materials: Sketchbook (with sketches in it); photos of places you want to paint; pencil, and felt tip marker. Preferred painting surface - paper, canvas, cradled board. A selection of the paints that you normally use. Pourable Liquitex matte medium (to thin paint). A variety of brushes including a couple of size 0, 3, 5, 7 brushes for detail work, and flats, ranging in size from 10 through to 2 inches in width. A water bucket, paper towels, rags, palette (Styrofoam plate or piece of poly film). The following paint list includes colours the instructor herself uses, but is not required for this workshop: Golden, Liquitex and Holbein brand paints. Carbon Black, Titanium white, Warm yellow (i.e. Cadmium yellow medium), Cool yellow (hansa yellow lemon), Cad. orange, Warm red (i.e. Cadmium red), Cool red (Quinacridone magenta), Cobalt blue, Turquoise blue, Greenish yellow, Permanent violet dark, Raw sienna. Some of the fun colours from Holbein the instructor likes are: Brilliant pink, Compose blue nos.1 and 2, Cad. yellow deep, Cad. green light, Cad. red light, Cad. red purple, and Shell pink. NOTE: The instructor has started incorporating house paint from Home Depot in her work. She buys the small sample jars (half pints) and has them mix neutrals for her. She says this is a quick and easy way to have a premixed neutral available.
​
May 10, 2025: “Impressionism/Expressionism” with Kim Harrison
Medium: Oil or acrylic
Website: Work can be seen on the Westland Gallery website www:westlandgallery.ca
​
Biography: Kim Harrison taught painting independently for many years after the Fanshawe Annex closed. In between he inaugurated the O’Connor Gallery in Toronto. After returning to London, he has shown regularly with the Westland Gallery. Finished with weekly classes, but still enjoying the workshop milieu, he has turned to the ideas stored up over the years, with an emphasis on figurative pieces, often the figure in landscape.
​
Workshop description: Participants will focus on Impressionist style and techniques in the morning and Expressionist style and techniques in the afternoon. Impressionism and Expressionism are permanent tendencies in art, as well as art movements. Impressionism is about what’s out there, Expressionism is about what’s in here. (Outside the artist versus inside the artist.) In both, colour has emphasis. Morning and afternoon exercises will begin the proceedings that lead into colour mixing and brushwork techniques and the production of paintings that manifest these different means of perceiving.
Materials: A selection of oils or acrylics. Linseed oil and rags, for oils; medium and water containers for acrylics; palette pads for both mediums. A selection of brushes from 1/4 to 1 inch width. A tube or jar of acrylic molding paste (Golden, or Liquitex has one called “Heavy Body”). Four 8-by-10-inch or 9-by-12-inch pieces of canvas paper (comes in a pad) OR cardboard pieces in these sizes that have been gessoed. These can be cardboard box material or the sturdy sort that comes on the backs of pads of paper. One of the above should be cut to 4-by-6-inches or 5-by-7-inches (postcard size). Participants may also use canvas board that is one of these sizes. Two 12-by-16-inch canvases or canvas boards. Two images. Figurative is welcome. Your own images are best. Instructor will supply images for those who are stuck.