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.
November 16, 2024: Water Meets Pigment in Florals with Petra Zantingh
Medium: Water-based media techniques on wood panels
Website: www.petrazantingh.ca
Biography: Petra Zantingh is inspired by the dichotomy of urban and natural landscapes and influenced by the geography and spirit of her home in Hamilton, Ontario. She uses paint, ink, and graphite to investigate natural elements like roots, botanicals, and vegetation. She is inspired by the writings of Dutch Catholic priest Henri Nouwen and American poet Mary Oliver. Petra has a graphic design and fashion illustration diploma from Fanshawe College, a BFA in Fine Art and an MA in Art Education from Concordia University in Montreal. She has been exhibiting her paintings since 2004, and her current interests centre around environmental awareness, particularly vegetation and trees, contemporary artwork and art and spirituality.
Workshop description: Students will use water-based media, including graphite, watercolour, gouache, and inks, on gessoed wood panels to produce two paintings. Working slowly, students will explore the mysterious and fragile relationship between water and pigment to build subtle layers in images. Abstraction, contrast and composition will be addressed.
Materials: Sketchbook, drawing pencils, watercolour, a variety of soft brushes, and water containers. NOTE: The pre-paid $30 materials fee covers two 12 X 12 X 1 inch gessoed wood panels, use of a variety of inks and water-soluble graphite, and fresh flowers for reference.
February 8, 2025: The Beauty of Birds with Angela Hardy
Medium: Acrylics
Website: http://www.angelahardyfineart.com/ twitter and instagram: @ang2art
Biography: Angela Hardy is a Canadian portrait and figurative painter whose work has graced the covers of, and been featured within, numerous international magazines. She has appeared on radio and television, and her art has been the subject of articles in various Canadian Newspapers. Her work can be found in the collections of prestigious North America and European Fine Art collectors. Angela holds an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from NSCAD University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Workshop description: Participants will be introduced to the basics of sketching, outlining, and painting birds with focus on their beautiful feathers. Acrylics will be used to create looser and more fluid subjects and compositions. Participants will be taught how to incorporate details to bring into focus specific areas. We will do quick sketches and quick painted studies of two images and then choose one for a final painting on stretched 8-by-10-inch canvas.
Materials: 1 stretched and primed 8-by-10-inch canvas for final painting; 2, 8-by-10-inch practice boards for paint studies (either primed illustration board, canvas board, or primed canvas pad.); 2, 8-by-10-inch reference photos. Each should be of a single bird, and they should represent two species). Our focus will be on the birds, not the background. Please print images both on inkjet or photo paper. NOTE: If you have a smart phone or pad, please bring that as well with the photo references on it. Acrylic paints: Primary Cyan Blue; Ultramarine OR Cobalt Blue; Alizarin Crimson OR Primary Magenta; Cadmium Red Deep OR Pyrrole Red; Permanent Blue Violet (purple); Yellow Ochre; Cadmium Yellow Medium OR Azo Yellow Medium; Raw Umber; Burnt Umber; Sap Green; Phthalocyanine OR Emerald Green; Ivory Black; Naples Yellow Deep; Titanium White; Unbleached Titanium - Liquitex Basics and Amsterdam Acrylics are good student level). Brushes: Synthetic/nylon 3/4-to-1-inch-wide filberts and flats; a few small rounds for line and detail work. Artist palette of your choice (can also use plastic trays or plates); small spray bottle for water; paper towels; painters tape; black ultra fine Sharpie marker; sketch pad; HB to B drawing pencils; white vinyl eraser. NOTE: Please do not bring oil paint to this workshop as the instructor is allergic to them. If you need to purchase basic materials, here are instructor recommendations: Amsterdam Standard Series 24 Colour General Selection Acrylic Paint Set; Pébéo Studio Acrylics High Viscosity Paint 20 Color Set. Fundamentals™ (white synthetic brushes) by Artist's Loft™ available at Michaels work well. Some Dollar Store sets work well.
March 8, 2025: Linoleum Printmaking with Susan Perry
Medium: Relief printing with linoleum or soft rubber
Website: Instagram susanperryart / susanperryart@gmail.com
Biography: Susan Perry is a Petrolia, Ontario artist and educator. Her subject matter is primarily local landscapes and landmarks, but she also enjoys figure drawing and portraiture. Susan is an avid sketch-booker who strives to draw everyday; she uses her on-site drawings as reference for her prints and paintings.
Workshop Description: Participants will explore relief printmaking with the emphasis on carving in the light to create an image. Printmaking is a process, and we will begin by drawing with white on black paper and mark-making before cutting and printing a block that may be used as notecards. We will explore why relief prints have such a distinctive quality.
Materials: Linoleum or soft carve rubber (no smaller than 3x5”), carving tools (Speedball Linoleum Cutter), white pencil crayon (or conte or pastel), pencil, permanent marker, roll of paper towels. Participants should bring a landscape photo or drawing to use as a reference. The instructor will provide inexpensive proofing paper and cardstock paper for printing. Participants are responsible for other papers they may wish to use. The instructor will supply black water-soluble ink. (NOTE: Only water-soluble ink will used in this workshop.) Participants are encouraged to bring any printmaking materials they may already have, such as brayers, wooden spoons or barrens and inking tiles so that we can set up multiple printing stations.
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.